Goes back to the post you made about people not stopping to wonder why they believe something, or think a certain way.
Some people act on logic and rationale. They take in the available data, then make a determination. It seems a great number don't do that. They latch onto a particular position and will obstinately hold to that position, to the point of discounting or even wilfully ignoring any contradictory data.
The 'gun violence/mass shooting' issue you brought up is one such example. The most vehemently antigun people I've ever made the mistake of discussing the topic with, will continue to use the same tired misinformation, even after I tell them that they can pull out their phones right there, and exactly what terms to search for/websites to go to, to prove that what they thought is incorrect. Will they do that? Nope.
Right now, I'm seeing it with the subsections of the population who are ignoring the social distancing guidelines. Not just the, "I'm not gonna get it" types. There are the, "This quarantine/shutdown business is absolute BS. The harm to the economy is way worse than the virus. We should just restart all businesses and just let it ride. 99.7% of the population is going to survive."
I try to explain that once this spreads to the point that the healthcare system is overwhelmed, the death toll swells from not just the 1-5% we're seeing, but will begin to include the 15-20% who need medical treatment to make it through.
Then as the healthcare system is completely overwhelmed, the death toll also adds people with non-Covid-19 related issues that are severe enough to need medical attention. Heart attacks, accidents, appendicitis, other respiratory distress, infections... when those people can't get the necessary treatment in time because the healthcare system is overwhelmed, they end up adding to the death toll too.
And as this spreads even more, more HCW, LEO and FD will be infected. Fewer HCW in an already overwhelmed system = more fatalities. A ravaged fire department that can't respond to 911 calls? A ravaged PD that can't handle the increase in crime?
And with a novel pathogen that no one has a built-in immunity to, this will infect the majority of people who are exposed to it.
When the death toll both direct and indirect is in the millions, and millions of people are all sick (it takes longer to recover than to die) and a whole lot of people who aren't sick are staying home for fear of getting sick, the economy crashes anyway, but now we're significantly worse off, with many more dead.
And after explaining cascading consequences, and how the economy is going to take a severe blow no matter what, the "the damage to the economy is worse than the disease" folks, still stick to their position.
"You can't reason a person out of a position they didn't reason themselves into".
