It's a bit like the metaphor of the ostrich sticking its head in the sand. But it goes beyond denial. Ignorance is when you don't know something at all, denial is when you know it, but don't know it.

What I'm talking about here is when you know something and you don't deny it, but just rationalize it by saying "they must have a good reason for doing this" or "maybe we don't know not everything there is to know about it”. Which is often followed by "and I don't have the time (the desire, the attention, the interest, the curiosity, the capacity, the intelligence, etc.) to go further".

This has always bothered me to some extent, but I have to admit that I myself have been slightly guilty of this kind of reasoning. I mean, do we really have time to check everything? Well, now I think we have to take the time, and, of course, not everything is important enough to require truth checking. It's a terrible thing to say, but I'm afraid it's the truth.

Part of the “gullibility” that causes many people to brush things off with the assumption that all is well stems from the indoctrination they have been subjected to from an early age. I grew up in a culture that seemed really obsessed with the safety of people, especially children. Think of all the toy recalls and such. As soon as a toy comes out with the slightest bit of uncertainty about how it might harm your child, it's taken off the market.

I shouldn't say I "grew up" with it, as most toys from my childhood would be considered lethal weapons today - lawn darts, pellet and pellet guns, Vac-U-Forms, chemistry sets, Easy Bake ovens (it was my sister's toy, she was a little girl, I was a little boy – I'm telling you this for clarity). The “security craze” didn't really begin until a decade later. I even remember that a child I knew received an “Atomic Energy Laboratory” toy whose kit contained real uranium ore.

I would have died (literally) to get my hands on one of these toys.

That was the time.

read the article