amom > So everyone sticks to their beliefs.
this is indeed a sad case and information is very confusing, although a lot of things that can be supported by data and there are a lot of opinions that are clearly based on wrong information. As a bright spot in this sea of darkness, early in the pandemic, my kids talked to a friend who declared (parroting a parent) that covid takes less lives than auto-accidents. They jointly went through the math, and next week the friend wears a mask …
There is a story about, I think, R Salanter who got into a dispute with a maskil in an inn. R Salanter suggested that the loser of the debate would change to the opponent’s style of suit, and he took his jacket off to start. Maskil refused this condition and R Salanter refused debating saying there is no point debaing someone who is not ready to consider a possible defeat. This describes a lot of anti-intellectual discussions lately.