Discernment is defined as the ability to judge well – and now, more than ever, we desperately need to hone our judgement skills in order to combat the incredible amount of fake news coming from the mainstream media/science/religious establishment and from the clickbait disinfo disseminated through conspiracy theory culture.
If only we were taught proper critical thinking skills during our time in grade school… though it’s quite foolish for us to expect our government to arm our minds with the tools necessary to keep ourselves sovereign and free. It’s in their best interest not to! They like to teach us what to think, not how to think – otherwise known as brainwashing.
So we must take it upon ourselves to strengthen our discernment. It’s often said or thought that discernment is something given to us by an outside force, “pray for discernment” – and to this I disagree, we must be active in the practice. It’s not given, it’s built, honed, forged. Through research, experience, and practical knowledge does our discernment get better, and we can choose to strengthen all of these qualities.
We must take responsibility for ourselves and our own mental acuity, to break free from the mental shackles that dark forces upon this planet are trying to keep us in. By getting ourselves physically, mentally, and spiritually stronger do we have a fighting chance against these principalities and can defeat the disinformation and manipulation plaguing our world.
Don’t forget – the stronger your body is, the stronger your mind can become. Eat well, sleep enough, exercise properly, limit the bad shit. Don’t underestimate your physical health and it’s impact on your mental state.
You’re not just making yourself into a strong, badass, free thinking human for yourself, but humanity depends on you. Where we go one, we go all.
Here are the ten tips of honing Discernment when it comes to verifying mainstream media reports and claims given in the Truth/Disclosure/Patriot movement:
1) Be Mindful Of Your Emotions
Emotions can be one of the biggest barriers to proper critical thinking. When we are engaged in emotional reaction rather than calm, collective reasoning, we can get easily caught up by weak logic and false claims. The primal, fight-or-flight centers of our sub-conscious mind are activated rather than the centers responsible for self-awareness and higher learning. When evaluating something that’s getting you heated, do your best to control your emotions with techniques that work for you, whether that be breathing exercises to stimulate the parasympathetic side of your nervous system (the relaxing aspect of it), a quick meditation, going for a walk, talking through the situation with an unbiased friends, or whatever suits you best.
It also goes to note that social media influencers will use emotionally driven content to suck followers into their grift. I was talking to woman in my Telegram chat the other day who got sucked into this totally fraudulent influencer only because they talked about saving children, and because of that one topic this follower then believed everything else they were claiming and thought they were honest. Have to be careful of that sort of virtue signaling.
2) Identify Sources And Their Legitimacy
Identifying the source, their possible bias, and their credibility is more important than ever. Is the information you’re reading coming from a mainstream source? Where are they on the left/right/independent spectrum? Do they have a vested interest in skewing the narrative of the story? Are they identifying the source for the claims within the article or video, or keeping them anonymous? Are you hearing this claims on social media? Is the social media influencer reliable or not? It’s crucial to reserve judgement about the reliability of an influencer until they prove to you that they can be trusted and don’t have an underlying motivation of money or fame. As described in #1, the virtue signaling can be employed by internet personalities to rope in a following and more of these supposed “honest” and “truth-based patriot” personalities might value money and fame than you think. Same goes for mainstream media outlets, too, in their valuing of money and clicks. The love of money is the root of evil!
3) Question Basic Assumptions
Our society is built with illusion upon illusion, so must set our egos aside and question even our own basic assumptions about what we think we know. Consistently plays Devil Advocate with yourself, “what if I’m wrong about this or that?”. Don’t be emotionally tied to your own belief systems, and be a detached observers of your own thoughts and beliefs. Unfortunately this is very difficult for some people, as their whole sense of self is tied deeply into their belief structures and if they dare question these beliefs, then their self security is shattered. Don’t be this person, you will be just fine questioning your long standing ideas about reality.
4) Search For Other Opinions
One person will never have the absolute truth or be an expert about everything, so searching out aficionados and adding their perspectives to the picture you are creating about a situation can be very helpful. Use caution about the so-called “experts” shoved into your face by establishment media and science though, for these are often experts in nothing but propaganda. The beauty about social media is that it can connect you to individuals and their ideas that we never would have gotten otherwise. Search through comment sections, find alternative blogs, check YouTube videos and social media posts, you could find a plethora of information and opinions in these areas that can be very helpful in analyzing a situation.
