We Are All Biased

What matters is how we deal with it

a man covers his eyes with his hands inside of a giant bubble, paying no attention to the landscape around him, sleek, dreamy, digital art — by DALL·E

We are all biased. What matters is how we live with this unfortunate circumstance. It is not an easy choice, or rather, none of the choices at our disposal is easy.

We can go with the constant fluctuation of ideas and beliefs, floating on shaky ground and facing relentless contradictions. Alternatively, we can ground ourselves on solid foundations that negate the bias and reassure us that only we are right. While the latter may seem the easy way out, I don’t think it is the case: many who choose this path carry a heavy burden, as though conscious of the false nature of their stance. Repeating a lie a thousand times does not make it true, but it does ingrain it in the liar’s mind. Many victims of this path tend to argue that the world is against them. They aren’t entirely wrong: reality always appears determined to refute anything that does not attempt to explain it but replace it with fiction.

Some people choose to shroud themselves in an aura of mystery. We might find their puzzling contradictions interesting and wonder at the source of their logic. Indeed, the behaviour could falsely hint at critical thinking when the only critical aspect is their condition: a bunch of random but rigid ideas calcified in a brain that is out of shape and must still defend itself against all external evidence. I often…