Denialism

A World of Denial

Denial is a psychological state in which individuals ignore – or pretend they don’t know – the truth. Denial can be healthy in the short term, enabling human beings to accept events gradually that are too traumatic to deal with when they occur, but living in denial over the long range means never coming to terms with reality. “Denialism” is the willful suspension of belief, or deliberate ignorance about facts that might undermine a self-serving emotional or financial position. Denialism – whether purposeful or unconscious, well-meaning or cynical – obstructs progress in many arenas, including medicine, food, science, and so on. It creates a pervasive, morally self-satisfied mythology that has destructive real-world consequences.

Denialism sustains misguided, firmly held opinions that may not alter the world (though some denialism has broad, dangerous costs), but that do keep the denier in a state of blissful ignorance. In that state, the denier makes life choices based on fantasy, not fact. “The issues may be complex but the choices are not.” The alternative to accepting scientific facts or “new technologies, along with their limitations and threats...