CTH has encountered criticism for our position on information. Perhaps it is important to step back and explain exactly why we should not be playing by rules established to control us while engaged in the battle of ideas. First, my position:
…”There is no such thing as “disinformation” or “misinformation”. There is only information you accept and information you do not accept. You were not born with a requirement to believe everything you are told; rather, you were born with a brain that allows you to process the information you receive and make independent decisions.”…
There are only two elements within the public discussion of information, truth and not truth.
In an era filled with “fact-checkers” and institutional guardians at the gates of Big Tech, let me explain exactly why it is important not to accept the speech rules of the guards.
When you accept the terms “disinformation”, “misinformation” or the newest lingo, “malinformation,” you are beginning to categorize truth and lies in various shades. You are merging black and white, right and wrong, into various shades of grey.
When your mind works in the grey zone, you are, by direct and factual consequence, saying there is a problem. You are correct; however, this is where people may make a mistake. The problem is supposed to be there.
It is not a solution to the problem to try and remove the grey simply because it takes too much work to separate the white pixels from the black ones. You were born with a gift, the greatest gift a loving God could provide. You were born with a brain and set of natural instincts that are tools to do this pixel separation, use them.
If you define the grey work as a problem you cannot solve on your own, you open the door for others to solve that problem for you. You begin to abdicate the work, and that’s when trouble can enter.
The sliding scale of Pinocchio’s is one of the most familiar yet goofy outcomes.
Put more clearly, when you accept the terminology “disinformation”, you accept a problem.
The problem is then the tool by which authorities will step in to make judgements.
Speech, in its most consequential form, is then qualified by others to whom you have sub-contracted your thinking.
When you willingly sub-contract information filters to others, you have lost connection with the raw information.
CTH was founded upon the belief that truth has no agenda, nor does it care about you, your feelings, or your opinion of it. It just sits there, empirically existing as evidence of information in its most pure form.
The search for truth, in all things, is the mission objective of this assembly. Often, we don’t like the truth; often, the truth is bitter, cold, challenging and even painful to accept. However, the truth doesn’t care. Information in its most raw form is ambivalent to your opinion. If you struggle to accept these things, that’s when you need grey. The New York Times is not called the “grey lady” accidentally.
Personally, I am an absorber of information – perhaps on a scale that is unusual. But I do not discount information from any form until I can put context to it and see if the information makes sense given all the variables present. When something doesn’t feel right, it’s almost always because it isn’t right.
Often, I find myself struggling in the grey and complex. It is not unusual to spend days researching, digging, clarifying a situation, only to discover the path to finding the truth is in another direction entirely. Erasing everything and starting over is frustrating, but it is genuinely the only approach that works; and often finding truth is supposed to be difficult, that’s why it is rewarding.
In the digital information age, we are bombarded with information. It is easy to be overwhelmed and need to find something or someone who has better skills at separating the black grains from the white ones. All opinions in this quest should be considered; thus, it is important to allow the free flow of information.
I am not necessarily a speech absolutist. There is some language that needs to be constrained if we are to participate in a respectful society, with grandma’s rules and knowing the audience. The CTH has guidelines for comments for this exact reason. However, those constraints need to be based on a set of inherent values. When it comes to information it is important to draw a distinction from speech.
There needs to be an open venue for all information. Unfortunately, when we begin to apply labels or categorization to information, there’s an opportunity for information to be manipulated – even weaponized. Saul Alinsky spent decades pondering the best techniques to weaponize information and speech. Alinsky’s intentions in the endeavor to change society by changing how language and information was used were not good. He devoted his completed rulebook book to Lucifer.
Be careful about anyone saying we need to label or categorize information in order to control or remove speech from the discussion.
You were not born with a requirement to believe everything you are told; rather, you were born with a God-given brain that allows you to process the information you receive and make independent decisions.
Think Free
Or Die
In memory
Of Andrew Brietbart
WAR
After all that’s happened in the last years, I’m starting to wonder about Andrews death
?
I’ve always believed he was murdered!
