This show’s premise conflates ignorance with human stupidity and knowledge with certainty, especially in the politics episode. It attempts to argue that knowledge somehow demands identification of a certain answer and where certainty is unachievable that means ignorance and acting without regard to knowledge, or in open defiance of evidence, is not only a virtue but necessary. No one who values the grounding of public policy in evidence suggests knowledge equals certainty or that it somehow becomes inapplicable when uncertainty is high. One interviewee has the gall to suggest using “hunches” (a.k.a. guesses infected by arbitrary personal bias) is necessary, appropriate, and good when making decisions. Knowledge is actually the best tool we have to face uncertainty and when properly deployed accepts both what we know today might be wrong tomorrow and is probably incomplete always meaning actions taken based on it might still fail. What will definitely fail, and subject untold victims to immense personal harm along the way, is making decisions based on ignorance and individual biases.
This facially ludicrous nonsense built on disingenuous conflations and mischaracterizations is not worth wasting your time on. The fact that Rory Stewart is involved in this intellectually lazy and bankrupt effort is intensely disappointing. I used to have respect for him, but that has been severely, potentially fatally, damaged. Too bad there’s no ‘zero stars’ option, which might still be too good for whatever this tripe was.
