This is because it's become quite common knowledge that wherever there's management to the numbers or the numbers relate to any kind of political issue, the num

This is because it's become quite common knowledge that wherever there's management to the numbers or the numbers relate to any kind of political issue, the numbers are rigged in some way. Want to make it look like the U.S. has a lower life expectancy? Include preemie deaths (The U.S. has the highest rate of trying to save premature babies. Many die. In other countries these deaths are not considered part of the life expectancy measurement) Want to show gun violence is bigger than it is? Include gun suicides. What's the unemployment rate? Are you including people looking for work or people who have given up? How about the under-employed? Now it's perfectly fine to argue the points and definitions on any of these stats and measurements, but the average person has realized that stats are all like that. Any stat that includes the human experience across multiple dimensions is suspect. I'm fortunate in that I remember back the "old days" of the net where we had the same amount of political BS but fewer sources of "facts". We'd argue for a while then somebody would take an hour or two and dig up an academic study and that would quiet things down. This is no longer the case. What happens now is that no matter your opinion, there are studies and internet sites dedicated to providing you with supporting material. Add in a few rhetorical tricks you see on TV and you can carry on any argument based around "science" ad infinitum. So I don't see this as some new form of anti-intellectualism. Rather I see it as people -- perhaps people who aren't so smart, admittedly -- figuring out what the game is and moving on to more personally important things in their lives.