I wrote a large babbling of ideas that I will save you all from by saying this. We know very little about almost nothing. Concentrate on God. Enjoy all the fluff here, in this world but understand. God doesn’t ask questions he has all the answers. And when I say all I mean every thought you have he will immediately answer if you let him. It’s called a relationship, it’s wonderful, fulfilling, eternal. It’s that hole we all wish to fill inside. We limit, not God.
If we don’t think free we’re already dead.
or Die free
I truly appreciate the thinking and logic you put into every article, Sundance. I’m a logical person but I do not always grasp the nuances and details that you do. You are one of the people for whom I am thankful, today and every day.
Mari, think simply. What SD is giving you is a gift of thinking by and for yourself. Think critically. Think simply. Solve problems you need to solve.
Think with common sense. What would you do yourself if your life depended on your thoughts?
I had a discussion tonight about this LGBTQ+ thing with a friend who is a husband of a virologist/scientist.
I said to him, “if all other animals were LGBTQ, they would all be dead right now.”
He got it and laughed OUT LOUD.
I will be very controversial right now. Regarding LGBTQ…someday, there will be a cure. And do not respond to me. I am correct.
LGBTQ isn’t a disease; it’s a pop culture-driven belief that you can change your gender just by believing you are a different gender. That can also be a mental illness if it is true gender dysphoria, but it is NOT a disease for which there “will be a cure” some day.
The cure is belief in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, repenting of our sins and following His teachings.. God has already provided The Cure!
Yup! Absolutely.
Amen.
give me freedom or give me death !
Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that, Jesus Christ is Lord. -Amen
Amen.
You can’t even say it is a nice day without an argument from someone on the left.
So true.
Yup, you say it is nice and sunny and they will say it is too hot or not hot enough, say the snow is nice, they will say it’s too slick, to cold or whatever to disagree with what you say. I’ve never seen such a disagreeable group of folks…no matter where one goes, they will disagree. I’m fortunate; I read them all and then decide which way it is FOR ME…and me only….not anyone else, just me Others can decide what they want for themselves after they have read each one. and I’ll defend their right, even if I don’t agree.
Personality disorders and neuroses abound! You really can’t have a conversation with those troubled people.
But if you say it’s a lousy day, the left will not disagree with you. They’ll tell you lousy the day is and what’s lousy about it.
Climate Change made it a lousy day, according to the Left.
They will tell you it is caused by Climate Change and that we’re all going to die.
My British husband immigrated here when he was 56, and he immediately found a job with an upmarket motor car company.
When his first Christmas arrived, management told him and all his colleagues it would be “Happy Holidays” to everyone, not “Merry Christmas”.
Never one to abandon truth or principles, he cornered the manager in his office and explained to him why he would not be saying “Happy Holidays”.
And from that moment he continued to wish to all he met, customer or colleague, a warm and heartfelt ” Merry Christmas”.
Was anything else said to him? No. In fact, suddenly everyone was saying it.
I understand people might think this is a small thing…but it really is quite big.
One starts where one is in this battle against wrong speak or think, as defined by neo Stalinists/Marxists/Fascists. Refusal to accept, and worse…repeat…a mouthful of the bilge we are being fed.
One encounter at a time…
“I understand people might think this is a small thing…but it really is quite big.”
Not a small thing, at all. Your post reminded me that only when President Trump took office did people stop the “Happy Holidays” nonsense and actually start saying “Merry Christmas” again. In grocery stores, in restaurants, wherever — “Merry Christmas” had been banned until PT was in office.
I remember the — at first — startled looks on people’s faces, immediately followed by bright smiles. I didn’t care if people “looked” Christian, or not — and there were a few I knew were not. I said it anyway:)
This belongs under the PT list of accomplishments. Thanks for the reminder:)
Do we profess Christ and the miracle of His birth, on the most joyous occasion of God’s promise fulfilled?
There is pure exhilaration in saying Merry Christmas. Those two words warm the heart and feed the soul.
President Trump understands this. You are correct. I remember it as well, Fionnagh. And yes, it was a glorious moment.
Good for him? How long ago was this?
About 15 years ago…
…but I guarantee, even though things have gotten much worse, he would do exactly the same today.
Any substantial truths triggers people these days. I too am easily triggered – but my mind just does not take kindly to being led down a garden path.
