I believe a side effect from having easy access to information online and the need to quickly sift through it because there is just too much to thoroughly evaluate caused people to think in absolutes.

Combine this with the natural instinct to protect ourselves from bad news by twisting narratives through mental gymnastics or rephrasing questions until we hear what we want to hear and we can see the problem.

“Not enough evidence” with a arbitrary but favorable observation becomes “everything is fine”.

The opposite is also true where “Not enough evidence” with an accusation becomes “they did it”.

Our world leaders are too focused on the message itself rather than how the message is interpreted by the people which is why we fail at preventative measures.