Everyone has probably heard the advice about making good first impressions, right? That’s because we know how damaging a negative first impression can be and it can be extremely difficult to overcome. Just look at how people continue to believe the President is a racist because of some remarks about the Aug 2017 Charlottesville riots. A critical thinker should understand that once an impression is made about information or evidence, it is harder to change even after it has been proven to be wrong or altered later. Our minds continue to unconsciously associate that assessment intuitively. When initially processing that false information, our minds fit that with our patterns and link it to an explanation of what caused it to happen. That pattern likely fits a preferred conclusion of the situation and our mind focuses on that instead going forward, no longer paying attention to the supporting evidence. In the real-world, most events and situations around us are not so clear-cut and riddled with ambiguity. Rarely is information thoroughly discredited when it is wrong or only partially correct. Imagine that a source has been providing information for some time to explain someone’s actions or we have been using that information to understand why they have been colluding with a foreign power. If that source then turns out to be actually a hostile agent of a foreign power, what do we do then? We immediately start realizing that that previous evidence cannot be trusted. However, we still tend to follow the initial conclusions and even rationalize them, despite that they were entirely based upon lies and misinformation. The reporting around Charlottesville in 2017 is another prime example. You can read the transcript of the President’s remarks here and see what he really said in full context, versus the out of context narrative that is still being peddled by the news media. That polarizing narrative has done more damage by manipulating the uninformed public and actually resulted in the destruction of countless lives. Please give me a “like” and share with others. Thank you for reading.
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