When does critical thinking matter and when it doesn’t
So here’s a funny story. I found myself about a half a year ago in completely new and unusual circumstances — I’ve decided to hop on a plane and move to Germany to begin studying, and eventually get into Medschool in the begning of 2022! Exciting!
Well, of course this wasn’t at all that ‘spontaneous’. I’ve weighed my options carefully. So what’s my story? I am 23 year old freelance programmer/UIUX designer/language enthusiast/photography enthusiast, Israeli born to a soviet-union family, which came to Israel at the early 90' from (then Soviet) Latvia. That’s it!
Essentially i’ve always been taught to keep an open mind. The sentence that mostly guided my life right from my early teenage years up until today is something my sister would say each now and then – “if I wanted to know how to f*ck I would do it on the street infront of everyone”. This sentence basically says let me do me and you do you. Everybody does what they want to do, and I do what I want to do. If I would ever look for advice i’d ask. It’s that simple.
Back to the track. Back in the days of my military serveices I became more aware to a subject that I never found that enlightening before, but it shocked me, how many people fell for it — I obiovusly am speaking about conspiracy theories. I’ve honestly could never believe, how people can trust the sources of such baseless stories which govern fantasy at some occations. Having no anchor in reality nor any scientificall basis and often prefer to prey on other people’s fears and prejudices in order to force a certain point of view. This scared me, so I forced myself not to get into this, because I saw the stories and I could not believe the idiocy that flourished there. Just to name a few:
The earth is obviously flat
Did you know there is an entire community of people dedicated to the support of the belief that the earth is not round but rather — flat? The numbers vary per country. But surely enough according to a 2019 survey done in Brazil by Statista found that more then 11 million people believe such a concept to be real (https://www.statista.com/statistics/1131128/flat-earth-brazil/).
The most alarming thing isn’t Brazil though, but rather other regions in the world, which have a large and growing community of people dedicated exactly for the cause of expanding the belief that the earth is flat — The Flat Earth Society (https://www.tfes.org)
Essentially according to the flat theory, the earth is not at all round but this is rather a “false truth” which is being imposed on mankind by our governments. “Fact” is, that earth is flat and moves upwards at great speeds, thus creating the illusion of gravity. Oh yea, gravity does not exist either. And now you may ask yourself, well howcome the water does not spill to the sides? Well this is because there’s a great wall of ice which sorrounds or lovely earth-disc. This wall of ice is being constantly monitored and guarded, hence there are no photographs or modern sightings of this.
Worth watching a documentary on the subject — Behind the Curve. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behind_the_Curve
Have you heard about The Clintons?
Yes, these Clintons — Bill and Hillary Clinton. The theory follows the same line of baseless and argumentative statements, which follows that the Clintons are essentially responsible for the assassinations of about 50 of their associates.
Finnland does not exists
So this is crazy, crazier then the earth thing. This theory has roots in the mid 20th century during the Cold War era. The theory states that the Soviet Union and Japan shared some information with one another that there is essentialy a stretch of the baltic sea between the Soviet Union and Sweden. In order to keep all this area for themselves for fishing purposes they have decided to cover up this area of sea by spreading the idea that there is a landmass in that area. The Japanese could come and fish there without any worry regarding international law as long as Russia gets it’s share as well.
Where’s the reasoning behind this? People always find ways.
According to one reason that “proves” this theory is that Finnland isn’t that of a tourism centre. Meaning not that many people visit it or let alone know about it at all.
Another suggests that Nokia is actually a Japanese cover up, to help the Russians transfer their fish via the Trans-Siberian railway, which would explain why Japan is the largest importer of Nokia’s brands (presumably).
Or another one that says, that Finland isn’t even a real name. As it comes from ‘fin’ as in fish fins, naturally ignoring the fact that the finnish name for Finalnd is “Suomi” and that there’s a rich and beautiful language as Finnish.
The list goes on and on and on. The whole list of conspiracy theories counts more than a hundred. Some are more known to the public for example like Q-Anon or Deepstate theories. Things that are less known like Technology suppression or Global warming is a myth circulate as well amongt many of the globes population (no pun intended!). And of course the hottest cookie in the oven for our time is that COVID-19 does not exists! Wonderful times we’re living in.
My point being, that when I’ve arrived to Germany i’ve naturally began talking to different people, with a different mentality, different state of mind and different thoughts, naturally. Some identified themselves as those who believe that COVID does not exist and that it is all our governments trying to suppress us and take our freedom to enslave us. This is the moment for me where I began to be a tad bit weary of all this.
Now I do want to state one very important fact. This naturally does not concern Germany specifically. People like these are found all accross the world. In every country, in every city. They can be your neighbors or even your friends!
You see, being able to think freely and do whatever one’s mind desires is good, it’s freedom, those are basic rights, it’s the gift of modern society to the simple person. And I do truly believe that critical thinking is important. One must and should not believe everything that one hears or sees on TV, Newspapers or hears tales from friends or what not. One should make his own research and observations to prove one’s belief. But what happens when science itself becomes our enemy and is no more believed by the people?
My question is a little bit ethical and I encourage you, the reader, to give this some thought. When do we put the line on freedom of thought and act? Are the latest anti-covid/anti-mask/anti-vaccination demonstartion, which rage across the America, Europe, Asia and Africa not a big enough warning sign for us to act? Are we even allowed to act against the people? If yes how? Where’s the line goddamn it??
This troubles me a great deal in the last few months. Thanks to the many vaccines that have been or are in circulation we have successfully eradicated diseases that would’ve otherwise killed millions. Diseases such as smallpox, polio, mumps, measles and Rubella are all diseases which have been declared as eliminated only thanks to vaccines. Statistics and science prove this day and again — but for some this isn’t enough, and the critical mind of those people works overtime to prove fantasies and fairytales that sadly exists only in the metaphysical world far far beyond the bounds of our rich immagination.
With these words I end my line of thought here and leave you with the following question, sadly ananswered. Critical thinking has brought us scientific breakthroughs, leaps in technology, architecture, art and medicine. Yet at times it seems that some people wish to overwork their minds and critisize even proven facts. Those people often end up spreading misinformation, or as we know it today fake news, which ends up causing a lot of damage to the very ones who are trying to help. Where do we put the line on freedom of thought? When do we stop thinking critically?
“Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.” Albert Einstein during his visit to Boston in 1921, commenting on collage education.
