Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Sure, it's a "free society" where everyone gets to prove the usefulness of vaccines for themselves, from first principle, because the medical community is corrupt and cannot be trusted. Where people actually start to believe in a "flat earth", and not just as a parody of conspiracy theories, and fly to New Zealand for their yearly meeting (from both Europe and the US, in opposite directions, go figure).

Yeah, that is "freedom", in some sense of the word. But people aren't actually using it to critical think about anything. They see it as license to choose the facts they believe and ignore those that are inconvenient.



It's the difference between "skepticism" and "contrarianism".

A skeptic evaluates the evidence, and believes what it tells them.

A contrarian rejects the official narrative, and works from there.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: