The Ultimate Opinion Piece: Your Opinion Is Wrong

Image by Ben Thomson

"Whether or not you feel compelled to follow a particular lifestyle or not, you have the ability to decide not to do that. I may have the genetic coding that I'm inclined to be an alcoholic, but I have the desire not to do that, and I look at the homosexual issue the same way."

That's former US Presidential candidate and current Texas state Governor Rick Perry bringing his considerable expertise to bear on the issue of gay marriage and homosexuality in general. This is a man who put himself forward as a candidate for the most powerful position in the world, equating gayness with alcoholism.

But there are two words in there that are key to decoding Perry's stance, and the stance of every position of ignorance in the world today: "genetic coding"

Back when Galileo Galilei claimed that it appeared as if the Earth was revolving around the sun and not the other way around, the Vatican did something cunning: it didn't dispute his findings, but merely his interpretation. Galileo was allowed to say it appeared as if that's what was happening, he just couldn't say that's how it actually worked. Of course, as the Vatican could do pretty much whatever it pleased back in the 17th century, almost anything they did would end up appearing cunning in retrospect. Such is the benefit of absolute power.

Nowadays, there is no centralised power cabal telling people what they can and can't say. Unless, of course, you're reading this in China or North Korea, but if you're in one of those places you're forbidden from accessing this piece, so my point stands. And that's a good thing, of course. We don't want a powerful body dictating our every utterance, but as with every positive development ever, there are negative side effects.

The main side effect of everyone being able to say what they want is that many people talk utter crap and often those people are in a position of power. See Rick Perry, above.

Although some may say Rick Perry is an idiotic manchild with barely enough cognitive function to put on a hat, I disagree. Perry is Vatican-level cunning here, refusing to deny the science, instead twisting science-y words to his own pre-established position.

This is a common tactic amongst those who, often wilfully, fail to understand how science works. To a hammer, everything looks like a nail; to someone pushing an unsupportable agenda, everyone else looks biased. Climate change deniers assume that those who accept change is happening are cherry-picking the data to support their beliefs. It does not occur to them that the beliefs are shaped by the data, because this is not how they approach the world.

When a 2014 UN report into climate change, compiled by 309 scientific authors across 70 countries, pointed specifically to Australia being at risk of heat extremes, bushfires, rising sea levels and extreme rainfall, Prime Minister Tony Abbott responded thusly: "Australia is a land of drought and flooding rains, always has been and always will be."

The coded message was this: "Your foreign ideas of my country is no more valid than my first-hand observations." Abbott does not deny we are constantly either on fire or drowning, just that this is in any way abnormal. Our culture beats into us the idea that all opinions are equal, which is why a man with no scientific training can consider his own scientific stance as valid as that of 309 actual scientists.

For those who place a higher value on expertise than feelpinions, this is terrifying.

But if you're worried about climate change ignorance leading to humanity's extinction, I have some good news for you: vaccination ignorance will kill us much faster.

Anti-vaxxers - the nickname for those who refuse to vaccinate their children because they believe vaccination causes autism-are now responsible for a rise in easily-preventable diseases. The measles, the mumps, whooping cough, chicken pox and polio are on the rise in this, the 21st century. All this because of a now-discredited, fraudulent article by Andrew Wakefield claiming vaccinations can lead to autism. The fact that Wakefield was found to have fabricated the study has not dissuaded those who feel as if it's the truth. The idea has taken hold, and will not let go. All opinions are equally valid, remember.

There has been no clearer example of this than anti-vaxxer Sarah Pope, who told The Daily Show's Samantha Bee: "You can line up the doctors from here to down the block refuting me, but I'm not going to change my mind."

This at least shows that idiocy is not partisan: climate change denials may be typical of the right-wing, but anti-vaxxers appear to trend towards left. We always hoped that the right and the left would find common ground; maybe we shouldn't be upset that this common ground is the abusing of scientific terms to mask their total ignorance.

Follow Lee on Twitter: @leezachariah