Midwits and Contradictory Evidence

In some recent interactions with midwits, I’ve noticed that they simply can not handle evidence that contradicts their conclusions.

In fact, not only can they not handle it, once they come to a conclusion they essentially retroactively erase contradictory evidence from their memory.

If you try to discuss any contradictory evidence, they will project onto the mere existence of that evidence a belief that you are claiming their conclusion is wrong. They are unable to understand that you are not interesting in their conclusion, you are simply discussing an interesting fact that happens to contradict their own conclusions.

Finally, they will defend treating evidence this way. They consider it good and proper to erase evidence from existence that doesn’t support their conclusions, and attack anyone who is not in support of this.

They will then turn around and accuse you of “ignoring the science”.

This also epistemoligically locks them into their conclusion because they’ve become incapable of processing evidence against it, and it never occurs to them to wonder where the initial conclusion that they’ve epistemoligically locked themselves into came from, or whether the evidence supported it in the first place.

Now, a lot of this isn’t new to me, but the active erasure of contrary evidence from their memory was still a bit of a shock to me when I’ve encountered it.

There are plenty of people who out there who do not just believe the !vax is safe and effective, they believe there is literally no evidence to the contrary and anyone who thinks otherwise is just crazy. They believe there is no evidence because as soon as they encounter any, they simply erase it from their memory. And lo, there continues to be no evidence.

It is a bit astonishing to see the process happening in real time.