The average citizen needs to instinctively approach complex information with the intent of understanding not only the information presented, but with active critical thinking required to determine if the platform presenting the information is reliable and trustworthy
If you read a story about a sad person in a room with blue curtains blocking out the sun, maybe itâs nothing. But if you come at it ACTIVELY SEARCHING for more, you may come away with a lesson
maybe the author was saying the sad person could move the curtains and is choosing not to, thereby saying that we as individuals have some control over our own happiness but are either unwilling or unable to exert our control, which could teach you about how feelings work or how to help others and yourself
maybe the author didnât mean to say that, but it makes sense anyway, and you learn to view complex situations differently. You are literally building up the structures inside your brain that make you more analytical, more insightful, develop better and faster thinking skills
But if youâre never encouraged to even consider the possibility, if you take the curtains at face value and never challenge it, never consider the possibility of metaphor or symbolism, you DONâT grow those networks.
Without those skills and connections, you donât learn to be inquisitive and make connections and you donât learn how to seek out proof or fact-check yourself. You donât learn how to recognize yourself when youâre wrong, or how to check if youâre right.
So you take everything at face value. Is Hamlet a reliable narrator? Who gives a shit. Is this sales rep pitching a legitimate product that will change countless lives for the better, or are they scamming me? Well, no way to find out, guess I have to listen to hem or the influencers they paid off or your random ass neighbor who says itâs a government listening device.
And the VERIFICATION part- finding evidence to support your theories!
Have you noticed how many people are buying into wild conspiracies now? That Antarctica is actually a giant wall of ice circling the earth, that the earth itself is flat, that vaccines cause autism and wifi is mind control?
Those are coming from people who either KNOW theyâre lying for a profit, or from well-intentioned people who know how to be inquisitive and critical but never learned how to SEEK OUT AND EVALUATE RELIABLE DATA FROM RELIABLE SOURCES.
Being able to understand the message behind Catcher in the Rye might not benefit you in the short term, but itâs essentially a series of push-ups to strengthen your brain so you donât take fucking horse dewormer to kill a virus cause the president told you to
The world is starting to see average citizens, most alarmingly in the USA, graduating and going into life without these skills, and younger generations not seeing anything wrong with that
Which is terrifying much in the same way as getting into the back of an Ăber and seeing the driver pull out his phone to Google âwhat is brakesâ while going 110 on the freeway
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