The Decline of the West

There are probably as many explanations for our multiplying and synergistic crises as you have the neural connections to process, but what holds the whole sociological monstrosity together is antirationalism and pseudoscience. Today, Anthony Fauci took note of polling that says 27% of Americans would likely refuse to get a Covid-19 vaccine were it to become available. Natch, they're mostly Republicans, conservatives, and evangelical Christians. And these are the same people who didn't believe the epidemiologists who said this was going to be a big problem in the first place, and in many cases still don't, which is why Texas, Florida, Arizona, South Carolina and several other states are in big trouble. And there's climate change, air pollution -- racism is in fact a pseudo-scientifc belief.

Which brings us to this interesting piece in Nature (hat tip to PZ Meyers) about widespread belief in archaeological pseudo-science. The main nonsense they focus on is the supposed lost civilization of Atlantis, and visits to earth in ancient times by extraterrestrials.

For those of you who don't know, Atlantis was a fictional invention by Plato, mentioned in two of his dialogs as part of an allegory about the hubris of nations. Historians, philosophers and literary scholars understood that the story was imaginary until the 1900s, when various dilettantes and cranks started treating it as real. The idea that earth was visited in ancient times by ETs seems to be a staple of certain cable TV channels that purport to be about real history or science.

What these frankly bizarre beliefs have in common is that they are fueled by the assumption that the architectural and other technological achievements of non-European civilizations could not have been possible without assistance from either Atlanteans or little green men. Archaeologists who have sought to publicly debunked these claims have faced harassment and threats. And this is a subset of a broader problem: people who simply do not have critical thinking skills and respond to assertions that challenge their preconceptions with every sort of logical fallacy and personal vitriol, rather than trying to marshall facts and logic.

Let's be clear. The Mayans developed their civilization on their own.

It's completely off topic and in fact I have never said anything specifically about the Black Lives Matter organization (which includes as members only a small proportion of people who use the slogan). But here is their actual platform. If you want to avoid brain damage, do not read the New York Post.