[Zeneta]

In other words, there is no such thing as “settled science.”

I agree.

What we are witnessing is a society that believes with all of their being in the two most extremes.

1. The science is settled and that's that.

2. Nothing is certain and therefore everything has validity.

When one position is challenged they revert to the other.

[ChildOfThe60s]

You can easily substitute the global warming cult or the Democratic Socialism cult here:

Cognitive dissonance was first investigated by Leon Festinger, arising out of a participant observation study of a cult which believed that the earth was going to be destroyed by a flood, and what happened to its members — particularly the really committed ones who had given up their homes and jobs to work for the cult — when the flood did not happen.

While fringe members were more inclined to recognize that they had made fools of themselves and to "put it down to experience", committed members were more likely to re-interpret the evidence to show that they were right all along (the earth was not destroyed because of the faithfulness of the cult members).

[BitWielder1]

That is so true,