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/
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