The Plague of Illogical Contrarianism

Fun Fact: Just because the governments of the world are corrupt does not therefore mean that your conspiracy theory is true.

This is an all too common line of reasoning these days that's frustrating as heck to try to respond to. It comes up over and over again, not only in internet discussions, but in real-life conversations as well. There's a wave of understandable rejection of the status quo and establishment information going on these days, going viral you could say (in both senses of the word), being spread far and wide due to the easy access of sharing information that is the internet.


Because yes, the governments of the world are to a great extent corrupted. Yes, they've lied and deceived and manipulated the people. Yes, governments and figures of authority in all realms of human society have done horrible things. Yes, the powerful elites are taking advantage of everyone else. And yes, you can't believe everything you hear in the news or read on the internet.

But no, that fact is not actually evidence for your flat Earth theory or moon landing theory or vaccine theory or 9/11 theory or mass shooting theory or depopulation theory or whatever conspiratorial theory you've read about online that may or may not have some validity to it. The fact that there are mean, unethical liars out there, some of whom happen to be in positions of power, is not direct supporting evidence for your theory.

And just because someone does not accept your theory does not therefore mean they are in lock step agreement with all mainstream beliefs and are unthinking brainwashed blinded numbed out sheep pawns of the government powers-that-be blah blah blah.

The illogical contrarianism that's rampant these days is really just the flip side of accepting whatever anyone in authority tells you is true. They're both forms of narrow black-and-white thinking that don't involve much in the way of true logic, sound critical thinking and working with the myriad known facts surrounding a phenomenon to put the pieces of the puzzle together in a cogent way that actually works and synchronizes with the real world.

The absolute rejection of science by so many nowadays is part of that. They're all "authority" and therefore you can't trust any of them. Whatever they say, the opposite is probably true.

Never mind the fact that thousands upon thousands of intelligent, private individuals from around the world, from all classes of society have pooled together a mass of information over the course of centuries based on real-life observations and repeated testing of the physical realm through a rigorous system of checks and balances involving intense critical debate not unlike a pack of wild dogs tearing apart the carcass of someone's scientific analysis to determine if there's any validity to what they're presenting to the world and the scientific community, the result of which has been the creation of countless remarkable and useful (albeit too often flawed due to their side effects of environmental destruction) technological gadgets of magical wizardry that we all use every single day, such as whatever device you're currently utilizing to read this rambling stream-of-consciousness diatribe, which you would not have the joy (or perhaps sorrow or annoyance) of reading if it were not for that very same scientific understanding of how the physical world really, truly works which has resulted in practically every object you see around you (unless you're so lucky as to be somewhere far away from so-called modern civilization, which is likely a very good place to be).

An airplane does not fly safely over the Pacific Ocean at 40,000 feet at 550 miles per hour in 50 degrees below zero temperatures in the dark and find its target destination with perfect accuracy, based on faith or flimsy reasoning or guessing or a general idea of how things might work. The technology we use every day is all the proof you need to know that the "authorities" are right about some things.

Point being: most of what the scientists say is actually true. (I can't say the same for politicians.) Most of what you see on TV actually happened. Very often the mainstream version of events is the truth. All of it should be questioned. A heck of a lot of it is a distraction from what really matters. But rejecting it all is as absurd as accepting it all. And a lack of acceptance for sound logic and established information will not help human society or enable the world to recover from the mess that we've created.

The current understanding of reality is limited, oftentimes misguided and needs to change and evolve. We need new ways of thinking. That does not mean that everything we know is wrong. A heck of a lot of it is right. A lot of it is bullshit. Much valuable information is yet to be discovered. But thinking patterns that discard all established knowledge in favor of embracing the frantic, scattered research of inexperienced amateurs scouring the internet does not serve to advance the very important quest for truth. At best, it takes us sideways. And at worst, it takes us a long ways backwards.