Tabloid style media and the internet.
Tabloid style media, which is really just about all mainstream media now, is all about today's sensationalism. Putting a rover on Mars is great news, but you can't sustain that for the extra years they actually operate and generate new insights. Crashing one on landing and losing a billion dollars is even better... science has failed in a big way. 300 million people using DEET to safely repel the malarial mosquito and other disease bearing insects on a daily basis for 50 years just isn't news. The very real tragedy of a single person suffering irreversible nerve damage due to an allergic reaction to DEET is, and helps fuel a campaign to limit the use/concentration of one of the safest, most effective chemicals ever produced. Air bags save millions of lives, no news; they take hundreds, it's over-regulation and a hazard... so we must restrict their usage. Sensationalism sells.
The internet gives the ignorant masses the opportunity for everyone (myself included) to expose their ignorance on an equal basis with the knowledgeable. And worse, it lets them find like-minded unknowing individuals to support them. The number of people who can misunderstand a complex topic will always exceed the number who can understand it. So the egalitarianism of the internet means those who misunderstand the subject will have greater presence than those who do, and thus appear to be "right" by virtue of sheer numbers of supporters.
As Robert Heinlein said: Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.
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The secret to great marksmanship is deciding what the target was AFTER you've shot.
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