Daily Ramblings – Bonus Content – The Land of Confusion

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1984, Arguments, bias, Confusion, Investors, Orwell, Propaganda, Research, Sources, Truth

I try to avoid politics in this blog, because it is so divisive. The days of two politicians fighting it out on the floors of their respective houses, and sharing dinner and drinks afterward are long gone. Today, we watch two political parties (in America), eviscerate one another on television, radio, the print, and digital media.

Today, trusting the news you receive is a fool’s bet. One side says the other is evil; the other side reciprocates. Today, we need fact checking on our social media so we can feel good about the information we get on our social media feeds.

Are eggs good for us? Are carbs bad? Are fats bad? Is there climate change? Are the police racists? Is there such a thing as systemic racism? Use any of these sentences for a google search and you will read many arguments claiming one side or another. There are no definitive sources of information anymore. There is nowhere you can go to that can be considered the final authority on anything.

If you are in the U.S. or not, it is likely you have read about the riots, the police brutality, the racism, present in America. You can read about statues being torn down, people being killed, businesses burned, whole sections of towns being taken over by radicals, all while politicians watch and do nothing, leaving the helpless citizenry to fend for themselves.

You can read about strategically placed pallets of bricks, metal bars, and other “weapons” in areas where “peaceful” protests are being conducted. You can read about local governments pursuing campaigns to defund the police. You can watch radicals burn and loot businesses, destroy historic statues and monuments, all while the police watch or are “magically” not available. Insane?

What can you trust? Who can you believe? Is there any information source you can trust? Unfortunately, no. Today, you have to dig a lot deeper to get at the truth. If you lack the time or patience to seek out truth, you’ll be fooled on a daily basis. Because that is what it is about today. Fooling you to push a narrative. Deceiving you to support one political plank over another.

You can watch a video of a policeman brutalizing a citizen, only to find out later, that the original video was doctored. You can read about a particular cause you have, only to find out later that the supporters of that cause, paid off the scientists to get a result they wanted. You can follow a movement, thinking you are doing the right thing, only to find out that the money you donated is not going toward the cause, but toward political races that have nothing to do with your cause AT ALL.

There is a quote in George Orwell’s 1984. “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” Many folks who have never read 1984, don’t understand these quotes until they are put into context. These quotes are slogans for the totalitarian government Orwell describes.

Pay attention to the last quote and think about what I’ve described. Ignorance is strength. When you overwhelm the public with seemingly contradictory information, you gain strength over them. You gain strength because you divide them. The United States is the most divided I’ve seen in my lifetime.

How do you solve this problem? Read books. Read philosophy. Read history. Read all of it broadly. Follow arguments that are supported by facts, not feelings. Go to the source. Do not depend on anything labeled “News”. There is no news anymore. People’s opinions are not news.

This article leads me back to my post about critical thinking. Think. Read. Think. Read some more. Go to the source. Find out who supports that source. If you read an article that states that eggs are wonderful for you, find out if it was a scientific study supported by the egg industry. If someone says sugar is no problem for your health, find out if it is supported by the sugar manufacturers. You see? You can do this with any topic, be it racism, climate change, nutritional benefits of eggs, sugar, etc.

Every scientific study is supported by donations and grants. Who provided the money? What stake do they have in a given study’s results? Who gains from one result over another? Where is it published? What is their editorial process?

If you do watch the news (I don’t anymore, I only scan the news now in digital form), do your homework. Watch multiple sources of the news from both right-leaning and left-leaning sources. Typically, the truth is in the middle of these two extremes. You’ll be amazed how informed you really feel, when you think about the sources of information you are using, and how the author derived their arguments. Are their arguments based in reality or pushing some political narrative?

Here are some more examples. We were told to avoid large crowds to avoid spreading COVID-19, yet now we are seeing large crowds without social distancing protesting in our streets. If you protest the lockdown, you are wrong. If you protest police brutality and racism, you’re exempt. If you like guns, you’re a nut, unless you are taking over six blocks in Seattle or Portland. Then the guns are OK. If you think putting up a wall to curb illegal immigration is OK, you’re racist, unless you are a group of radicals putting up a wall in Seattle or Portland to protect their newly found Utopias. Welcome to the Land of Confusion. This is outright insanity, right?

In our information saturated world, we all have to be more discriminating. We have to read broadly. We have to take a look at the arguments being posed by all sides and then make a decision about who we think is right or wrong. Arguments that are not supported by fact are weak and untenable. Arguments supported by junk science or biased studies are weak and untenable.

Listen to your gut. If you read something and it is filled with emotion, insults, and outrageous claims, it is likely false. If it is filled with verifiable facts, it is more likely to be true. But don’t stop there. What facts are being used? Where were they derived from? How were those facts and figures determined? Who paid for the study that produced the facts? How are these facts being used?

It’s a lot of work to get at the truth. You have to dig, and dig, and dig some more. When you have completed this hard work, you will begin to understand how important it is to get at the truth, by thinking critically.

