For the last few years, I’ve become default sceptical of the ‘herd’ view.
There’s far too many human errors, agendas – and quite frankly corruption in government, mainstream media and within industries to blindly accept their information.
This naturally led me to find the contrarian view for most things. But I’m realising that this is no better than simply blindly conforming.
The point is to think for yourself. Have an open mind. Challenge what appears the norm.
You might think it’s easier than ever to do that – but it might actually be more difficult than ever. There’s simply so much information available for free (good and bad), and so many conflicting opinions that it quickly gets overwhelming. Often there’s also quite a lot of peer pressure to conform to the majority view.
But, it’s worth the effort. No one has your best interests at heart more than yourself. The information you accept and decisions you make, affect your health, career, family, finances and friends. You owe it to yourself and those around you to take the time and effort to think and make decisions for yourself.
A few examples that quickly come to mind are 1. the food pyramid and 2. early covid vaccine claims. Information on both of these topics has changed and evolved significantly over time. Many of the early mainstream views on these topics have not aged well at all. In fact many were downright lies.
More often than not, putting in the effort to think for myself leads me to a view that is at first contrarian – but then softens to something in the middle. It seems going against the grain has something going for it. In fact, nowadays I worry when my belief is a majority belief. I think that just reflects how broken various mainstream information sources are.
But the point isn’t to conform, be contrarian, or even arrive in the middle. It’s to think for yourself. And then, land where you land – importantly, with your own conviction.
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