Crony Beliefs | Melting Asphalt

In a culture where changing your mind is encouraged, new findings spread quickly through the system, and all it takes is one member discovering a falsehood for the whole group to reject it. When disagreement is encouraged, new ideas can be tested as they’re being formed, in real-time, combining the knowledge-building efforts of each person into a s

There is a different set of facts on every subject for each man. Society cannot wait to find absolute truth. It cannot weigh every issue carefully before making a judgment. The result is that the so-called truths by which society lives are born of compromise among conflicting desires and of interpretation by many minds. They are accepted and intole

This gives us the first rule of thumb for contrarianism: if your society engages in practices which cause harm to others, and offers elaborate reasons as to why this is justifiable, that’s where you might investigate the claims of the fringe weirdos.