Kurt R.A. Giambastiani

Critical thinking is at an all-time low.

Do you believe that? I just made it up.

But it feels true. Especially after this week.

This week I’ve seen a rash of posts, all expounding strongly worded views with the utmost confidence. Here! See this picture/statistic? This is what it means to you! Aren’t you outraged?

Sources for these have been other bloggers, online journalism, and internet memes, and in each case the material has been misconstrued, taken out of context, hyped for the sake of a headline, or just plain fabricated.

Why does this rile me up? Because I was taught to think for myself.

I was taught to think, not to take it all on faith. I was taught that the phrase “No aspirin is stronger than Bayer,” doesn’t mean that Bayer is the strongest; it means that there are others that are just as strong as Bayer.

I don’t know if my upbringing was unusual, or we stopped teaching this to our kids, but either way, it made for a maddening week. And it’s only Thursday.

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