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It's a serious question. And in the proliferation of news and events that has hit you lately, it is IMHO getting more important than ever.
What made me open this thread is that old moon landing debate. But it also could be anything we heard about Trump this morning. Doesn't matter.
Now, re moon landing – several months ago I repeated my argument below a youtube video and it was not based on my knowledge on astrophysics or expertise in space engineering. Which are, both of them, non-existent. But you can't say that most of debaters have any, either.
So, what I was relying on is what I always try to use – logic and common sense. I said Russians would have laughed NASA out of existence if NASA had faked that landing. They would have been laughing to this very day. In the time of cold war and all that race and espionage, wouldn't they have found out about it.
This of course couldn't save me from the attack of you tube „experts“ . Now, since I am in the group of those who think offence is more taken than given and am also not too attached to those of my opinions that can't be based on the knowledge of the field, I just let it slide with a thought – when guys like Musk start talking about fake Moon landing, I'll reconsider.
But the whole thing left me with this question – how do people choose sources they trust.
We can't be experts on most of the things we hear on daily basis.
We can't witness practically any of that.
We need reliable sources.
How do we find them?
Last edited by switchtoecig; 12-07-2017 at 09:15 AM..
Accepting or rejecting based on evidence is possible only when you are ABLE to assess the evidence. Sometimes to be able to assess the evidence, you need to be an expert. You can't be expert at everything. So, in case you aren't one, but you find the issue important, how do you choose who to trust?
Basically you can dismiss most liberal claims... they don't even make sense...
Ha that is true. Yesterday I saw a posting on facebook from a liberal "friend" that followed his daily bashing of Trump posting. The posting was from a feel good group about how we need to accept and love kids that have developmentally or physical issues. Ok that is fine, the kids can't help it and we do need to be more accepting of them... I wanted to write back that Trump was a child one time and some might say he still is so shouldn't charity, good will and acceptance be channeled his way?
I say it is Liberal hypocrisy to be accepting of one group and hating of another.
As for believing, I don't.
How can we believe the media, the Left, the Right, polling or news? Everyone is pushing their own agendas and a smart person will bob along through the tsunami of earth shattering hype. To believe one way or another is to buy into the hysteria and we have seen examples of this from the Liberals and their Trump Derangement Syndrome.
It is not healthy.
A smart person takes everything they see and hear with a grain of salt and listens to multiple news sources before forming an opinion.
I do not trust more than about five people on this planet. The rest get anything ranging from mild skepticism to complete distain. I am will to apply less skepticism to the left than to the right wing politicians. The left I consider sincere, with a few exceptions, but deluded while the right wing are a bunch of greedy shysters using everything from god to patriotism to feed their bank accounts and/or egos. The Donald is the Master of doing both. Using his Presidency to steal and gain endless ego stroking from his minions.
I trust those who have shown themselves to be trustworthy.
Quote:
Accepting or rejecting based on evidence is possible only when you are ABLE to assess the evidence. Sometimes to be able to assess the evidence, you need to be an expert. You can't be expert at everything. So, in case you aren't one, but you find the issue important, how do you choose who to trust?
By expecting the worse while hoping for the best. Recognize that the monoculture liberal group think promoters are chasing you with butterfly nets. Know that your life depends on out running them.
Accepting or rejecting based on evidence is possible only when you are ABLE to assess the evidence. Sometimes to be able to assess the evidence, you need to be an expert. You can't be expert at everything. So, in case you aren't one, but you find the issue important, how do you choose who to trust?
Look for consistency. Look for independent verification. Look for lack of self-interest. Look for consensus among actual experts. Look for clear separation of facts and opinion. If a source is willing to retract a false story, that's a point in favor. If a source is consistently claiming to have evidence of wildly controversial ideas, that's a major point against.
That's how the BBC is more trustworthy than Alex Jones and NASA is more trustworthy than Bill Kaysing.
As for believing, I don't.
How can we believe the media, the Left, the Right, polling or news? Everyone is pushing their own agendas and a smart person will bob along through the tsunami of earth shattering hype. To believe one way or another is to buy into the hysteria and we have seen examples of this from the Liberals and their Trump Derangement Syndrome.
It is not healthy.
A smart person takes everything they see and hear with a grain of salt and listens to multiple news sources before forming an opinion.
Ok, we're going somewhere with this. Let's say you hear two opposed versions of an event listening to the multiple sources you mentioned. Like the example I gave above. And I'm trying to avoid anything related to left/right, Trump/antiTrump bcs it leads us nowhere. I tried to use common sense and logic - how would people (the other side) behave? Who profits from this? What's in it for them? What are the risks? I try to use what I know about psychology, history, sociology (not an expert either, but still know something). This is basically what I do whether I'm trying to choose my sources or assess an event or events myself. What do you do?
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How Do You Choose Who And What to Believe?
