Preposterous, you may be thinking as you read this! But polls indicate that almost half of Americans won’t get a coronavirus vaccine when it is available and nearly half of Republicans believe the Bill Gates conspiracy. Canadians have no basis for feeling smug or superior, since only 70% of our population indicated a willingness to take the vaccine. Moreover, according to research published in Policy Options, a small but significant portion of the Canadian population believes the COVID conspiracy theories, including 10% who believe the lies about Bill Gates.
Along with the dumbing down of the population, intolerance for any other point of view has become fiercely entrenched. A few days ago a letter signed by some 150 people with widely varying perspectives (most of them prominent and well respected), was published in Harper’s magazine. It condemned the intolerance of opposing views, the prevalence of public shaming and ostracism, and the tendency to dissolve complex issues in a blinding moral certainty. The response was a backlash of anger and criticism directed against the signatories. How dare these people of privilege tell us how to behave was the gist of the complaint. In a delicious irony, if it wasn’t so silly and sad, one of those who signed the letter claimed that she would not have done so had she been aware of the identity of another signatory – apparently oblivious to the letter’s central message that we should be more tolerant of those with different points of view.
We will eventually bring the coronavirus under control but I fear for the future of mankind unless we find some way to deal with the poison that seems to have infected far too many brains – rendering people incapable of thoughtful reflection.