All opinions are not equal. This conclusion hardly needs to be debated, just listen to comments made to media hosts. But if the political culture assigns equal weight to those who express themselves based upon defective reasoning, we are all in trouble. The source of this unsound method in reaching personal beliefs is that emotions have taken over the process. Facts, that were once universally held, no longer have meaning or acceptance.
Empirical evidence is discarded for wishful desires.
The necessity to ground positions within the fertile soil of reliable fields, no longer is adhered. No wonder the harvest that is now being picked, bears tainted fruit. The new standard is now to reaffirm our beliefs, and not to seek to verify if we are correct in maintaining them. Information that differs with the emotional security of codependency, can cause discomfort, and should be avoided. The concept that if you can think it, it should happen, defies the very notion of conscious rational reason.