I subject everything I read to scrutiny and try to use the one facility that I have not yet lost.
Critical reasoning.
Not bragging, though it might sound like it. I've been an avid reader since I picked up my first Alphabet book, as far as I can recall the age of 5, by age of 8 I was reading the Odyssey by Homer, the Bible by age 12, my ta…
I subject everything I read to scrutiny and try to use the one facility that I have not yet lost.
Critical reasoning.
Not bragging, though it might sound like it. I've been an avid reader since I picked up my first Alphabet book, as far as I can recall the age of 5, by age of 8 I was reading the Odyssey by Homer, the Bible by age 12, my tastes are eclectic, and aside for about 150 classics, hardly any are fiction. I certainly don't read fiction today.
By and large, even non fiction is actually stilted by peoples beliefs, so I approach everything with caution, and try to filter out fact from belief or opinion. One tool to use is who benefits (cuo bono), but I have my own gold mineof information, 84 years having to cipher the truth from the constant barrage of propaganda.
When I was young, and inexperienced, and even though well read, was still quite ignorant. I was an anti communist conservative, over time my conservatism expanded, beyond my anti communism shameful depths.
It was only a series of circumstances that resulted in my relocation, and found myself in company of old hippies, ex SDS, even weather underground, and as a shop foreman, I found myself enjoying, along with 10 other union offices, the compay of Angela Davis at a lunch.
The result is that I question everything, even those with whom I otherwise agree. For instance I stand for diversity, equality, civil and voting rights, and anti bigotry, but as of late I am sad to report that the Democratic Socialists of America, and many leftists, are solidly in lock step with Putin, Xi and the mid east terrorists, even secular Jews.
I may like to look at the Pie, I may even nibble, but I'll be damned if I will eat the whole thing, and am certainly not a joiner or entrapped, cajoled by those who try to use my sentiments, to steer me in an anti Democratic agenda. Such as the troll farms of Russia and China, and they don't have to be troll farms, there are legions of gullible non thinking people who are easily triggered to advance a cause inimical to their own best interests.
The right wing is an obvious example, but it appears that they have companions on the left.
I subject everything I read to scrutiny and try to use the one facility that I have not yet lost.
Critical reasoning.
Not bragging, though it might sound like it. I've been an avid reader since I picked up my first Alphabet book, as far as I can recall the age of 5, by age of 8 I was reading the Odyssey by Homer, the Bible by age 12, my tastes are eclectic, and aside for about 150 classics, hardly any are fiction. I certainly don't read fiction today.
By and large, even non fiction is actually stilted by peoples beliefs, so I approach everything with caution, and try to filter out fact from belief or opinion. One tool to use is who benefits (cuo bono), but I have my own gold mineof information, 84 years having to cipher the truth from the constant barrage of propaganda.
When I was young, and inexperienced, and even though well read, was still quite ignorant. I was an anti communist conservative, over time my conservatism expanded, beyond my anti communism shameful depths.
It was only a series of circumstances that resulted in my relocation, and found myself in company of old hippies, ex SDS, even weather underground, and as a shop foreman, I found myself enjoying, along with 10 other union offices, the compay of Angela Davis at a lunch.
The result is that I question everything, even those with whom I otherwise agree. For instance I stand for diversity, equality, civil and voting rights, and anti bigotry, but as of late I am sad to report that the Democratic Socialists of America, and many leftists, are solidly in lock step with Putin, Xi and the mid east terrorists, even secular Jews.
I may like to look at the Pie, I may even nibble, but I'll be damned if I will eat the whole thing, and am certainly not a joiner or entrapped, cajoled by those who try to use my sentiments, to steer me in an anti Democratic agenda. Such as the troll farms of Russia and China, and they don't have to be troll farms, there are legions of gullible non thinking people who are easily triggered to advance a cause inimical to their own best interests.
The right wing is an obvious example, but it appears that they have companions on the left.