Maybe it is healthy for society in the long run to have pockets of divergent belief. Most of the time it is groundless and fades away. Every so often it gains traction. If it is based in reality, we gain a better understanding. If it is misleading, it vitalizes a competing and more correct understanding.

The more interesting phenomenon is that we are able to agree on anything at all, it's not exactly our strongest instinct. Reading through HN, for example, the longest comment chains are a series of disagreements. But we build resources like Wikipedia and science journals, which also use disagreement as an engine for generating a more correct understanding. Its a strange and hopeful aspect of human societies.

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MBCook 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

How could it be healthy to not even agree on the most basic facts of history like whether hundreds of years actually happened or the shape of the earth?

	▲	macintux 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		That’s why I’ve lost much of my optimism regarding U.S. politics. It’s fine, and healthy, to disagree on how best to deal with the world as it exists, but if we can’t agree on reality itself, compromise and progress are so much more challenging.
	▲	edgyquant 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Does this stuff really matter when you get down to it? How much does it being true or false change the average persons daily life?

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gmerc 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

One look at what’s happening with vaccines and you’re disabused of healthy. It’s not. it’s insanity

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mc32 2 hours ago | parent [-]

It's a shame people are drifting from vaccines but the unwillingness of the WHO, etc., to backtrack on claims that turned out false with respect to Covid, does not help the cause. The sausage-making history that's coming out from Covid is also making people suspicious and one cannot blame them.

Additionally, they've redefined that a pandemic is (removing severity from the definition), additionally it's expanding way from its traditional geopolitical framework and also what were recommendations are now becoming legally binding mandates that supersede sovereignty.

So, yes, people are overreacting but the WHO and people who suppressed truthful but contrarian claims during the pandemic, share some of the blame.

	▲	AlexCoventry 2 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		> Additionally, they've redefined that a pandemic is (removing severity from the definition) Over a million Americans died, but OK, that's not a severe problem...