Confirmation bias can be an ugly thing.
No more is this true than when people of other political (or otherwise) persuasions end up railing against your party, your values, your ideas, etc. Yes, it’s ugly when they don’t understand you, don’t care to understand you, don’t care to understand protestors or mobs or the complex situations that plague people who are different than them.
But you needn’t look to your neighbours to see the unreflective ugly that is a poorly acted-on confirmation bias. You can see it in a mirror and in your heart if you care to look.
That’s right, my friend. You are likely just as guilty of confirmation bias (and a slew of other cognitive missteps or sins) as they are. Maybe more.
But look on the bright side. At least there’s something you can do about your own biases.
Sure, you could write provocative tweets or Instagram stories and piss some people off. That would feel good. You could write an angry, critical op-ed on your blog or even for some other news outlet. Maybe you could even host a long-form podcast or video where you go in-depth as to why they’re wrong. Perhaps these things have their place – obviously I think something of them or I’d never watch them or write them as I do. I still may.
But for now, so soon after the Capitol Hill protests or mob or whatever it was, I’m taking a moment to thank God for the relative peace we have in the Western world, for the society that has even allowed for me to have this laptop and host this blog and have the freedom to say what I’d like without fear of being locked up (for now… I hope). I’m taking a moment to reflect on all that’s been transpiring over the last few years, months, and days, considering how I might be wrong, and considering how I might contribute to a fruitful conversation, hopefully devoid of blurting, hurtful words, inaccurate arguments, and, well, short-form stupidity. All of which are tempting, little of which are helpful.
