Choose Evidence, or Be Controlled
by Kevin Reed
Paying attention to evidence gives you true, raw power to understand what is happening and make sound decisions on your behalf. This is true as an individual, a family, group, business, community, nation, or planet.
One thing that seems evident is that the further we go from evidence-based reality, the further off the rails things go.
We learn this as kids early on. “I can fly!” No, you can’t and if you’re going to try, start on the ground not up on a bridge. Reality-based evidence, over the years, guardrails much of our imagination and wonder, but it exists anyway.
Lots of young people party party party until their grades are tanked or they lose a job or a string of relationships. The evidence of reality catches up with all of them in one form or another.
A fashionable term now is “gaslighting” which is convincing a person they’re crazy when they try to use evidence-based observations about another person or group. The key piece is denying evidence to the contrary of the gaslighter’s position. “I’m not acting any differently. You’re imagining it. She’s just a friend.” The gaslighting is a method of controlling another person.
And, on a large scale, entire nations can be controlled by manipulation of factual data. Authoritarians of all stripes create internal and external enemies, repeat blatant lies and disinformation, all to distort reality, consolidate power, and go about their authoritarian business on top of a pacified or petrified group of people.
Authoritarians thrive in an evidence-starved environment because ignoring evidence transfers power from the individual people to those telling them what to think.
A simple example we’re all familiar with is climate change. Exxon was one of the initial entities to discover this trend with actual data, and while they worked to suppress that information early on, other research groups globally were starting to compile the same types of data. Here we are, over 40 years later, and we’re still struggling with the concept. We have literally decades of detailed data supporting the idea across funding sources, private industry, public institutions, universities, research centers, and all applicable scientific disciplines. If a person follows the evidence and scrutinizes sources across those variables just listed, it paints a very clear picture that humans are speeding up climate change within the planet’s own - very much longer - timescales of its own variations in climate. Why are so many people still struggling with this and/or resisting it?
Because a large swath of the population are ignoring this evidence, are listening to what others are telling them instead. As a result, they are allowing themselves to be submissive to others, and ultimately, to be controlled by others.
Instead of taking just a small amount of time to read about the topic (with honest curiosity), vet their sources, validate what they hear across multiple sources, and follow the evidence to a conclusion, they instead make a choice, whether conscious or not, to ignore, write off, or invalidate any evidence they come across for a wide range of potential reasons. But ultimately, it leaves them open to be controlled by others.
When you understand that climate change is a real thing, you can make decisions that benefit you, your family, your business, your nation, and ultimately your species. You can employ basic, sound risk mitigation strategies around where you live, what insurance you have, what products you support, how to protect your business, and so on.
When you don’t follow the evidence that supports climate change, you end up doing things like banning chemtrails. Claiming climate change is a hoax (can you image the complexity of the logistics required for that?). Thinking that Al Gore has some impact on all of it. Believing that wind turbines give you cancer or kill whales (which could be true, of course - given there were some evidence to back the claims up, which currently doesn’t exist). Living and rebuilding in zones that are prone to increased risks of wildfire, flooding, draught, or storms, as the options to insure your home or business dwindle or disappear. You get angry because you’re listening to angry people tell you bad things about climate change that you’ve never verified or confirmed. So they you get angry, based on nothing. And then you end up supporting people who are profiting heavily from you believing that climate change is not real. This gives all the power to them, at your expense. On the part of the person ignoring evidence, it’s submissive and lazy and ultimately detrimental to their own objectives.
We can see the same pattern with the election of each authoritarian. They say things that their support base swallows down submissively without vetting what that politician is saying against available evidence. They are allowing themselves to be controlled. But, like partying until your life falls apart, history shows that those who support authoritarians come to regret it when the reality and evidence of the real world crashes down on them.
The solution that any everyday person like me or you can do when learning about any topic is:
Don’t start from a pre-conceived idea or position.
Focus on evidence, not what people are telling you
When you do listen to people, ensure they’re following evidence that you can confirm independently from a different reliable source
Consume information from a wide array of reliable sources (sources that will formally retract things they get wrong, vs, say, getting sued for lying without a retraction)
Select reliable sources across funding, geography, discipline, industry, and so on. For example, instead of a yelling podcaster telling you what to think about trans people, abortion, or a new virus, select a range of sources that cover the topic to include reliable news sources, medical journals, industry reports about how the thing you’re researching is impacting their business, science publications, institution reports and publications, reliable government reports, and medical professionals who are responsible for caring for other people and are legally accountable. Look at these sources from your country and from other reliable countries as well. You’ll likely get much better information than some angry radio/podcast personality who is trying to get more listeners and market share.
Form a view based on what you have learned from the evidence that you’ve found.
See who’s saying things that line up with what you have learned, and support those people as long as what they say can be independently verified along the way.
Reject the views of people who attack what you’ve learned when they cannot provide evidence to the contrary that support what they’re saying. If they have evidence, then consider it using the same vetting methods you used to form your initial view.
Now you’re in control. If someone is trying to control you by making you angry about something, but you can see clearly that what they’re saying is false, that person will fail to hook you like a fish and reel you into their control.
You have the power. They don’t. The only way a person gets ideological control over you is when you ignore evidence, give in to them, and submit to what they tell you over what you can plainly see.
But hell, don’t take my word for it. Try it out yourself.
