Most people don’t have a strong opinion one way or the other. They’ll have issues over which they’re passionate of course but on the whole there will be many things about which they don’t feel extremely strongly including what kind of pasta you use with which sauce and who sits where at the dinner table. (Yes, I did say there’d be exceptions.)
What I think this suggests is that media positions on current events are not really representative of more than a very few. Of course they represent an interesting and sometimes controversial viewpoint. But that doesn’t mean they represent any but a few few who also see things like this.
Now, I know. How can a populist position or even a consensus position like «climate change is real! Wake up!» be something that are so widely held they direct public policy? Because they’re different kinds of approaches to questions of what is real, and what needs to happen now. The climate change question is a science question and if you understand science you’ll understand probabilities and if you understand systems theory then you’re likely to come to a reasonable, not necessarily right, conclusion.
What most people think isn’t right of course but cautionary principles apply. If it’s as deadly and dangerous as we think it is, and if changing how we live means we will acknowledge our kinship to and debt…
