Side effect #1 of the Internet… because information is available to everyone, expertise is no longer valued. The ironic part is most people dismiss expertise without ever availing themselves of the information available on the Internet, because of side effect #2… because everyone can publish an opinion, everyone’s opinion is thought to be equally valid, therefore information is irrelevant.
Facts are nothing more than the archaic relics of an outdated way of thinking. Belief is all that matters now, and we will bend and shape the “facts” to fit the belief. The very idea that facts are immutable, or can and should be used to shape belief, is an unnecessary absurdity from a bygone era.
Our country was founded in an Age of Rationalism. Today, our country may well fall in an Age of Irrationalism.