The Perils of Untruth
We live in an era of Untruth. Within our current political discourse, there is only one thing people agree on no matter what side of the aisle you’re on: There’s a lot of misinformation floating around out there. It appears to each side (left and right) that the other has an equal amount of false information being spewed - Therefore, without being able to trust information from an impartial source (after all, what is impartial, anymore?), most trust their guts and follow the information that makes the most sense to them.
Here is where the problem begins. What makes sense to each of us isn’t what is right or logical. All of us are illogical and biased. All of us prefer information that backs up what we believe rather than information that tells the actual truth. Does this mean that the truth is no longer accessible? Absolutely not. There is still an objective reality out there, but the deeper we bury ourselves underneath our respective fallacies, the harder it gets to discern the truth, and even determine where it could possibly be sourced from. How are we supposed to dig ourselves out of a illogical hole of misinformation if we didn’t employ, and therefore don’t understand, the proper logical tools we would need in order to save ourselves? This is the true peril of Untruth: Once you reach it, how do you escape it? How can you help others do the same?
It starts with emotion. Emotion is bad for decision-making. It clouds our judgements and prevents us from seeing the bigger picture when it comes to problem solving and logical discernment, especially negative emotions like anger, sadness, and hate. Not coincidentally, we have seen a lot of those emotions on both sides in the last four years - from opinions on sexual assault, healthcare, the pandemic, abortion, immigration - these are not topics that lend themselves well to reason and non-bias. We literally all have a stake in these things, as we have all been personally affected by one or all of them. How then are we supposed to approach these topics with calm when they make us anything but?
It has to start small. Logic as a practice is about consistency. Critical thinking as a definition is about seeking evidence, closely examining reasoning and assumptions, analyzing concepts, and tracing the implications of what is said and done. Socrates set the agenda for critical thinking - namely, to reflectively question common beliefs and explanations, taking care to distinguish beliefs that are reasonable and logical from those that - however appealing to our native egocentrism, however much they serve our vested interests, however comforting they may be - lack adequate evidence or rational foundation to warrant a belief in their effectiveness. in plain terms, this means we must set aside both emotion and beliefs in order to effectively understand a problem well enough to start solving it - if we all approach a problem with good-faith efforts of understanding it logically, then we might actually start to solve those problems, no matter how contentious.
Armed with this knowledge, and the subsequent tools needed to discern likely truth from unlikely truth, many of us would conclude very different things than our current beliefs. Were it only so simple. There are many counteracting forces in todays America: Pundits, religions, conspiracies, and politics all thrive off of our lack of logical tools, and all profit from our predictable emotional responses and short attention spans.
This is goal of Untruth - that we as a society will be taken for a ride by men and institutions who have little concern for our well being and lots of concern about controlling and manipulating us for financial gain and political power. These actors are betting that we will not, in fact, get our shit together - that through our lack of attentiveness and emotional vitriol they will emerge richer, stronger, and untouchable by our laws. They are not all working in concert to accomplish this: In many ways, it’s easier not to. The exploitation of people does not require much organization when we are so easily divided, there’s plenty to go around for those seeking to take it.
This is a call to arms, not for weapons but for sense. If you’ve read this far, it means you’re interested in the tools mentioned above. It means you are willing to learn how to defend yourself from untruth and the violence, chaos, and damage it causes. You also have to be willing to set your pre-conceptions down at the door. You can’t rely on their usefulness if you are to pursue actual truth. A concerted effort focused on the desire to resolve problems will yield much better results than refusing to solve problems because they don’t work the way we all assumed they did, or because the solution violates some arbitrary line in the sand instilled by those who benefit from the line.