Well first you can look at the reporting in those mainstream media articles. As the art of war dictates, "know thy enemy", once your finding actual studies, then trace back the studies that they reference. Look at the bios of the authors, see if the scientific community has upheld their research with peer reviewed studies from people that stand to gain nothing from the outcome of the peer reviews.
Now that you're looking at actual scientific studies, do your best to understand what is the question and answer each study is trying to solve. Confirm that by reviewing the other peer reviewed studies to see if everything matches up.
During these long and tedious tasks, you will probably want to stop, cause your brain with hurt and you'll be bogged down by information overload. This is natural, take a break and consolidate your thoughts, are what these authors claiming accurate? Are they making assumptions without supporting evidence? And supporting evidence needs to be confirming on its own. As in you can't make assumptions every confirming step.
Once you feel like you have the mental acuity to continue, press on. It's gonna be more of a slog, because let's face it, science papers are written for scientists and not us lay-men. But press on. You are not a sheep and thus you need to be able to confirm your own thoughts about the topic to not be lead astray. You'll probably feel extremely bored because none of this information generates emotion.
Once you've done all that, do the same thing for the other side. Find all the personal held beliefs you have about any topic. Watch the YouTube videos, read the other studies done. This part will be far easier, you'll probably notice that you are more engaged, your emotions will be higher, and you'll be nodding along to all of this stuff.
As a fun side test, try and film yourself watching these videos. For review later. If you're an avg person you'll see that you have all the signs of someone being sold something, obviously you'll need to step away before you watch the video of yourself, coming at it with a clear mind right?
Anywho, that's the beginning. And frankly I doubt you'll take this step because it is difficult. The hardest thing we can ever do is examine our deeply held beliefs. And to do it without the influence of others.
To be clear, I'm not doubting your ability to grow or examine yourself as a free and critical thinker, rather I doubt you will put in the effort. I refused to do it for about 15 years. Only when I unplugged from the influences that I thought were legitimate that I started to realize that both sides are feeding you trash. It is our responsibility to sort through it and make sense of this world.
If you have made it this far, Bravo, I hope you try some of this for yourself. In your own way. So that you won't think I'm trying to influence you any more than to make you question your deepest held beliefs.
I'll leave you with my favorite Aristotle quote:
"It is the mark of an educated mind, to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it"
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Well first you can look at the reporting in those mainstream media articles. As the art of war dictates, "know thy enemy", once your finding actual studies, then trace back the studies that they reference. Look at the bios of the authors, see if the scientific community has upheld their research with peer reviewed studies from people that stand to gain nothing from the outcome of the peer reviews.
Now that you're looking at actual scientific studies, do your best to understand what is the question and answer each study is trying to solve. Confirm that by reviewing the other peer reviewed studies to see if everything matches up.
During these long and tedious tasks, you will probably want to stop, cause your brain with hurt and you'll be bogged down by information overload. This is natural, take a break and consolidate your thoughts, are what these authors claiming accurate? Are they making assumptions without supporting evidence? And supporting evidence needs to be confirming on its own. As in you can't make assumptions every confirming step.
Once you feel like you have the mental acuity to continue, press on. It's gonna be more of a slog, because let's face it, science papers are written for scientists and not us lay-men. But press on. You are not a sheep and thus you need to be able to confirm your own thoughts about the topic to not be lead astray. You'll probably feel extremely bored because none of this information generates emotion.
Once you've done all that, do the same thing for the other side. Find all the personal held beliefs you have about any topic. Watch the YouTube videos, read the other studies done. This part will be far easier, you'll probably notice that you are more engaged, your emotions will be higher, and you'll be nodding along to all of this stuff.
As a fun side test, try and film yourself watching these videos. For review later. If you're an avg person you'll see that you have all the signs of someone being sold something, obviously you'll need to step away before you watch the video of yourself, coming at it with a clear mind right?
Anywho, that's the beginning. And frankly I doubt you'll take this step because it is difficult. The hardest thing we can ever do is examine our deeply held beliefs. And to do it without the influence of others.
To be clear, I'm not doubting your ability to grow or examine yourself as a free and critical thinker, rather I doubt you will put in the effort. I refused to do it for about 15 years. Only when I unplugged from the influences that I thought were legitimate that I started to realize that both sides are feeding you trash. It is our responsibility to sort through it and make sense of this world.
If you have made it this far, Bravo, I hope you try some of this for yourself. In your own way. So that you won't think I'm trying to influence you any more than to make you question your deepest held beliefs.
I'll leave you with my favorite Aristotle quote:
"It is the mark of an educated mind, to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it"
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Jump in the discussion.
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