When I was a teenager, thinking for myself was not something I always did. I wasn't a bigot or anything, but there were certain types of thoughts that would fly into my head, and I would repeat them to others as facts, without examining the source of them. I had an awakening one day, when my art teacher, Mr. Rabinowitz, called me on some "fact" I had just spouted. There was a well traveled route in my town where a very strange house was being built. Its roof looked like a Japanese pagoda. "Everyone" knew that the owner had abandoned it after going bankrupt. My teacher asked where I got my data from. I told him- my parents. I found out from my teacher that the house was actually complete and was the second home of an artist friend that he knew. That was one of my first lessons on the fact you can't believe everything that you hear. Interesting that the lesson came from an artist, because artists are famous for thinking for themselves.
My second and more major turn around on the subject was in my early studies of Scientology. Scientology has everything to do with truthful communication and clarifying thought. In a lecture I heard, by L. Ron Hubbard, he explained something I found very useful in thinking for myself. It is far better to confront a subject by studying the subject itself, than to confront and study the opinions of another about the subject. I learned that even further down the scale, people confront and study evaluations about others opinions, and so on.
This reminds me of what is happening in the news. A reporter has an opinion that he states as fact. Others repeat it, so it MUST be true. Someone is interviewed that has a bad opinion of the person or subject being reported on. Well, if they "knew" the person or subject, then it MUST be true.
Consider the source of where your data comes from. Did you see it for yourself? Or did you just read the Cliff Notes?
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