# Why do a significant number of people hold poorly-thought-out positions on major topics? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 30, 2010, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-a-significant-number-of-people-hold-poorly-thought-out-positions-on-major-topics/555544 "2010-09-30T00:59:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 6
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-a-significant-number-of-people-hold-poorly-thought-out-positions-on-major-topics/555544/6 "2010-09-30T01:44:15Z")
Because if you actually stopped to reconsider your preconceptions every time you came across anomalous or contradictory evidence, you’d be totally paralyzed. It is much easier to stick to a concrete but untenable position than constantly revisit your dearly held assumptions, hence why conspiracy theories, agrarian subsidies, organic dietary supplements, religion, and the lottery are all going strong while tax reform, intelligent water use policy, and comprehensive nuclear weapon disarmament talks never get off the ground. It doesn’t help that most people are utterly bewildered by any topic that requires a modicum of understanding of scientific, medical, or technical basics. For most people “indistinguishable from magic” honestly describes more than 95% of the tools and devices they use in their daily lives (and that’s probably be being extremely generous). Stranger --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-a-significant-number-of-people-hold-poorly-thought-out-positions-on-major-topics/555544)._