John Droz Jr.
Critically Thinking about a Clash of World Views
Why people can look at the same situation very differently
John Droz jr.
Sep 17
It’s fascinating to see how good people can have diametrically opposite views about the same situation, especially when the facts are largely indisputable. Why don’t the facts determine their response? Because the facts are irrelevant to people with certain world views.
Note: by the “facts” we mean an objective assessment of the totality of the evidence — not just a selective one-sided story. FYI, this is consistent with a genuine scientific assessment, which has four critical elements: 1) Objective, 2) Comprehensive, 3) Transparent, and 4) Empirical.
Here is a popular world view held by many well-intentioned people:
1 – They instinctively give deference to perceived authority (CDC, AMA, IPCC, Dr. Fauci, etc.), as such acquiescence is believed to be a virtue.*
2 – Due to #1, the information provided to the public by these authority figures is accepted basically carte-blanche — taken at face value.
3 – Also due to #1, they are willing to tolerate/overlook a surprisingly large amount of abuse, neglect, dishonesty, incompetence, etc. from such authority figures.
4 – They have an automatically negative response to others who have the temerity to object to bad behavior by authority figures. They believe that such objectors must be malcontents, trouble-makers, disrespectful, etc.
Note that the FACTS have little influence on any of the positions of people with this outlook. Unfortunately, this perspective invites abuse by bad actors who are driven to gain increasingly more control over others, especially those who are deferential to their power grab.
Here is a very different (competing) world view held by other decent people:
1 – They believe that respect is not an entitlement or an endowment, but has to be earned.
2 – The information provided to the public by these authority figures is treated skeptically — which is the scientific way of processing data.
3 – They are not willing to tolerate or overlook mistreatment by authority figures, as it is an immoral violation of their civil rights.
4 – They are genuinely concerned when other citizens report they have been abused by authority figures, and base their response on the evidence.
In this second scenario, FACTS play a much more important role. To these people, doing what’s right isn’t robotically following directives by an authority figure, but rather using our own critical thinking skills to make sound judgments.
So the bottom line is that good people can have opposite reactions to the same situation. Without understanding their different world views, this disparity can be hard to process.
Additionally, if we want to convince a friend to take action about something, it would be helpful to have a clear understand of their world view before you structure your case…
* WHY this is the case in the US is an interesting matter that could be a lengthy discussion. IMO it is partly due because Americans are trusting people; partly due to people instinctively tending to follow the crowd; partly due to current societal matters (e.g. climate change) being too complex for the average citizen to process; partly due to people having full lives already so they are glad to hand off the responsibility of getting involved with societal matters to someone else, etc., etc.
Some other worthwhile insights on this topic: Bonhoeffer‘s Theory of Stupidity (short video) Have You Heard the Buffalo Paradox? (short video) How an Entire Population Becomes MENTALLY ILL (short video) Are You a Good German or a Badass German? A Primer for the Propagandized: Fear Is the Mind-Killer Mass Formation Psychosis (Dr. Malone) United States of Fear: How America Fell Victim to a Mass Delusional Psychosis (book) Climate Hysteria: A Mass Delusion to Demonize CO2 …
Here are other materials by this scientist that you might find interesting:
WiseEnergy.org: discusses the science (or lack thereof) behind our energy options.
C19Science.info: covers the lack of genuine science behind our COVID-19 policies.
Election-Integrity.info: multiple major reports on the election integrity issue.
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