I think it's partially that they're imbeciles that want to look smart but also partially due to the very vocal antiscience crowd. The fact that people are challenging things like vaccines and climate change is incredibly worrisome. And the way that media give equal weight to "both sides of the argument" gives credibility to stuff that should be considered nonsense. I mean, we can see it with the HAES movement -- giving even an inkling of credibility to people like Tess Monster about their "healthy curves" feels like an anvil to the head to anyone who knows anything about health and the human body.