Cognitive Blinders and Dissonance: Which World Do You LIVE In?

Sometimes, I really don't know what to think.

That is to say, I don't know what to think about the world, and the people in it, and those people's opinions and how they form those opinions.

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Disturbing...?

I would go so far as to say that I am even alarmed by the number of people out there — and please do keep in mind that this is just my perception, simply based on my own observations — who seemed almost obsessed with needing something absolutely impossible to be ”real” in order for their sense of existence and world to continue making sense.

To use a hopefully non-offensive analogy, it's like somebody insisting that it's raining even though it's sunny and there's not a cloud in the sky... but they continue to insist that it's raining because their entire sense of reality is dependent on their meteorological model holding true and that model is saying that under current conditions, it's raining.

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The "Right" to Our Ideas...

Now, these days we tend to label such... deviations... as ”free thinking” and ”alternative” which I find to be sort of ironic because the people who cling to their particular perceptions are often outspoken critics of such things as our modern ”political correctness” and yet pretty much everything they're showing the world could very easily be placed under the greater heading of ”mental illness.”

Which brings me down inside that uncomfortable topic of human ”double standards” which seem to exist no matter which side of difficult argument or political leanings you find yourself on.

I get to hold this belief which I believe to be reasonable and factual, but you wanting to hold YOUR belief which you believe to be similarly reasonable and factual in fact makes you a hysterical nutball.

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It's actually that divergence that actually makes less sense to me than the actual content of some of the crazy arguments I hear made, on a daily basis!

One of the strange side effects that seems associated with certain kinds of cognitive blindness is the way people will look high and low to uncover whatever ”evidence” — be that scientific or pulled out of thin air — to establish something that seems like credible proof that their point of view is actually a fact.

Around where I grew up, that was called "a rationalization," and not actual evidence.

I can't help but picture the classic fable of the seven blind men touching an elephant and being asked to describe what they are touching... and so, they come up with seven different perspectives of what the elephant is, all dependent on what part of the elephant they're touching.

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Which, in turn, brings to mind a favorite quote from a long time ago, typically attributed to 19th century French author and philosopher Gustave Flaubert:

”There is no truth. There is only perception.”

Perhaps it's ultimately not that important whether a person believes that their headache is caused by a pollen allergy... or having been visited by aliens who put an implant in their brain... as long as nobody's being harmed by the process.

What is "real," anyway?

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great remainder of your week!

How about YOU? What do you think "reality" is? How do people arrive at their opinions? Are things that make NO sense to anyone aside from the "beholder" necessarily a sign of insanity? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

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Created at 20220524 00:30 PDT

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