Whether someone tells you or you stumble on it yourself.
Peer reviewed studies, direct statistics, etc
A poll is a primary source. That's good.
An article telling you about a poll is a secondary source. Be skeptical.
And above all, be very skeptical of anything that makes you feel intense emotion. Someone might be trying to make you feel that way so you'll be less critical.
What an incredibly stupid take. There were hundreds of people trying to figure out why terrorists attacked America. There were books and scientific papers written about it. Just because you never looked into it doesn't mean there's no data.
You're arguing against the concept of truth because you're too lazy to pursue it.
I did no such thing. In fact, what I was doing was marking a line and making it more distinct.
Epistemology is important to me, but there isn't one epistemology, there are epistemologies. If you want to take it to the extreme, the only thing we can be certain of is that we are conscious. That is the only thing which cannot be an illusion.
Also, you claim your feelings were hurt because you thought someone had a different opinion about something.
The irony is that your actions are antithetical to gaining knowledge. Instead of being curious, you assumed you were right, got emotional, strawmanned my position and then acted like an asshole.
Your actions are also antithetical to sharing knowledge. If you were right, most people wouldn't listen to what you were saying because you've just disrespected them.
Epistemic relativism is a black hole. It's the graveyard of knowledge, and I will not abide it. It's the ultimate of all cop-outs. Those who bring it up should be immediately excommunicated from all rational discussion.
It's the parodox of tolerance for philosophy. Relativism is a thought-terminating argument that people like you use as an ICBM targeting intelligent takes on relevant issues.
It OFFENDS me.
You want to bring it up in a purely theoretical context, without any relation to previous topics, fine. But when it gets brought up in any context other than its own, the person speaking it should be run out of town.