I have been taught to think by Ayn Rand and Robert Heinlein in particular.
It is still scary to realize just how many of my fellow human beings have been taught not to think!
Heinlein said most won’t think and actively resent anyone who tries to make them think!
Idiocracy wasn’t supposed to be a how-to manual…
Once red pilled there is little peace.
God help us all. Please.
I consider Robert Heinlein to be one of my personal mentors. I’ve tried to live my life according to his writings. In tough situations, I ask myself, “WWLLD?”
(What Would Lazarus Long Do?)
Another author from whom I have learned many life lessons is Piers Anthony.
Be careful following LL too closely; several times his solution was to kill the idiots. That is frowned upon in our society–even if they need killing.
This is a strange thing.
It’s not the things or books that give you ideas that make you think but the things and books that awaken you within that free you. I myself long for that ability from my maker, to instill HIS spirit to others, not my own. To be a part of that miracle, to awaken a spirit.
That my friends, would be a calling indeed.
You may already “be a part of that miracle,” Palerider. God may have used you as a conduit of His Spirit and He may be using you still without you knowing.
When we stand before Him for an accounting of our lives on earth, we will see clearly.
when I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
I pray that God is the force Who will “put away” the childish thing called Joe Biden.
I think this can add to the discussion:
https://foreignpress.org/news/bothsidesism-what-is-it-and-what-does-it-mean/
Speaking of not reading the room.
The essay the professor cited opened with two paragraphs of lies. Oaccasionally, an honest author will present examples of lies in order to dispel them. This author or authors did not do this. The essay was a piece of sophistry. It apparently represents the viewpoint of whoever leads the Foreign Press Correspondents USA.
Professor G may have been intentionally directing us to consider an example of untruthful reporting in support of Sundance’s thesis that lies abound in media today, so we must exercise discrimination (in the original meaning of the word, the faculty of incisive determination, not the 1960’s new-meaning of acting from deep-seated bigotry or prejudicial hostility).
The only thing I can see it adding is the reality that this essay didn’t age too well. it was written in July of this year and here it is late November and the Hunter Biden info has been confirmed and Ivermectin has been proven to be effective when used early enough. Plus it shows that whomever wrote this piece is nothing more than a propagandist themselves.
Thanks for this Sundance!
My parents drilled this “independent thinking” and “God gave you a brain to think and make a decision” Lesson from the time we (me and my 6 siblings), were old enough to understand anything at all. Some made better decisions than others, however, it was not because we didn’t know that it was our JOB to use our God-Given Brain and make the right choices in everything we do.
Didn’t have that many in my family, but Mom always said to me “don’t try to change a mind. If it changes so much the better for you, but they have to do the changing on their own, not with your help”. She spoke not just in general, but in selecting friends, male and female. If you need to change them, question; what made you pick them in the first place if you want to change them?…..
Gold. TY
We might be related, lol!
If I was told once, I was told one million times to listen, read & observe and then to to use my God given logic + reasoning ability & think for myself. Be a leader not a follower.
That’s what I learned at my mama’s knee.
Lucky you…my parents let me find out the hard way. I became a quick learner.
Sounds like my parents. My parents grew up during the Great Depression. They all believed in reading books and learning on your own. I became an avid reader because of them and my grandparents.
My parents didn’t do that for me. Fortunately I’ve been curious as long as I can remember & an independent thinker naturally. As I grew up & grew older & wiser, I eventually realized I was better off without them (for many, many reasons…) and have been much happier.
I also love researching, sometimes what I find doesn’t “click” & I get to what seems a dead end, so I start over as Sundance described until something clicks or some other epiphany comes.
Epiphany–a wonderful word and one you will never forget when you realize how profound the experience of it is!
Mom, what does ……how do you……where do??
LOOK IT UP! (Encyclopedia Britannica)
I grew up in an extremely dysfunctional family. I mentally left that family for a long time yet had God to guide me.
He is a good father, patient and merciful. Glad to be here.
My mother was born in 1931. Educated in the proverbial one room country school house.
My children were/are astounded how much better was her education compared to theirs.
