Let Truthiness Prevail

One of the discussion groups I belong to recently had a raft of postings around the topic of childhood immunization. The raft rapidly became a rift, with the riff raff chiming in with a variety of opinion, rumor, and anecdotes. Only one actually posted data from a peer reviewed study on the topic.

This discussion group consists of people who are generally considered bright and well educated, all having graduated from Top 50 Universities across the U.S. So why is it that the discussion was not more objective, analytical, and evidence based?

Take your pick.

Jack Nicholson was right ("You can't handle the truth!").

Martin Luther King, Jr. was right ("Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and consciencious stupidity.").

Bertrand Russel was right ("Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education.").

Steven Colbert is right ("I don't trust books. They're all fact, no heart...Truthiness is...not only that I feel it to be true, but that I feel it to be true.")