Useful Knowledge.......

.....as opposed to otherwise.... Recently went to one of those new coffee shops that form an alternative to the usually ueber liberal caffeine haunts. A growth industry. This one is named Covfefe, after an apparent blotched tweet by our supreme POTUS dear leader. Trump mugs, coffee bags, bumper stickers, pens/pins, flags, etc. , and the types of characters one might expect to meet there. The crowd were talking excitedly about President Trump's responses to Covid19. There was the usual dissing of the dissing of Trump. But no shortage of conspiracy talk. To anyone with a modicum of biological or medical knowledge, the theories were ridiculous. But I just listened, in line with my personal evolution in this present life. But I digress. These folks were absolutely convinced that the virus was created in, pick your foe, a weapons lab in NK, PRC, Russia, Israel, Ukraine, or by CIA types. Got me thinking about how and why folks assume their knowledge. Believe whatever we may, but if several personal factors around this are lacking, we might be in support of great errors, or worse. These would include: attention to the value of experience, verses novel info;- realization that science only can provide information, which must be subjected to scrutiny;-that when such "knowledge" gets turned into policy, the policy makers are far from their own political biases;-any policy must be evaluated for efficacy in an ongoing fashion;- and much more. And two other items. Where is our humility in any of this? And perhaps most importantly, what does grandmother have to say about the issue?