Patriots, It is super important, now more than ever, that we make sure when we are posting anything anywhere that the source is verified and the information is accurate and true. There is a lot of misinformation out there and we don't want to look as stupid as the left by posting lies like them. It is critical for our infrastructure. I've already seen a couple of posts on this site that are totally false. Let's all take part in making sure to keep the facts straight. Friendly Reminder. WWG1WGA!
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I disagree, and here's why.
If people care about the truth, then they will develop their own way of identifying it. This takes an extraordinary amount of effort. Most people never will put in a fraction of the effort needed.
When we are talking with those who are not willing to put forward the effort to find truth, we should use persuasion, rather, sophistry, to influence them.
In reality, they aren't really worth the time it takes to persuade them. It's better to show them than tell them.
We do need people who seek and identify and publish truth, but we also need people who are good at influencing others to proper behavior. And we need to silence those who are influencing others to bad behavior.
boo
That really came out sounding like "lies are ok if they get people to behave" to me. That wasn't probably your intention.
Truth ALWAYS finds a way out. At that points liars will lose much more than they gained by lying.
While I agree with you that we should always seek the truth, how do you talk with people who are so embedded in lies that nothing they think has any semblance of the truth?
For instance, how did we preach Christianity to the pagans? Did we say, "Everything you believe is a lie" or did we start by introducing a new God that was actually effective and actually cared about them? If you know the history, you know that it took generations before most of the erroneous pagan ideas about God were exterminated, and even then...
If I wanted to teach a bunch of kids the actual elements of science, I would start by having them tell me what they think is true and correct, and then running with the logical consequences of their assumptions. Only when they began to believe that maybe their assumptions are wrong can I begin to teach them new ideas about how to think about and interpret the world and then we can start to talk about epistemology and why you must approach reality with the attitude of Socrates "The only thing I know is that I know nothing".
But I would have to start with where they were at.
If I am going to engage someone about the lies about COVID, I would probably have to pretend like COVID is real for a time, before I can begin to hope to have them understand why it doesn't exist.