How Truthful Is Truth? — 1

Here’s to satisfy an urge to ramble…before August ends. To introduce the good stuff (if it’s any good though), let’s hear what Fred Rogers has to say:

It could be one of the cons of truth-curiosity, but three months ago, I was tired. With inconsistencies within some truths I knew, with all the noise in a confused and unsatisfied world, it was difficult — and still is — to not be tired.

At some point, being human felt hopeless.

Two months later, I found something interesting. Some truth in a tweet.

Well, Sara’s tweet was a perfect take. Until I saw replies to it.

At first reading, Clover’s response was a snark. lol. It came off loud… as an attack. But rethinking what she said, isn’t that how conversations work? I mean, while it’s unnecessary to ask certain questions, I’m not omniscient to know what you’ve chosen to keep private except you did already tell me. So, Clover was also right. Another truth.

And here’s something more.

Nuances this time. This user, @yourmumm69, replying to @theramblingfool (under Sara’s tweet), insists that it’s not improper asking people why they don’t drink. Russel Busch (@theramblingfool) was supporting Sara, adding that people keep away from alcoholic drinks either because of past experiences (theirs or that of a family) or on religious grounds — and that it is “not great” to loudly ask about it “in front of a lot of people.”

To @yourmumm69 though, there are more reasons why people don't drink alcohol, and wanting enlightenment might be an enquirer’s reason for asking, which isn’t an offense. “I don’t think it’s offensive to ask. We might learn something from them.”

Whether you’re in support or against her post, if you go on to read responses to Sara’s tweet, to feed your mind with people’s opinions and reasoning— plus if you overthink as I do — you’ll be worn out in your mind; you’ll be tired.

To draw the curtain on this for now:

• Let’s assume that a statement like Sara’s satisfies my belief of what truth is (without my reading or thinking through the responses), would it mean that I’m wrongly comfortable in an echo chamber — only wanting, hearing, knowing, and validating what makes sense to my reality and reasoning?
• In contrast, wouldn’t it be a rabbit hole of some sort (at least on Twitter), to dig for every other truth available? If I choose to allow or accept all possible nuances to be truthful, to what end and for how long?

What we want to attain is confident humility: having faith in our capability while appreciating that we may not have the right solution or even be addressing the right problem. That gives us enough doubt to reexamine our old knowledge and enough confidence to pursue new insights.

— Adam Grant, Think Again