When you read the news, constantly ask yourself the question, "Who benefits if I believe this?" It's an effective first step in developing a bullshit filter.
And always be aware of the
Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect.
Scott Adams referenced it in his 4th of 6 levels of political awareness! Paraphrasing;
Level:
1) You only listen and trust 1 source of information and believe it's the truth
2) You listen to different sources of info so are aware of counter-points and other points of view, but believe that your source is accurate and truthful while others aren't
3) You realize all media have a bias and push a narrative, and and so aren't reliable; all add spin, have have missing context, etc.
4) You realize experts also aren't unbiased; can be coerced by money, power, also have to follow the narrative because otherwise can and will hurt their careers, etc., so, they could or could not be correct, and because you're not an expert, you basically have no way of knowing either way. So not reliable source of info either.
5) You have a good understanding of how the gears work; how the world/republic works behind the scenes, who are the real powers that be, who controls what, etc. (ex; Mike Benz). Reality isn't what is portrayed.
6) Epstein level, you know too much, and so are likely dead.
Most people are about level 1 or 2? Which is basically what makes any type of political discussion nearly impossible. Impossible to agree on the facts. I'm at level 4; realized about a decade ago that truth/knowledge is very hard to come by. Nearly impossible to be certain of anything, as ex; not being an expert in a field, no matter how much reading or opinions you hear, all ends up being a guessing game about who you trust and believe, and you can never be certain. Someone can be very persuasive, doesn't mean he's right.
For #5; See #3 and #4, not sure how I'd go about figuring that out, not that I really care about the specific actors, I think just being generally aware of it is sufficient.
How to handle the world we live in? You go through the 5 stages of grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and finally Acceptance. I now fully embrace the clown world we live in, and like the Joker, just laugh along and enjoy the show. You have to disconnect yourself and your feelings from it all, else you go mad.
Plus, with rampant corruption, industries funding research with millions/billions $ at stake, lobbying, George Carlin's
“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.”, the fact that knowing anything about anything takes countless hours and
"Ain't Nobody Got Time For That". That it's impossible to have a 'normal' discussion with most people about anything... Censorship, bias, tribalism, denial, propaganda, etc. etc. Basically impossible to do anything about anything. It's like the world/humanity is basically designed to fail, on all levels. And the more time passes, the more it feels like someone has control over reality and keeps turning up the 'ridiculous' knob, smirking and wondering when you'll realize that it's all just a big joke.
So basically becomes a form of nihilism; a disconnect. You realize that in the greater scheme of things, nothing really matters. We all end up in the same place, and whether it comes in 20, 50 100 years or 300 years, there more than likely won't be anyone around to grieve mankind, so nothing really matters. But maybe I'm wrong. Either way, if I'm correct, you only get 1 shot at life, see my sig, enjoy it!
[insert clown world meme jpg]