I’m not one to do new year’s resolutions, but there is something everybody is guilty of, and can work on reducing this upcoming year: ignorance. Too many of my colleagues show a certain level of cognitive dissonance when debating political matters. Both the left- and right-leaning sides are guilty of presenting complicated situations as black and white. This is the “us vs them” trope. Unfortunately for them, real life is much more complicated than that. Except for a few notable exceptions, there is no inherently “good” or “bad” side. If you hold an ideology to heart, be it religious, political, or another type completely, try and analyse it in a logical manner. Many people sacrifice facts in favour of their beliefs, which they hold rigid and firm. This is not to say that proper discourse is futile (that’s another argument altogether), but rather if you want to discuss anything, you should be prepared to accept the facts.
The modern era has been dubbed the "Information Age", but this epoch is a double-edged sword. When information is easily accessible, so is false information. We also live today in a “Misinformation Age”, which makes diligence an unfortunately rare necessity. Most people accept news reports at face value, let their emotions get the better of their rational mind when reading sob stories. Humans are not rational creatures, but we have to be rational in order to culturally and socially evolve. If we let emotions rule over logic and reason, then there is nowhere for proper resolution to conflicts to exist; rather these conflicts stay perpetually ongoing, no end in sight.
If we want to be considered “enlightened” and “progressive”, we first need to allow said progress to not only exist, but constantly recreate itself in a virtuous cycle, a social ouroboros if you will.
But the first step toward that is to critique yourself and your worldview, learn to recognize spin and bias in news, and recognize the threat posed by media illiteracy and ignorance in the grander sense. Ignorance leads to hate and compliance. Knowledge leads to tolerance, acceptance and progress. It will be uncomfortable, but if each person questions their worldview, compares it to the facts, and adjusts their worldview accordingly, it will go a long way toward human progress as a whole: politically, socially, culturally, and individually.
