It’s damaging because it adds doubt to any kind of scientific consensus.

“They” don’t want you to know that vaccines are dangerous.

“They” are only pushing chemo for big pharma.

“They” don’t want to admit that this was where ancient civilizations had some global empire.

It’s the same kind of attitude of “fantastical claim you can believe if you just dismiss all the evidence that you don’t like”

And that is very damaging because it further erodes understanding of the scientific method.