I’ll bet you heard some version of “God gave you two ears and one mouth so listen more and speak less”. 😉
GO LOOK IT UP. Don’t take anyone’s word including old dad’s. Something my kids heard a lot. LOL
As a child, I could spend hours looking through our giant 8″ thick Webster’s Dictionary
My parents were also Depression era children. Six of us boys and I can still hear my dad saying to me “Son, your head isn’t something to hang a hat upon.”
My daughter at first resented me telling her to go look it up in the dictionary. She’s a very bright and shining woman now. I still can’t fathom why God blessed me with her. After some of my screw-ups as a child I never would have expected it. Thank you my Lord.
(As an aside I wonder who thought they were smarter than Sundance to critique him? Pretty foolish.)
Nailed it! Good reminder.
All it takes for my sister to dismiss facts is to see a Fake News or Debunked label slapped onto it by Facebook or whoever. She goes to the Fact Checking sites 1st.
For myself – I’ve always talked about that big — ? box — in the brain where most things should go — until you get enough verified information to — draw firm conclusions.
Fact checking places are just like all the so called ‘polls’ they post. I’ll believe it when I SEE it happen.
Conservative fact checking is hampered by the new algorhythms engaged by the popular search engines.
Sundance did a pieced on that a month or so ago.
What did we do before computers, oh my? Civilization must have just started as it seems. Or it’s ending.
Steer clear of the CIA Black Box (TV) and siblings.
I have learned the hard way.
TV = CIA BLACKBOX
I have found that fact-checking sites do not check on anything that they are not being paid to change the perception of what is true. They are not supporting themselves with ads. It has been long known that Snopes is a pay-to-print operation and the others are copycats. I avoid these with a vengeance.
More often than not, they are only opinions. Neither information nor disinformation, neither truth nor lie.
I am a prolific reader, and have followed you for many years. First on Twitter, where I’d madly search for your threads each day, and then, this blog.
You write beautifully, and concisely. I realized early on that you synthesized the data points that I’d collected previously from other writers and that I found myself amazed at how close your summations, paralleled and then surpassed my gut interpretations.
That’s when I began contributing monthly.
I’m still appreciative of the hard work that you put in to interpreting current events. Thank you!
What’s an opinion worth if you are not able to form it yourself, and if u were given all the answers…… would u stop wondering why?
No one is ever given answers.
One of the ways we think for ourselves is to periodically examine the assumptions that sit at the base of our decision making. One assumption that I think needs reassessment is having a floating exchange rate.
I will even admit that I have changed my mind after hearing another opinion on occasion. Not always, but it does happen….and I will admit it..
Pilate’s question: “What is truth?”
is there just my truth is true for me and your truth is true for you? or is truth absolute? absolute is my guess. it’s either raining or not. the cat is purring or not. do people lie or not?
So we live on a planet, and presumably in a universe, where absolutely everything that is, ever was, or ever will be, is binary ?
I don’t know. That sounds rather boring.
everything is a large set of items……a LOT of things are binary but everything is not inclusive to that…..the universe you mentioned is definitely NOT binary….TRILLIONS of stars and God knows the name of them all…..over a hundred separate elements that are used to make all sorts of interesting compounds around you….definitely NOT binary……..time, that stream of consciousness……definitely NOT binary……..before we delve into the extreme you can see in fact everything is NOT binary and therefore maybe you can find some interest around you
“A lot of things ARE binary…”
I’ve got a pet theory about dreams. Maybe dreams are a brain function in which what is possible is contrasted with what is not possible. The brain is rehearsing and establishing its hold on reality, by juxtaposing absurdity with real things it already “knows.”
The few times I remember my dreams, they are a bunch of nonsensical garbage. Maybe that is the purpose of dreams, to cement us in reality by doing exercises of rejecting unreality?
Occasionally in life, we have dreams that make perfect sense and we remember them easily and in detail. Those are in a different category.
There are times though when one must determine if it is really rain or is it just someone pissing on your leg.
More like there is my truth, your truth and facts.
“There are only two elements within the public discussion of information, truth and not truth.”
John Kennedy (back when many Democrats believed in free speech, even more than some Republicans) said that a democracy depends on an open marketplace of ideas where the people get to decide what is true and what is false.
