I’ve found that the stronger a person believes they’re right about something, the more likely it is that they could be mistaken. And, if a person trying to convince me of something believes they’re 100% correct, I’m not inclined to take their word at face value. No matter who they are, or how good their intentions.
No one likes to admit that they are wrong. But, they should be able to admit that they could be wrong. The way I see it, if a person can’t at least accept the possibility that they might be wrong, there’s a good chance that they are. And they’d never know it.
If you’ve been following what I write, you know that I have a lot of strong opinions. You also know that I will, from time to time, question those opinions to make sure that I should still have them.
I recently had a chance to put that into practice.
For the past few months, our son has been texting with my wife, trying to convince her that we should get vacksinated. I’m not sure why he hasn’t approached the topic with me. He probably thinks he’s culled the weakest from the herd and that my wife will be easier to convince. Boy, did he think wrong.
She held her ground and asked him to back up his fears with facts. He sent her links to articles from CNN and the WHO. It was at that exact moment that she knew where his head was at.
My wife asked him why Biden and his team are letting unvacksinated illegal aliens stream across the border unchecked. If the COVID crisis was as bad as they claim, shouldn’t they close the borders to stop the spread of the disease? He said the two issues were unrelated and accused her of changing the subject.
Then he unfortunately fell into the familiar pattern that many people do when their argument falls apart. He started insulting and threatening us.
After calling us “plague factories” and telling her that we’re probably going to need “deprogramming” from “all that right-wing propaganda”, he said he wouldn’t be visiting us until we had both been vacksinated.
My wife thanked him for his concern and politely ended the conversation.
There’s no doubt that our son has good intentions. He also believes, without a doubt, that he’s 100% correct. He’s a smart guy, but if he won’t even consider a different point of view, how can I know for certain that his opinion was formed after careful consideration of all the facts? I can’t.
I’ll tell you what I do know for certain. I know that if he’s getting his information from CNN, there’s no possible way he has all the facts.
I think I’m right most of the time. But I don’t know I’m right. Not 100%. Probably more like 97%. If I don’t at least leave myself open to the possibility that I might be wrong, how will I know when I am?
So, my wife and I sat back to consider what he said and see if what he was trying to say had any merit. We questioned what we thought we knew to make sure that we should still believe it.
- Are the vackseens still experimental drugs? Yes.
- Were the vackseens fast-tracked through the testing phase? Yes.
- Are the vackseens as effective at stopping the disease as we were told they would be. No.
- Are vacksinated people still getting sick and dying? Yes.
- Are vacksinated people still spreading the disease? Yes.
- How does the rate of illness/death compare between vacksinated and unvacksinated people? No one knows.
- Are vacksinated people as contagious as unvacksinated people? Recent data says they are.
- What are the chances that we’ll be permanently maimed or die from being injected with a vackseen? No one knows.
- Does anyone have any idea if there are long-term consequences of taking one of their experimental drugs? No.
- Do we know other people, whom we hold in high regard, who are also declining to be vacksinated? Yes.
- Who is liable for any injuries I may sustain from being vacksinated? Me.
- Is catching COVID-19 an automatic death sentence? No.
The end result of this reconsideration is that our opinion still stands. The risks associated with getting vacksinated outweigh, for us anyway, the risks associated with catching the disease.
Are we right? I guess time will tell. But, we’re about 97% certain that we are.
Related Articles:
