'Belief in opinion' is the most destructive issue in society

I believe that the most destructive societal issue of the last 10 years is that opinion matters more than fact. We only have to look at Trump and his band of frothy-mouthed cult members to understand this.

This 'belief in opinion' has had dire consequences in our society. Climate change? Nah. A radical left-wing manufactured hoax. Covid-19? Nah. A Chinese hoax. Politics is important? Nah. Just elect a reality-show con-man.

Part of it is that it is hard to discern the actual facts from all the misinformation out there, and part of it is that understanding real data and real research is much harder than just believing some crazy facebook story. We are living in the age of instant gratification and this is at odds with spending the necessary time to really understand a particular issue.

And not only is it society in general that this happens but the academic world also is guilty.

You only have to look at the linked article to see how today's emphasis on subjective opinions outweighs true scientific research. Here is a paper which provided a sound peer-reviewed hypothesis on why males in nature show more variance than females in many areas ranging from birth-weight to math scores, and it was ultimately not only rejected but made to disappear.

It is an interesting read of the danger of how even the academic world now views and acts on research of controversial subject matter.

https://quillette.com/2018/09/07/academic-activists-send-a-published-paper-down-the-memory-hole/

There is no honour in war

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/nov/13/australia-is-in-for-a-shock-as-war-crimes-investigation-brings-reality-of-war-to-the-anzac-myth

Well, this report is going to be nasty if they are giving us warning. I can only imagine the horrific events that will be made public.

This is all done to placate the public opinion into believing that there is honour in warfare. There is no honour in warfare. So to mask the true nature of warfare they have created rules of engagement such as: not killing enemy soldiers that have surrendered, banning certain armaments such as chemical gases, etc. All this to keep the public believing that human beings are not monsters; to 'force' parents to hand their sons over to State, to perpetuate the utterly surreal idea that there are ethics and morality behind these state-sanctioned killings.

One only has to visit the War Museum in Canberra to understand that these poor bastards did not experience honour, or ethics, or morality. They experienced hell on Earth. What ethics and morality is there cowering in a trench waiting for your turn as the artillery rains down around you.

So, for centuries, the military and political leaders have tread a fine line between the horror of sending our young men into harm's way, and the brutality of war. And they do this by creating rules of engagement to placate and soothe the masses.

The creation of rules of engagement during state-sanctioned killings and then prosecuting those soldiers who happen to violate these made-up rules is mind-numbing hypocrisy to me. They throw these young men into killing zones and then prosecute them when that arbitrary line of mercy vs merciless that been crossed. And they do this to sacrifice these men in order to numb the public into believing that war has honour. Tell me. Where is that line between mercy and mercilessness? What is the difference between napalm (legal) lighting everyone on fire, and mustard gas (illegal) causing blindness?

So they sacrifice these men to both the death/destruction of war and then to the fickleness of public opinion. Like the American Vietnam soldiers who survived the hell of that war (many who were horribly injured), and then these young people, damaged beyond any hope, coming home to the public calling them 'baby-killers'.

The hypocrisy is disgusting. War is a failure of honour. A failure of ethics and morality. A failure of reason. A failure of trust. And above all, a failure of leadership.

The criminals are the leaders who decide to send our young men to Afghanistan. Why? Because the Taliban are bad people? Do we kill all the bad people then? The criminals are the leaders who decided to send our young men to Vietnam. Why? Because they may govern their people by a different set of rules? Do we kill all the people who govern by a different system?

But no, the government goes after the soldiers.

And the public should not take it any more. There is no honour in warfare, only misery and death. We can dress it all up, have all our Remembrance and ANZAC Day ceremonies, military bands playing the national anthem at footy games, air force flybys, and now a report on soldier misconduct, but we should know what it really is. It is to numb us to the horrors of war. It is done so that parents will hand over their sons and daughters to the State to kill or be killed; damaging them forever. It is done so we don't see the politicians as what they truly are: failures.