It’s not so hard to understand.
Thinking for many is an extreme endeavour, it’s exhausting, like the last 1000′ with 80lbs of venison on your back.
Many would rather fail safe to the govt line to be part of the club with official sanction….
Also, there is a general lack of intellectual confidence. And rightly so.
50% of the population has an IQ <100.
That accounts for many of the minimally curious.
How is that fixed?…it isn’t.
I’m not sure that 50% stat is correct. Does IQ measurement fluctuate over time, grading on a curve? Or is it fixed against a norm at the time the concept was first quantified? If the latter it’s entirely possible that there are far more than 50% below that 100 baseline.
General IQ numbers can change…..but minimally.
In many 3rd world societies under / un-educated people never realise their potential cognition levels.
The problem for the US is that education has always been available to those who want it.
An IQ<100 in the US means you will have difficulty with many language and calculation tasks.
Your ability for abstract thinking is severely limited.
You are and will remain functionally stupid.
IQ is merely a measurement of the ability to learn within your age cohort……..it can fluctuate some over your life but not by much without major life-changing actions relating to education and information analysis
From a quick bit of research I found that your statistic regarding 50% of the population having an IQ < 100 is correct. That is because the test and the method of analysis are revised every few years to intentionally make the worldwide average come out to 100. So 50% will always be below 100 and 50% will always be above 100. About 68% of the worldwide population falls in the range of 85 to 115. The most recent reporting puts the US average at about 98. Asian countries fill 7 of the top 15 slots and African countries make up the bottom 14. So there may be some level of bias in the testing methodology.
I was surprised to find out that the correlation between IQ and curiosity is not as clear as stated. In fact the divergence of these two attributes is significant enough that a separate CQ (curiosity quotient) test has been developed over the past few decades. One of the things that has been discovered is that CQ, not IQ, is a much higher indicator of academic success.
Dear Sundance,
I thank you for this clarification! I have myself, though certainly no where near your brain power,
thought some of these same thoughts that you so eloquently stated here.
Discern is what the Great Book teaches us.
You Sir, are an amazing discerner!
Thank you for being you!
A wiser person am I because of this site, and very grateful for it.
All God’S blessings is what I wish for you and yours!
My observation on this is that many people do not like to think because it is hard.
People are lazy and the same is true when it come to complex facts, ideas, debate, logic and absorbing vast amounts of information required to analyze and discuss complex issues.
It is easier to just accept what one is told by a familiar source and use this as a position if ever asked or confronted.
This is the reality of the strategy MSM uses to disseminate the prescribe narrative and talking points of any issue. Is it any wonder that the same words/phrases are used and repeated verbatim by so many MSM print and verbal pundits???
Humans are inherently lazy and this is key to controlling their views, fears and votes.
Most people are largely herd annals. They want to go with the crowd they are in. See college students especially. And not wanting to be punished, they also want to take the side where they won’t be punished for taking that side.
I love this comment. It made me realize that I have always considered myself to be a lone wolf or loner because I was never a herd animal! Thank you!
The left HATES ‘black and white’. They LOVE 50M shades of gray. Hence they are attempting to make ‘gray’ the norm. Embed ‘gray’ as the … floating … truth. The malleable truth. The ecto-morphing truth.
Christ said … “You shall KNOW the TRUTH, and the truth shall set you FREE”. He also said; “Let your YES mean YES, and your NO mean NO … anything else comes from The Evil One”. Christ loves the TRUTH and calls us to live TRUTHFUL, HONEST lives.
Yes, the Left fights Christ … and all He calls us to do.
The tyranny has already been erected, but that truth is to painful to accept.
The well flavored propaganda of false hopium is the preference.
It’s sad…
This seems to be the age of euphemisms! Noah Webster was tasked by the framers of our Constitution to go over every word in it to be sure those words reflected INTENT. THAT WAS 1787. He wrote his first dictionary in 1828. My, how meanings have changed since then. Few say what they MEAN and MEAN what they say. I like clarity—to heck with political correctness. “Content moderation” is CENSORSHIP! THESE people must stay up all night wordsmithing!
