Somebody’s Lying. Who Could It Be?

Scottish philosopher David Hume left us with this gem: We always disbelieve the greater miracle.  We’re constantly bombarded with information that conflicts with things we believe.  How do we sort this out?  There is really no other way to do this other than via what Hume told us.

Suppose you know nothing about climate science and are forced to come to a conclusion of the validity of the theory of anthropogenic global warming.  You have thousands of climate scientists saying it’s proven beyond doubt, and perhaps an even larger number of people connected to the petroleum industry saying it’s not.  OK, now what’s the greater miracle here?  You have:

a) Thousands of mild mannered university professors with PhDs and other scientists in industry who have been studying this subject for decades have conspired to pull off a huge hoax on humankind, and

b) The petroleum industry, with trillions of dollars at stake, is lying to us.

I don’t know about you, but I’m going with b.

The meme above is another excellent example.  Which strikes you as more likely:

a) The entire medical / public health community and all the media outlets except Fox News are lying about dangers posed by COVID-19, or

b) Trump, a man whose count of documented falsehoods and misleading statements since assuming office is now over 21,000, is lying just one more time.

That Trump is asking us to go with a) is an effrontery beyond words.