Re: There is another way...
"The relentless efforts to destroy these subjects [science and humanities] since the 1980s ... are pretty much why large chunks of the US population is now incapable of telling the difference between the New York Times and www.deplorablepatriotnews.com."
Unfortunately, I think even well-educated people fall victim to echo-chamber and subconscious bias effects. In my part of the USA, there is an anomalously high number of people who refuse to let their children receive medical vaccinations.
The thrust of the research seems to be that providing examples of fallacious arguments and why they're wrong can help people overcome echo-chamber and bias effects. In other words, an article on vaccination may include something like "You may hear arguments linking vaccination with autism; these arguments are based on a single fraudulent study by Andrew Wakefield, an unscrupulous researcher who manipulated his results, and was later barred from medical practice."
However, I applaud your support for scientific literacy. Certainly it's good to know why peer-reviewed research trumps (ha!) a blog post.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
