Okay, how do you know the earth is round? I mean, have you actually seen it yourself from outer space? Well, have you?
And how do you know that matter is made of atoms? Yes, yes, I know you’ve read all about it in your high school science textbooks, and you’ve been told about whats-his-name who discovered all this, and the experiments he did. But what evidence have you seen with your own eyes?
And how do you really know that Social Security is going to run out of money in 10 years? Because some TV talk show hosts said so? Have you done the arithmetic yourself? And did you really read the entire Omamacare Act yourself?
The whole question of how certainly you know most of what you know all boils down to where you got the information from, and who you really trust to give you the Straight Dope. Did you see Obama’s birth certificate with you own eyes? And were you there in Honolulu or Nairobi or wherever, watching with your own eyes, when that same original was created?
Okay, here’s one where there might have really been some question of who to believe:
Randy Shilts, late AIDS victim and activist, wrote an essay in which he essentially tells his readers that everything the government tells you is shit, designed to maintain calm and prevent massive public panics. The Centers for Disease Control is just a shill for the government, or insurance companies, or something like that.
But can AIDS really be transmitted from one person to another via mosquitos? Sure, if you like having anal sex with mosquitos. (Yes, he really wrote that.) But calm down, don’t worry, and don’t lock up all AIDS patients like lepers, because you really can’t get AIDS from mosquitos!
Now, how did Randy Shilts know that? Did he do the relevant research himself (or observe while others did)? Or did he just take the word for some abstract experts how claimed to have somehow discovered that fact? And might not those abstract experts themselves – just possibly – have been researchers with, or funded by, the Centers for Disease Control?
What you believe depends a lot on who you trust for your information, and also a whole lot on what you wanted to believe to begin with.