That’s exactly why we all love Trump. He lets us know what he thinks and isn’t afraid to say it. He is being punished for being “too honest” by those deceivers in D.C. They absolutely hate the truth!
In my endeavour to become a member of the healthcare profession, numerous courses in the sciences were required. Biology, chemistry,physics, biochemistry, microbiology, and many others. Within the study of the sciences at the time (70’s), it was taught that the goal of TRUE science was NOT the proving of an assumed truth, but the DISPROVING of an assumed truth. To do such a thing, an inquiring, questioning mind was essential.
I know highly educated people who are capable of thinking for themselves but choose instead to defer to “experts” in all but their own field of expertise. They consider me selfish, stubborn and asocial because I do research and think for myself. Sadly, some are suffering because of their blind faith in the corrupted medical system.
Yeah that’s how we got warp speed and the jab and a shutdown of the economy
It always amazes me when family or friends tell me that they rely on a “list” of approved news sources (provided by the MSM). For example, I used to get this comment on social media when I would post a link to a CTH article. I even had a college teacher that “knew what she was talking about” because she taught logic and critical thinking, and I shouldn’t be passing on unreliable news sources…that it was irresponsible. My response to her was “I WON’T LET ANYONE TELL ME WHAT NOT TO READ!” If I even want to read trash, I’ll read trash. I decide what’s true or not true or maybe true.
Because I follow Sundance and a few other “unapproved” sites, I have never been surprised by any turn of events. Their track record proves their validity. Your college teacher is naive.
Or just plain stupid.
“CTH was founded upon the belief that truth has no agenda, nor does it care about you, your feelings, or your opinion of it. It just sits there, empirically existing as evidence of information in its most pure form.“ The truth shall set you free!
AMEN!
One of the major GOALS of the indoctrination system, we used to call education, is to NOT teach thinking.
I learned 50 years ago when I had a staff of adults working for me that you CAN NOT TEACH ADULTS TO THINK !
We now have a population of almost 3 generations that DO NOT know how to think.
Please, I know it is not 100%, but it truly is a very large majority of the population
My favorite term for this is IRRATIONAL INSANITY !
Dewey’s purpose was to educate a functional adult that would work well as a cog in the modern economy…..he imported this concept from Germany where it was developed by Otto Von Bismarck
The child’s education experience doesn’t exactly model democracy either.
Many accept payment for NOT thinking. If you can make your living by NOT thinking about what you are doing to yourself, to others and to your country, well, that’s why election fraud is so successful. Just grab the paycheck and run. No consequences have yet befallen you. It’s all good. Self reflection is so passe./s
Back in 2008, learned a crazy lesson at the age of 60. I sometimes joke about it, but nor really funny. Due to the crazy way the DNC handled the primary I learned to start researching and question whatthe news, lawmakers and other sources were trying to showe down our throats as gospel.
Yes, I still make mistakes in believing others. Mostly because I didn’t do my research or it was not out there to be found at the time..
It was in 2008 that I learned how far some will go to keep the truth from being discovered It was only about 5 or 6 years ago that I learned about screen shots. Boy how I wish I known about screen shots in 2008, for there wera so many sites that white washed their sites once things about them were discovered.
I’d say 90% of the time I do my research farhter and deeper than most do, with Sundance probably one of the few execptions. I’m just one of these people that when I find something out of place I just have to know why.
Now adays i’m not always quite the eager beaver I was a decade. Sometimes I just have to step away from it all, regardless of what it is. Guess you could say that the Globalist have gone so far overboard that it really starts screwing me up mentaly and pysically. This is one reason I am so proud of Sundance and how he has hung on for as long as he has.
Something new and beautiful is being born out of the collapse of the old corruption. Do not concentrate too much on the ugliness; leave room to recognize the new and welcome it. It is neither Left nor Right.
Unfortunately, I still know plenty of people on “our side” who do not partake in critical thinking, people who still listen to what FOX News tells them, and who think that Trump is “not Presidential” and that Ron DeSantis can do no wrong. It’s very hard to get people who do not think critically to start to do so.
One of Rush Limbaugh’s greatest contributions to shaping my way of viewing politics in particular was his insistence on not just accepting conventional wisdom as gospel.
