The danger of not thinking critically
I have witnessed an alarming upturn in dangerous social trends and bizarre belief systems in the six years I have been writing for Palmer Report. Flat earthism, the anti-vaccination movement, climate change denialism (and its anaemic political twin of “greenwashing”) are some examples. They aren’t only problems in and of themselves, but are symptoms of a growing general move toward anti-intellectualism and hostility to mainstream science in America and across the world.
Anti-intellectualism promotes scepticism toward perceived authority while demanding that people follow demagogues. People who fall into this area of thinking paradoxically make unreasonable critical demands for evidence on the body of knowledge produced by tens of thousands of scientists operating all over the world in every kind of government, and in the private and public sectors. Yet they place absolutely no scrutiny on the figures that feed them their paranoid narrative. Once their demand for evidence is met, it is “forgotten” and asked all over again, often in the form of a meme.
An example of this phenomenon is one question that is still asked, over and over on social media: when Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon, who was there with him filming his descent down the ladder? The answer is, of course, no one was there filming it. The video feed came courtesy of MESA, that is, the Modularized Equipment Stowage Assembly. It was an automatic camera assembly that swung out from the side of the lunar lander and was operated by remote control.
Problem solved, right? Wrong. The questioner never says, “Gee, thanks, I didn’t know that! If I was wrong about that, and the answer is so easy, maybe I’m wrong about other things, too!” Instead they ask, with growing hostility, “Oh yeah? Well who was filming Neil Armstrong coming down the ladder from far away then?” Answer: that wasn’t Armstrong coming down the ladder, that was Buzz Aldrin being filmed by Armstrong who had already descended the ladder. You know, when it was filmed by the MESA assembly I already told you about?
Then another answer to another question is demanded. Meanwhile the answers to the previous two questions have been forgotten, and will soon be asked all over again. By the same person. No fooling.
Next time the question will be asked of someone who doesn’t know the answer. And they will think, “Hmm, interesting, something fishy is going on here …”
The inability to learn answers to questions that are demanded with extreme hostility contributes to a toxic environment that is ideal for demagogues. It is therefore no accident that Republicans are openly hostile to books and education. For example, flat earthers are now merging with moon hoaxers, and both groups are increasingly overrepresented by MAGA Republicans.
But those of us on the left are not immune. I was shocked to see how many fellow anti-Trump people immediately embraced the absurd theory that the Trump assassination attempt was “rigged,” and almost immediately began passing around their “thinking” in meme form. Exaggerations, misinformation and out and out lies were disseminated uncritically without an ounce of fact-checking. Sometimes it pays to step back, take a deep breath and remember one of Carl Sagan’s favourite words: “Perhaps.”
The problem is many of these bizarre beliefs slot in comfortably with what we want to believe. For example — and I won’t go into too much detail here — there is a weird rumour (accompanied by memes and songs) circulating on social media about JD Vance and certain, ah, living room furniture. It isn’t true, of course, and actually started life as a joke that the joker thought no one would believe. Well, it was believed all right.
Now, I am not going to waste any of my precious time trying to rehabilitate the reputation of JD Vance. The man is a piece of shit. But the ease with which the rumour circulated and is still going strong today is troubling. A similar untrue and bizarre rumour began back in the 80s concerning the actor Richard Gere. The rumour has calmed down a bit but has never died.
Before you find all this funny I would caution you to hope that such a thing never happens to you. You can scream denials from your rooftop 24/7 and they will go largely unheeded. The speed of light is nothing compared with the speed of ignorance.
So what’s the answer? I don’t know. I have one or two ideas, but ignorance is a powerful force and very difficult to combat. Much of the ignorance is being acquired by the young, and that is terrifying enough.
Should critical thinking be taught in schools? Absolutely. Education is always a good answer to ignorance. The reason colleges and universities are so universally reviled as “hotbeds of communism and liberalism” by Republicans is because people who spend a lot of time learning get in the habit of thinking, and thinking is the enemy of bigotry and demagoguery. Despite what they may tell you, Republicans love bigotry and demagoguery.
But the actual answer lies with you. Individually we must fight the tendency to accept everything we hear with uncritical gullibility. But there’s a subtlety here. We must also learn to discern the difference between a plausible theory and bullshit. For example, 1 x 1 does NOT equal two. There is no such thing as a Deep State. Vaccines are proven lifesavers. The September 11 attack was not an inside job.
In short, all extraordinary claims must have extraordinary evidence before we begin to accept that they may be true — not after. And we must fight the tendency to automatically believe absurdities. If you can’t control the impulse to believe absurdities within yourself, you have no business complaining when it inconveniently manifests in others. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.