Arrival at Truth

'Do your own research' spoken by those not knowing how or not bothering to. Scattered 'facts' that aren't so, or so vague as to be undiscernable, assertions without support, or are immaterial to belief. Preferring bullshit to facts and disregard or denial of inconvenient ones. 'Arguments' replaced by labels, slogans, and name calling. Constructing 'theories' devoid of evidence or logic. Trusting in people over facts. Failure to vet sources or not even realizing the need to. Failure to deal with uncertainty, asserting knowledge without evidence. Failure to be critical, testing beliefs. Failure to be coherent, maintaining conflicting, inconsistent beliefs. Reasoning from the desired conclusion. Equating beliefs and wishes with facts, or placing other values ahead of truth. All these can lead us away from truth. Truth must be valued over our biases, errors, and wishes, if we are to seek it over our assumptions, our need to be right, and our desires. Truth must be sought if it is to be found. We must seek actual facts and follow them, their basis, and conditions under which they are true. We need to rely on the who, what, where, when, why, and how, specifics, not on indeterminate, untraceable, vague assertions. We must be critical, most of all to what we want to be true. We must examine the consistency of evidence with itself and other knowledge. We must vet our sources, their origin, interests, motives, expertise, evidence, consistency, and track record. Those with poor track records must be discarded in favor of better ones. Trust must be earned and kept. Fake questions and fake questioners, false claims and false claimants, lies and liars, alike must be rejected.