5) Remember That You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know
The “Knowns” are either the things we are aware of and understand, or things we are aware of but don’t understand. The “Unknowns” are the things we understand but are not aware of, or the things we are neither aware of nor understand. Wrap your head around that one. So when analyzing a situation, typically we are trying to better understand the things are aware of, or become aware of the things we already understand. That last category, “things we are neither aware of nor understand”, or the things we don’t know that we don’t know, is the difficult one, and what we should remember when going through that deduction process. What am I not even aware of in this situation? Admitting that there could be something out there not even on your radar, can help that detail surface in your consciousness leading to a more full understanding.
6) Even Experts Can Be Misled
On one hand it might be good to seek out the opinion of experts in the field as described in point #4 above, but it should be noted that just because someone is identified as an “expert”, a “doctor”, has a “PhD” next to their name, has a fancy diploma or license, etc., does not make them an all knowing authority on a subject. In fact, that may just mean they have been incredibly brainwashed by the establishment with a particular narrative that is totally ass-backwards. Think of it: when you have an “authority” person paying $100,000+ for their degree and spending 8 years of their life at this expensive university, they have a vested interest in defending the information they were told, no matter how wrong it might be, and their ego will fight to it’s death to avoid being proven wrong. Our “higher learning” system is not designed to build critical thinkers as much as people who are good at memorization and can regurgitate what they’re told. Crucial to remember.
7) Know Your Logical Fallacies
Find a list of logical fallacies and memorize it. Knowing how to identify these fallacies in one’s argument can go a long way is spotting when their argument is failing, and knowledge of them can also help you strengthen your own arguments. While names vary, commonly known and used logical fallacies include the Strawman Fallacy, the Appeal to Authority, the Burden of Proof Fallacy, Ad Hominem Arguments, Circular Arguments, the Bandwagon Fallacy, and others.
8) Demand Details
Too many times a social media post will be made with a grand claim, and loads of people will automatically accept it without any call for proof or evidence that this claim is legitimate. Someone who is being honest with their reporting should be offering necessary and relevant details in their original post, and if they don’t they should be more than willing to offer them when inquired after the fact. This same goes for mainstream media reporting. Who, what, where, when, why, and how? One of the question I ask myself most when seeing internet claims, especially on social media, is “how would they know this?”. An often needed question with how many influencers claims or insinuate that they have some sort of “inside source” giving them information. “Sauce it or toss it” is one of my favorite adages for a lack of evidence to prove the claims people make.
9) The 24 Hour Rule
In this word of clickbait culture, too many mainstream, alternative, and independent journalists value being first over waiting to get their facts straight about a story because they prioritize getting the shares and likes on their posts rather than having content with substance. This has led many information consumers to adopt a wise approach they call a 24 or 48 Hour Rule, meaning one should wait a day or two for more facts to arise about a situation before making any sort of conclusion about it. Having patience and the ability not to let emotions make one jump to any rash judgements can go a long way in making one a successful critical thinker.
10)
Use Different Search Tools
By search tools, I mean more than just search engines like Google or DuckDuckGo, but using a variety of tools like reverse image searching, web archive, and search functions on social media platforms. Reverse image searching on websites like Tineye can go a long way in verifying is photographs are real, where they come from, and whether or not they have been posted on the internet before. The search functions on social media platforms like Twitter or Telegram are highly underrated, and can be used to find quite a bit of information that may not be present on blogs, websites, or in a Google search.
Having patience and persistence is all you really need to create yourself a fine tuned bullshit detector. Be careful with your emotions, be mindful of your beliefs, and be active in sourcing and fact checking the claims you see on the internet. We must build ourselves into the free, critically thinking persons that we are destined to be, no authority, institution, or other individual will do that for us. Our apathy and intellectual laziness is what got us into this mess of a society, and to that let’s say: No More!
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