"people were inclined to believe the very worst about anything and everything; they were immune to contrary evidence just as if they'd been medically vaccinated

"people were inclined to believe the very worst about anything and everything; they were immune to contrary evidence just as if they'd been medically vaccinated against the force of fact. Furthermore, there seemed to be a bizarre reverse-Cassandra effect operating in the universe: whereas the mythical Cassandra spoke the awful truth and was not believed, these days "experts" spoke awful falsehoods, and they were believed. Repeatedly being wrong actually seemed to be an advantage, conferring some sort of puzzling magic glow upon the speaker." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon-Ehrlich_wager http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon-Ehrlich_wager