They best way to formulate an opinion or a belief or hypothesis is to go about it slowly; BE OPEN-MINDED, and give each say its due. So many people will let perfectly good facts just bounce off the wall of cognitive dissonance they've built. It's human nature. A scientist is someone who understands that opinions or beliefs mean absolutely nothing when it comes to the truth. Anyone who is simply curious and truly open-minded will consider ALL facts and not just discard them because they don't fit their beliefs. That's unfair to the facts. Most people would probably tell you with all sincerity that they're open-minded, but if they discard facts simply because they don't believe them to begin with, how is that in any way open-minded?
In fact at this very moment, if someone should stumble upon this post and actually read it, chances are they'll do exactly that. They'll say "I'm open-minded," but they'll probably scoff at what I'm saying, although so far I don't think I've said anything untrue. Here's the whole deal in a nutshell: you can discard facts at ANY time. You're under no obligation to accept any fact simply by considering it. A TRULY wise person would allow themselves to at least give a guy his say, right? AND give him the benefit of the doubt and at least consider the fact that something may be the truth, no matter how crazy it may seem at first. Sometimes; even though it's rare, the most bizarre answer to a question turns out to be true. No one can deny that for a second. Are you feeling just a tad more open-minded? I hope so.
I know someone who, for the last two decades plus that I've known him, will hear something out of the ordinary and immediately grin and shrug it off. His theory is that if you can't see it, hear it, touch it, eat it or fuck it, it doesn't exist. I say that statistically that's impossible. But what do I know? I'm just a dumbass who bothers to do a little homework without making up my mind first. And I'll say here that very few things can be said with 100% certainty. I can't claim everything I say is true, and I'd never do that anyway, but I do have a reasonable doubt, and that comes from trying not to let my opinions stand in my way. Anyway this guy will tell me that something is bullshit the second I say it. The funny thing is that he, like most people, will actually spend the next few seconds of brain power making up a scenario in their minds to fit THEIR interpretation of the story, rather than taking even one second to even consider what someone says. How is that intelligent in any way? That's a closed mind, period. Are you open-minded or close-minded?
If I could add to the list of sayings about facts, I'd say "Facts reinforce themselves." The beauty of it is that it will happen when you least expect it. You can only hear someone say "That's bullshit" without having anything but their opinions to back it up with so many times before you have to call bullshit yourself. If you say "Well, I already KNOW that. I have all the facts I need," you're only fooling yourself; not to mention lying, since potentially true facts are presenting themselves to you for your potential consideration. You DON'T have all the facts. Either you do or you don't. If enough facts present themselves for consideration, it should begin to tug at the little "Bell of Truth" that some people still have in the back of their brains somewhere. If you also happen to have a working Bullshitometer it should also start to creep toward the red line. And again, you don't have to go looking for facts. You can just go about your business and let the facts come to YOU, but only if you are open-minded in a working sense rather than just declaring you are. They say "You can't ignore the facts" and we should all take that to heart. It sounds like I just joined the "Cliche of the Month" club. That's a fact, Jack. Another little factoid, and a bitter pill for us all, is that like it or not, our ideas are not always more valid than the other guy's. If you let it turn into a football game, like most things today, nothing good will come of it. "MY facts can kick YOUR facts' ass!" No, that's not how it works. Facts don't take sides.
Just do me one small favor, por favor. If you hear an idea that doesn't fit into your box of how things are suppose to be, just file it away in your "I don't believe it for shit" file for the time being but don't completely forget about it, so that if something else should happen to come up that seems to confirm something, you'll at least be able to consider new information. It won't hurt you one bit. And I'll say for the millionth time...just because you're willing to at least consider the possibility that something crazy-sounding might actually be true, it doesn't mean you have to believe it for a second, and you never know...you just might learn something. That's a fact too. I heard it put so perfectly by an attractive Swedish psychologist. She was saying how most people can't accept any new information at all due to their preconceived notions. She said that when people say "I don't believe, what it really means is "I don't think. Like it or not that's true.
