14 ms·

It's not unheard of for half of Americans to collectively do or believe something both false and harmful. It'd be a mistake to look at something "half of Americ

It's not unheard of for half of Americans to collectively do or believe something both false and harmful. It'd be a mistake to look at something "half of Americans believe" and assume that means it's a correct assumption.

sokoloff 3y ago
I’m sure that well over 75% of Americans believe that a diet heavy in bread and rice is the healthiest/optimal diet.
- jjtheblunt 3y ago
  I'm American and it may be selection bias about whom i've known but i've never heard that in over 50 years now. (I'm also like a generation or two removed from immigrants (northwest and eastern europe mostly) so maybe that influences what i've heard.)
- unsignedint 3y ago
  In addition, in my personal experience, I've encountered individuals who claim that they are maintaining a nutritious diet by consuming ample amounts of potatoes, believing this equates to a significant portion of their daily vegetable intake.
  - sokoloff 3y ago
    My family treated corn as a healthy vegetable as well.
mullingitover 3y ago
Vast numbers of Americans have also been, from childhood, groomed and indoctrinated into religious belief systems that are very averse to scientific expertise. I was raised in the Seventh-day Adventist church, and every time I watched a nature show that alluded to the earth being older than ~6,000 years, my mother got her hackles up and would launch into a lecture. To most religious fundamentalists, acceptance of scientific facts are a threat to their myth-based worldview, and that bleeds over into their acceptance of science-based medicine. The huge numbers of fundamentalists shift the Overton window for what constitutes moderate belief and drags society down into superstition-curious patterns of behavior.
owlstuffing 3y ago
> It'd be a mistake You misunderstand the logic. A percentage of Americans not trusting vaccines is not an assumption about anything, it is a statistic, one that can be extrapolated to estimate other statistics such as collective trust in government.
jjtheblunt 3y ago
i think you're right. i'd say the phenomenon here is the recurring "bandwagons" thing, where folks feel lonely if not on a bandwagon, and will join one before contemplating if it's sensible.

sokoloff 3y ago

I’m sure that well over 75% of Americans believe that a diet heavy in bread and rice is the healthiest/optimal diet.

jjtheblunt 3y ago
I'm American and it may be selection bias about whom i've known but i've never heard that in over 50 years now. (I'm also like a generation or two removed from immigrants (northwest and eastern europe mostly) so maybe that influences what i've heard.)
unsignedint 3y ago
In addition, in my personal experience, I've encountered individuals who claim that they are maintaining a nutritious diet by consuming ample amounts of potatoes, believing this equates to a significant portion of their daily vegetable intake.
- sokoloff 3y ago
  My family treated corn as a healthy vegetable as well.

mullingitover 3y ago

Vast numbers of Americans have also been, from childhood, groomed and indoctrinated into religious belief systems that are very averse to scientific expertise. I was raised in the Seventh-day Adventist church, and every time I watched a nature show that alluded to the earth being older than ~6,000 years, my mother got her hackles up and would launch into a lecture. To most religious fundamentalists, acceptance of scientific facts are a threat to their myth-based worldview, and that bleeds over into their acceptance of science-based medicine. The huge numbers of fundamentalists shift the Overton window for what constitutes moderate belief and drags society down into superstition-curious patterns of behavior.

owlstuffing 3y ago

> It'd be a mistake You misunderstand the logic. A percentage of Americans not trusting vaccines is not an assumption about anything, it is a statistic, one that can be extrapolated to estimate other statistics such as collective trust in government.

jjtheblunt 3y ago

i think you're right. i'd say the phenomenon here is the recurring "bandwagons" thing, where folks feel lonely if not on a bandwagon, and will join one before contemplating if it's sensible.