Yeah but that's the thing nowadays: there's an attack on facts, proof and science in general. It's all about feelings and the loudness of the biggest screamers (populist politicians and extremist influencers). Scientists and fact checkers are portrayed as dumb, incompetent, terrorists, etc. These arguments are the weakest possible in a discussion but somehow people just follow these idiots and reject science and facts.

The same happened when the church felt threatened by science during the discovery of the round earth traveling around the sun. The general public was riled up against science, even forcing academia to practice in secret.