The Real Outliers: Independent Thinkers

In the past few years I have become acutely aware of the hypocrisy emanating from individuals on both the right and left sides of the aisle.

The faults that are seemingly unforgivable in one person are suddenly attributes in another. The same decision made by two different people is interpreted differently depending on who the decision-maker is. If one leader says, “We are all morally obligated to wear pink on Wednesdays,” the people wear pink and shun those who don’t. If the same leader says, “Pink is an immoral color that has no place in modern wardrobes” those people accuse all who wear pink of being vile and stupid. As long as the speaker waves the banner of their party, he or she can spout any amount of nonsense and the people will listen (and agree).

What we seem to be experiencing in our country— no, in our world— is a deficit in independent, rational thinkers. We are lacking people who will look with a critical, discerning eye at the actions of people on both sides of the aisle and make judgements and decisions on the basis of their rationality. To be clear, the mark of an independent thinker does NOT include regurgitating half-baked opinions of pseudocelebrities whose only credentials are a 500k+ Instagram following and one time attendance at a political rally. It also does not include drawing an opinion from the comments on Fox News posts, uncited buzzfeed and nowThis videos, anything from Milo Yiannopolis, or the post on foreign policy that your neighborhood hippy shared when he was tripping on acid.

Today, I’m urging you to do better. Fact-check everything. Think critically. Amongst the uninformed masses, be an outlier.

Via Daily Prompt: Outlier