You can circumvent the Land of Confusion by doing this hard work. Stop accepting what you are “told” is true. Verify, dig deeper, and weigh the arguments carefully. Then make your decision. If you can’t, dig some more. You don’t know enough yet.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday – Be Calm – Think Critically

Tags

Clickbate, Critical Thinking, Media, News, Opinion, Propaganda, Science?

So much strife in the world. So much stress spanning the populations of the globe. COVID-19, racism, climate change, and corruption. How does one deal with all of this at the same time?

The simple answer—critical thinking. Think critically. It is a rare skill set these days, with most preferring to be puppets of the mainstream media, instead of thinking for themselves. Why? Because thinking is hard. Reading broadly is difficult. It causes us to face ourselves and the opinions of others.

Recently in the United States, George Floyd was a victim of terrible police officers. Police officers who forgot that everyone in our society is a roving camera and microphone. Police officers who forgot their sacred oath “to preserve and protect”. These police officers showed what a person in power can do to another person with no power.

Does it make sense that all law enforcement is racist? What police chief in the United States would enjoy having a police officer in his police force that would do such a horrific thing so publicly? The answer: None of them would. Think critically. Who would benefit from a racist police force, when the result is the destruction of our cities, assault of innocent people, and general disruption of society? The answer: No one. It is a no-win for anyone involved.

Are there bad apples in the police force? You bet. Are there bad apples in the media, the military, the corporation, religious institutions, the government? Yes. There is not one organization on this planet where bad apples do not exist. Think critically.

COVID-19 shut the planet down. Was that prudent? You bet. The problem arises, however, when the riots began in the United States. If social distancing and remaining closed is so important, why were these policies tossed aside after the first Molotov cocktail was thrown? Why are the numbers in countries and states that remained open or opened recently, not in alignment with the models being used by the CDC for most of the pandemic? Think critically. What makes sense? What doesn’t? Who benefits by the shutdown of society? Who doesn’t benefit?

Climate change advocates chant “trust the science”. We trusted the science during the COVID-19 crisis, only to find out that most of the models we were using were outright wrong. Do you still want to trust the science? I don’t know. That’s a personal decision. Think critically. Who benefits from the changes required to counter the effects of climate change? Who is hurt by the changes suggested by science to curb the inevitable doom proposed by science? Think critically. Who benefits from supporting climate change? Do these same people abide by the same restrictions they suggest for the rest of us? Are they still using airplanes to get to their speaking engagements? Are they still staying in hotels? Are they still using limousines? Do they make any money producing the movies or documentaries that advocate policies that would thwart climate change?

I’m a huge advocate of avoiding the news. Why? Because it is really important that we control what we allow into our psyches. The media today is nothing more than click bate in most cases. They stress people out because anyone can figure out how to psychologically effect other people. When you have that formula mastered, are you telling people the news or spouting propaganda to influence the populace to your way of thinking?

You don’t have to tell me what’s in the news today. It’s the riots. It is the unrest in the United States. Everyone is stressed out. Companies and corporations are virtue signaling all over themselves, to preserve their profits and invoke some sort of sympathy from rioters to avoid trashing their businesses. The result: Nike’s stores are trashed in New York, with looters stealing their shoes. Starbucks stores are devastated with fires and damage. Target, a company which served as one of the primary repositories for goods for families during the pandemic crisis, are now being looted mercilessly doing untold damage to the local economies, the employees of these stores, and the local populations that depend on these stores for their livelihoods. Is virtue signaling helping anyone? I don’t know. That is a personal decision. Think critically.

Most folks in the United States are stressed right now. They don’t know what to do or where to turn, as their cities, highways, and normal lives have been thrown into chaos, while the media continues to support the narrative that society in general is racist, these people are just venting their pain, and we should just let them continue to destroy businesses, burn neighborhoods, shut down highways, and terrorize the very neighborhoods that suffer the most when their churches, transportation resources, and local businesses are shutdown or destroyed.

They are stressed because 40 million people (at last count) were forced to stay home and not work, so they could receive a measly $1200.00 check. They have been locked in their homes due to a “deadly” virus that now possesses less of a threat than the common flu. They have been told to social distance and wear masks, although now, it’s OK to ignore all these guidelines because people have a right to protest. Think critically. Does any of this make any sense?

Read broadly. Investigate. Don’t take everything you see and hear in the news as gospel. Form your own opinions, by weighing all the facts and applying logic to what you are seeing, hearing, and reading. The truth is out there, you just have to do the work to find it.

I do not advocate one position over another. The purpose of this post is to demonstrate that many of the challenges we face today are not as cut and dry as the left-leaning or right-leaning media would try to convince you to believe. I am merely offering a potential solution to our current right-wrong, opinionated, and divisive media. Avoid it at all costs. If you cannot avoid it, get out there and dig into the issue. Become an expert. Know what the left is saying, what the right is saying, and dig into the issue. My guess is that you will come up with some solution sitting somewhere in the middle of these extremes.

Until next time…

Dave