Sometimes its not partaking in critical thinking, but that the information is so overwhelming the other way that its hard to see the real truth.
Take the Jnnuary 6th mess. How many people ralize that it is our right to watch governmental meetings of our city, county, state and federal government. I remember when it all came down thinking what was worng with them being in the building?? Why were they not letting the view the meeting? It as not until a few weeks ago that it popped up again and I asked some peope about why would lawmakers be holding an election confirmation hearing in private,, barring anyone that is not a lawmaker of Congressional staff meme.
And there is this:
Tell a lie often enough….
Good catch! The embedded lie is that we peons have no right to intrude on the workings of our superiors.
We shouldn’t passively accept that idea. Calling it out as a lie takes away its power to deceive.
And all the Qtards – seriously lacking any critical thinking whatsoever
Independence is loyalty to one’s best self and principles, and this is often disloyalty to the general idols and fetishes.
Mark Twain
Taking away honest description of the world around us, alters the reality we all depend upon to understand our circumstances and develop our ability to function effectively therein. Totalitarians have refined the art of language distortion (propaganda) into a powerful weapon of cultural/ intellectual/political subversion.
I have a way that I use to nudge certain (receptive) people towards the critical thought mode. I ask them, “WHY do you believe what you believe?” And hopefully it guides their brain down an unfamiliar path where they think about what they’ve been told, instead of just accepting it.
If they do a little introspection and (honest!) self-analysis, there’s a chance that they’ll discard some of their assumptions. And once they feel the power of that free thought, they’ll want more.
Some will tell you that as good citizens they defer to the experts and authorities, and not to do so is egotistical, selfish and almost always wrong.
I’ve been running my business throughout all this crap.
I had no problems during the Cough.
Everybody had money to pay the invoices.
Now, nobody wants to pay on time. And I’ve got the bills to produce the widgets!
I am at the point where I can’t afford to make the widgets, because the widget invoices aren’t getting paid.
Its a classic business bankruptcy.
How can I make any widgets,without any checks coming in?
No more widgets.
Like Sundance said:
“If you have not been taught to think for yourself, then
disinformation is scary”
Russia did not really invade Ukraine
But for the grace of God, I could have been born an liberal.
To the left there is no truth only their belief in certain information that all must support/accept and anything that differs is misinformation. Misinformation once identified by the left must not be communicated again. If the misinformation is continued to be disseminated purposefully by those on the right then that misinformation is labeled/becomes disinformation. Misinformation can be an innocent misunderstanding in the beginning but disinformation is the malicious continuing spreading of misinformation!
Once “truth” is abandoned then information has no basis in fact and can become anything; scientific facts are determined by consensus like CO2 is destroying the planet, information becomes that there are several sexes, information states that marriage can be between same sexes, information states that white Europeans committed genocide after arriving in America, information states that protesting a Presidential election is insurrection, information states that wind and solar energy can replace fossil fuel energy etc! ! Anyone saying otherwise is now giving out disinformation which isn’t a crime, yet!
When people listen to, and worse, believe, the labels of disinformation and misinformation from anybody else, then they are abdicating their responsibility for making that determination themselves.
I think a lot of the problem is attention span. People today are bombarded with so much to consider in a limited amount of time. I call this “The Long Menu” problem. When you go to a restaurant and are given a menu, you usually want to take time to scan all of your choices.
What if the dinner menu you are handed is 125 pages long? Will you read the whole menu?
People naturally default to short cuts when they have limited time. In today’s world of propaganda, you may default to third party recommendations to avoid investing too much time on something.
When political news is full of so many sources parroting the same narrative, you may jump to that as a lifejacket to avoid drowning in research. It is a TRAP.
It is true God gave us a brain to listen and make choices but what if you are bombarded with endless choices coming at you with the speed of bullets spewing out of a machine gun? What if it is loud and relentless and you are pressed for time?
Politics, government and media today are a merciless barrage of manipulative nonsense like a fast-talking used car salesman who works you and jerks you until you end up buying a car you don’t want or need or can afford.
You sign a contract full of fine print language you don’t have time to read or understand if you do read it.
