I'm not even sure we'd want a world with perfect information. Is the pursuit of art for art's sake valuable. What if the answer is no? Do we repress art?
Having a variety of ideas rests on there not being perfect information and people making personal choices based on imperfect information.
That's a subjective question. When it comes to public policy the vast majority of what should be questions (and are often turned into bullet points instead because we don't want to discuss things) are able to be answered, even if we don't like the answers we get. Things like, "Does better education lower jail populations?", or "Do lower taxes stimulate the economy?" and things like that have an answer, somewhere. The real problem is getting people to A: Understand the answer, and B: Be willing to discard previously held notions and move forward with what the data tells them.
Does keeping a population uneducated lead to happier people?
Or, is there an optimized ratio of educated vs uneducated that leads to better population stability? Yes, ok, do we enforce that?
That said, I lean more towards technocratic solutions [that is solutions and policies driven by data, even if data can shift over time] over gut-feeling or popular solutions.
If you goal is to create a happy society, then the people in that society should be allowed the maximum freedom possible to acquire knowledge, perform work, create art, etc. as makes them happy. To define their own profession, if you will, including "professions" that are not market valuable.
Utopia, basically, which I think is actually becoming within reach if we can all manage to not kill each other in the next century or so.
I think what's being advocated is not perfect information, but rather that we find a way to weld the bullshit-detection-switch to "on" in the vast majority of people, so they don't selectively switch it off when viewing information that fits their current mental model of the world.
People will complain about say Breitbart (that have opinion pieces which are to put it mildly, out of synch with most republicans) but then don't see the same kind of thing coming out of HuffPo or even some NPR programs like CodeSwitch which can also put out opinion pieces which strain logic.
Social media may not be the cause, but IMO it's definitely not helping either. In the past, the kinds of political disagreements you see on social media would almost always have happened in person instead (or over the phone at least). I suspect most people find it a lot easier to be a jerk online than in person.
As a very middle of the road moderate (if that's the right word? Maybe it's something else.) type, I clearly see this disregard on both the liberal and conservative side. Much in the same way an agnostic has to sit and watch mommy atheist and daddy religion fight.
Examples:
1. Trump is a racist
Liberal >> Common sense and all evidence point towards him having and continuing to have racist and bigoted behavior. Electing him would empower racists and harm the country.
Conservative >> Common sense and all evidence point towards the biased media fixating on his conservative views of upholding the law (ILLEGAL immigration) and trying to paint him and anyone else with those views as racist. Also, he is a flamboyant TV personality, I am more than willing to overlook his gaffs because at least he says what he thinks. Electing him would help reverse the damage caused over the last 8 years.
Something Else >> Trump is a jerk and probably has lots of personal issues, and may indeed be a racist. While I am sure there is a small minority of people that like his ideas based on a place of hate, it seems there are a lot of people that have an ideological reason to support him based on the changes they want to see made. Electing him seems like a risky move, and may destabilize things.
2. Obama is a Muslim
Liberal >> Obama's officially stated religion is Christianity. Yes, he is friendly towards Muslims, why wouldn't he be. We have a long way to go towards repairing our relationships and reputation at home and abroad as being inclusive and tolerant of ALL lifestyles, beliefs, and religions.
Conservative >> Obama's actions in office show a disregard of his duties to protect Americans at home and abroad from the threat that is radical Islam.
Something Else >> Obama is a classy guy, and he is not afraid to mix it up with people no matter what people think. Not sure about things like the Iran deal are the smartest but I very sure he (and some other decently smart people) have our best interest in mind, however, I am not sure if they are making the best decisions. I am unsure that any amount of publicly available facts about national defence, economy, Middle East past and present tensions and issues, and Iran, will make me better able to judge this.
Conclusion:
Just because you have facts, doesn't mean you have an understanding. Wisdom and knowledge are for sure bolstered by each other, but not synonymous. It seems to me both sides have a righteous indignation against the other. It will take compassion and compromise to truly move forward as one human race.