There’s gotta be some kind of deep-seeded protection mechanism in the brain that keeps people making up excuses just to avoid being wrong, because being wrong means their system of beliefs has to be torn down and rebuilt.
Yeah. I mean, I get it. Communities are formed around shared values and beliefs. If they weren’t, those communities would fracture and fall apart and they wouldn’t be communities anymore; and humans die when they’re alone. So changing your belief systems or admitting you’re wrong has an actual, measurable impact on you–on a biological level–making you feel like you’re going to die alone and your genetic line will end. It feels like an existential threat. It’s scary.
But it’s worth it; and in this big, diverse world, it’s possible to find a new community now, where it hasn’t been for most of our species’ history. We’ve grown to the point where we don’t have to follow that deep-brain worry anymore.
When a populist says, “all X are evil!” and you think, “wait, I know an X, that person’s not evil!” you have two options.
Option 1: “…therefore the populist must be wrong!”
Option 2: “…therefore that X I know must just be one of the good ones.”
#2 is short-sighted. Seriously? Of every X in this country, you just happen to know one of the good ones?
But #1 would mean that you were wrong for ever listening to that populist in the first place. So obviously #2 is the choice.
There’s gotta be some kind of deep-seeded protection mechanism in the brain that keeps people making up excuses just to avoid being wrong, because being wrong means their system of beliefs has to be torn down and rebuilt.
Yeah. I mean, I get it. Communities are formed around shared values and beliefs. If they weren’t, those communities would fracture and fall apart and they wouldn’t be communities anymore; and humans die when they’re alone. So changing your belief systems or admitting you’re wrong has an actual, measurable impact on you–on a biological level–making you feel like you’re going to die alone and your genetic line will end. It feels like an existential threat. It’s scary.
But it’s worth it; and in this big, diverse world, it’s possible to find a new community now, where it hasn’t been for most of our species’ history. We’ve grown to the point where we don’t have to follow that deep-brain worry anymore.
Some people don’t agree.