Those are a symptom of burgeoning skepticism. Just because people are acquiring newfound skepticism doesn't mean they'll believe all of the optimal and reasonab

Those are a symptom of burgeoning skepticism. Just because people are acquiring newfound skepticism doesn't mean they'll believe all of the optimal and reasonable things. It goes back to normal where much like for all of previous human history, people believed ridiculous rumors all the time. It was only the last 100-150 years or so that people have really gotten locked in to the single minded ideology wars while totally locking down their sources of information.