Politics, government and media are not just one manipulative salesman. They are an army of them coming at you…relentlessly with no regard for your real interests. Their goal is simply to deceive you into supporting something in THEIR best interest but NOT in YOUR best interest.
Your only defense to this massive attack is to tune out anything not presented in a concise and understandable way.
There must be respect for your ability to process information presented. Anything else is an insult and a threat.
Also, YOU MUST TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS. If it sounds like complete nonsense…it IS complete nonsense.
Great observations! I often feel overwhelmed. Whatever happened to the 24 hour news cycle? It’s more like a 6 hour news cycle now.
Politics, government, and media all have a goal of keeping us in the dark where we can’t make good decisions.
That is why so many of us have left the MSM, cable TV, Holywood-produced cinema, liberal newspaper’s screed, and supposed internet conservative sites and stayed away from obvious and not so obvious propaganda. Limiting the imput improves the ability to see clearly. Becoming closer to the fount of all wisdom-God, is prime.
Thank you, Sundance!
The Scarecrow from the “Wizard of Oz:” If I only had Brain.. Every human has a brain. But whether they use it to think for themselves or passively have their neck bent over their cell phone, or get pumped up at the cocktail hour watching the telly is another issue entirely.
the brain is like a muscle….it gets better through regular use and atrophies through non use
“You were not born with a requirement to believe everything you are told; rather, you were born with a God-given brain that allows you to process the information you receive and make independent decisions.”
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“CTH has encountered criticism for our position on information.”
From anyone worth being concerned about?
We teach our children this.
I am reminded of the father,..as soon as his son was old enough to understand, he bagan telling him on a regular basis “Son, don’t trust ANYONR.”
Finally, when his don was 12y.o., the father leaned a ladder up against the roof, and told his son to climbe the ladder, onto the roof, and jump off, assuring him “Its o.k. I’ll catch you.”
So, the son did, and the father didn’t, and the son, holding his broken leg said “Dad, WHY didn’t you CATCH me?”
And the father said “Son, WHAT have I always told you?”
We don’t go to sucj extremes, but we tell our children outrages, imposdible tales about a fat man, that lives with elves at the North pole and once a year brings candy and gifts to all.
About a rabbit, than similarly brings easter candy, delivered in baskets.
To teach them the lesson; doesn’t matter WHO tells you, or how much you WANT to believe its true, USE critical thinking, don’t just believe every thing you hear.
Unfortunately, schooling has gradually moved to teaching everything by rote, which abhors critical thinking, and rewards blindly repeating back whatever us put in.
Tolstoy wrote a sort of proverb about a Father who was raking up the leaves in his yard. His college educated son came home that day and his father asked him to pick up a rake and help. The son replied. “What IS a rake? !! Whereupon he immediately stepped on the metal tines of the rake and the wooden end flew up and hit him in the head. I always laugh at that story of the son and his “education!”
While working on our masters degrees, my roommate and I had an assignment to analyze an article by an editor of what we considered the premier journal in our field of study. The author was highly critical of an article written a few decades earlier, and we just happened to have the text containing the original article at the apartment, and decided to read it. The esteemed “editor” had removed words like “not” and “never from his citations of the original, to make it seem like the original text said the opposite of what it actually did.
We brought the original slandered text to class, and the entire class discussed lack of integrity in the upper echelon of the field rather than the original assignment. The professor was disappointed by not greatly surprised. I now always verify the original source data, and often keep print or digital copies of important ones that may vanish from internet access (like my print version of my Bible).
Truth and lies – there’s nothing else !
The issue about mis/disinformation is muddied by the concept of intent.
Yes. Huge gap between honest mistakes and willful deceipt.
“When something doesn’t feel right, it’s almost always because it isn’t right.”
Words to live by, I’ve said the same thing in conversations many, many times.
Examine what you see and hear and make your own judgement.
Amen, Sundance!
Wrong speak comes from wrong think. Controlling the thoughts is one target. And manipilation of the information…
As an example, the massive difficulties I have had in finding info, courtesy of googleedeegoo, has increased. There is stuff out there that is no longer accessible via the standard search engines. Controlling the info.
Consider too…wasn’t there a time in Alinksy’s life, where he had nothing but “time” and penned a book?