Not seeking out contradictory information is BS.
Everything that we complain about when we say social media is an echo chamber, can be boiled down to the fact that we don’t want to look at facts and information that don’t support out point of view.
When I am presented with information that doesn’t support my point of view I embrace it. I see it as a chance to further refine the evidence-based life that I try to lead. Do I like being wrong? I am not attached to an opinion that I had incomplete facts with to begin with. I am often wrong, and if I am wrong again that is ok. People who are always right are arrogant jerks, who don’t know how ignorant they are. They are stuck trying to defend an image of themselves that can’t possibly be true.
I was raised Catholic and I shared before that I was pro-life until I read a book about the experiences of women who had abortions. Their stories were heartbreaking and it wasn’t because of their faulty character or lack of morals. If we had been any of those women I would have made the same choice. I cried when I read that book. I realized that I was wrong and that women deserve bodily autonomy. If men could get pregnant, abortion would not be an issue.
When you don’t consider other points of view than your own, your life is narrow and limited. Your world is so small and so unhappy. The happiest people can empathize and sympathize with others without needing to believe what another person believes. Listening is not a weakness is it a strength that people have. I have discovered that amazing things happen when you listen to others, including yourself.
What does listening to yourself mean? It means that when you encounter information that conflicts with your beliefs rather than dismissing it immediately ask yourself “Why do I feel threatened by what I am learning?” Ask yourself why knowledge is a bad thing, and why ignorance is preferable. Do we really want to go back to the middle ages when people were ignorant and we didn’t have the technology we have today? Ignorance can be maintained only by an active and willful disregard for facts and the truth. The fastest way to the truth is to seek out contradictory information and challenge your assumptions.