I was telling my friend Jerry, who's actually fairly open-minded for real, that sometimes if I let myself entertain a crazy idea that I don't necessarily believe, the scenarios I can come up with are like a Sci-Fi movie in my head, and it can be damn entertaining and funny. It can also be a little frightening too occasionally. Either way I don't any more have to believe it than the Man in the Moon. Jerry liked that idea, and what with the cost of movie tickets and popcorn and stuff these days, what's wrong with a little free mental entertainment? It doesn't make you crazy just because you think about crazy things. Sadly most people see it that way. We still live in a shoot-the-messenger society and we always will. No one should be called "crazy" simply for repeating something they've heard. They're not coming up with it to begin with, so why call them names?
Anyone who resorts to name-calling is simply reacting with their emotions, and surprisingly enough, usually fear of learning the truth, rather than any logical thought. Think about it. It's kid stuff. Anyone who has to take cheap shots and call people names has in reality run out of logical rebuttals and they know it, so they have to drop down a few pegs and just make it about MY way vs. YOUR way rather than the issue. It's comfortable to just keep believing your opinions than to ever challenge even a single one of them and I get that, but it's no guarantee that you or me or anyone else is right. Just look at the facts. If you never challenge yourself; including your beliefs, you'l never, ever grow. Maybe that's okay for some people, but unfortunately it's also stagnation. I suppose that's okay for some people too.
Allowing your mind to wander once in a while actually improves it rather than slackens it, as one might think. I've also said this a million times, but it helps keep your brain elastic to think about crazy shit once in a while. The act of telling your brain to try to connect two completely different ideas forces it to make new connections and fire new synapses, and that's extremely healthy. To be fair, that's only my opinion, but I'm basing my conclusion on various facts that I've pieced together from different sources, with just a pinch of extrapolation. I always like to have something confirmed by at least two other independent sources, but usually it ends up being confirmed many more times.
I practice what I preach too. If I see an article or a vid that goes completely against my beliefs, I'll check it out every time. I might not want to but I do. To be honest I've actually changed a few of my views based on new and better facts, so there you have it. I generally find though that most of the things are "clickbait" from my POV to begin with, and they're only putting the opposite one in the title to get those people to maybe consider a different view. At least half the time it's nothing but a troll or a plain asshole. Ask yourself "Is this just my opinion, or have I truly considered all the possibilities? Can I be fair and open-minded?" Oh, wait... that's CNN, LOL. They also say "Opinions are like assholes." That's one of my favorite sayings.
If you should happen to be forming a new theory that seems a bit hard to grasp, do NOT go looking for facts that suit your opinion, as the above-mentioned person has accused me of doing. Just relax and try to look at the facts for what they are. Let them speak. Read a BOOK once in a while. Sure, books can be bullshit too, but it's easy to go back and alter digital media. It's not so easy to do that with a book. If the Web is your main source of information that's still okay at this point. If you happen to research a topic that sounds a little crazy and you go say. to Youtube, you'll definitely find a few tinfoil hats, but you learn to weed them out pretty quickly. You'll find the people who back up what they say with links to official, as in ".gov" sites and such, rather that someone who simply says "That's bullshit." You can usually pick out those people really easily too. They look all official and everything, but watch how they act. Watch their body language. Notice how many of them will get a grin on their face and use actual "blow-off" gestures with their hands. Notice how they'll just laugh and try to discredit anyone who simply has a different opinion. Be especially careful of people who say something like "Don't listen to those idiots. You 're smarter than them!" They do that shit all day long. It takes people's perceived intelligence and uses it against them.
Most of all, see if they back up ANY of what they're saying with links or any other actual FACTS. If you pay attention to the naysayers you'll notice that they almost never back up anything they say with any links to anything, and if they do, they won't use links to .gov sites. They can't. They know that you could look up those sites for yourself and it would prove that when THEY say it's bullshit, THAT'S the real bullshit. I realize no one "has time" to ever look into anything on the web, but some people have objectively looked into some things for a very long time, and they're just relating their experiences.
Don't take sides...take facts. Take what anyone says with a grain of salt. Don't believe anything I'm saying without doing your own research; that is if you care. All I ask is that you don't dismiss it out of hand just because it doesn't fit your opinion. If you want to call someone names just because they have a different point of view, you're not being fair to them OR yourself. Or the facts. Usually you'll find they respect your point of view. They're open-minded. Just listen for once. Get the whole story. There's nothing wrong with that. Sometimes the craziest-sounding answer is correct. Remember that. Have a nice day.
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