Digital Mind 🧠

🪵 The Threshold

Fighting post-truth requires doubting one's own favored beliefs first

Properties2
tagsja-picks, aphorisms, contrarian_or_surprising, trade, corroborated, xref, category/causal-relationships
aliases@mcintyre_post-truth_2018, loc. 330

2 min read

Fighting post-truth requires doubting one’s own favored beliefs first

Evidence

It is hard to try to depoliticize factual questions, especially when we feel that the “other side” is being ridiculous or stubborn. It is probably helpful to realize that the same tendencies exist within us too. And there is a lesson here, which is that one of the most important ways to fight back against post-truth is to fight it within ourselves. Whether we are liberals or conservatives, we are all prone to the sorts of cognitive biases that can lead to post-truth. One should not assume that post-truth arises only from others, or that its results are somebody else’s problem. It is easy to identify a truth that someone else does not want to see. But how many of us are prepared to do this with our own beliefs? To doubt something that we want to believe, even though a little piece of us whispers that we do not have all the facts? — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 330

Categorization

  • APHORISMS: A recurring, hard-won piece of advice: the enemy to fact-check first is yourself, especially on beliefs you want to be true.
  • corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 330
  • XREF: connects to: Theoretical doubts about objective truth need not override practical reliance on evidence — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 50; Repeated truths eventually overcome even motivated reasoners’ resistance — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 322; Ideologues pair extreme doubt toward disfavored facts with total credulity toward favored ones — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 48 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

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