We live in an age of misinformation, but it’s not always on purpose. Sometimes we hear things or come to conclusions that end up becoming fact in our heads. Other times it can be malicious with intent to deceive or subvert. Sometimes it’s in the middle.
Where do you draw the line with regards to people being wrong about things and feeling compelled to correct or respond to their wrongness?
Am I wrong?
As Confucius once put it, “it does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not go backwards.”
If they provide zero sources yet claim to be correct.
I’m a pedant, it’s not that I always want to be right, I just don’t want to be wrong. Happy to be corrected. :)
Accepting any source as proof of correctness can be a problem in of itself.
Yeah, I always search for a meta-analysis of the subject.
I’ve seen far too many promising studies that get media hype and then nothing
Same here. I find that those with no critical thinking skills are quick to say ‘oh you just can’t stand to be wrong’–no! I have the self-respect to educate myself and not spread misinformation.
I have a friend who seems to believe any bullshit he reads on Facebook and “wellness” sites. It’s exhausting how he brings up this moronic shit and then acts smug that I’m “not open to other points of view.” It’s honestly pushed us apart and I just don’t have patience or sympathy for people who constantly fall for obvious misinformation. I’ve just settled on keeping those people at a distance for my own sanity.
It’s human nature to be confident in your knowledge. We have an innate need to know what is, what was, and what will be. Uncertainty creates anxiety and discomfort.
That’s why discovery is so thrilling. But it’s also why people cling to the ideas we make up to explain things. It’s why our memories feel like facts, when we know from experience that they can be flawed or even manipulated.
Everyone reacts differently to being wrong, and will react differently to being challenged on what they believe to be true. There is no line, because every situation, every person, is different.
In those situations, I try to take a moment and empathize with the person who is wrong, and consider how they feel about what they believe. Is it an emotional topic? Something they are passionate about? Is it an important thing to get right, or is it an inconsequential bit of trivia?
What sort of person are they? Are they concerned with their appearance of authority or competence? Will they think you are helping or attacking them?
Usually when you factor in the nuance, the answer is obvious. Sometimes it isn’t, though, and you just have to make a judgement call and see how it goes. You might get it wrong, and that’s OK.
To the point at which one is offered real, expert, and/or verifiably backed information contrary to one’s position. Then it is no longer necessary to listen to an incorrect opinion. One certainly can be entitled to an opinion, but they are not entitled to the recipient of that opinion accepting it.
Offer the information one time, then let it go. There’s an often repeated phrase that “you cannot reason a person out of a position that they did not use reason to get themselves into”. There’s no point in continuing to engage with someone who has willfully rejected the readily available correct information and actively sought out BS. The facts are out there. What people have taken lifetimes to study, is verifiable in real-world application, craft intelligent and understandable results, checked against peers’ work, had peers check their work is the truth until better evidence arrives.
It’s a slippery slope if you engage with someone who is loaded with wrong opinion, it’s likely all they will do is butwhatabout their opponent. They will not argue in good faith. The opponent will do their best to offer the most correct information they know and decline to offer facts of which they are unsure of; the butwhatabouter will proceed until they encounter a gap in knowledge or fact and pounce, declaring victory, because to them the absence of contrary knowledge is as good as victory.
Useful idiots that broadcast misinformation are a weapon in your enemy’s arsenal.
I am never wrong. If God herself came down and told me I was wrong, he is wrong.
