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A Practical Guide to Independent Thinking and Critical Thinking
This article has a large number of words and complex content.Therefore, I wrote it in Chinese and English, with the English version being translated and polished after completion, and the Chinese version being re-translated from the English version.
Tools used in writing: DeepL Translate, DeepL Write
It is not that people suffer because they have replaced thinking with laughter, but because they don't know why they laugh and why they stop thinking. Huxley, Brave New World
9.15.2024 Update: Fortunately but unfortunately, I found a fact check manual (with only chinese version available)which contained many useful tricks this passage not have. And i felt iwrote this article in vain. Anyhow, it's still worth reading and i hope these could complement each other.
Reason for writing
A few months ago, I read two books on critical thinking, and my awareness of the complexity of information in the online environment prompted me to write a blog about it.However, this would only be a mechanical reproduction of the books, which would result in a dull article, and I didn't want to publish something like that on my blog.
Recently, this coincided with the relaunch of my blog.Because independent thinking has been a concern of mine for some time, and because of the lack of rationality and objectivity around me due to my classmates' and family members' blind faith in Internet propaganda, whether commercial or political, I had the idea of organizing my own strategies for dealing with the lies and hypocrisy of the Internet.
I followed China's dissatisfaction with Japan's discharge of nuclear wastewater and Russia's glorification of war, and found that much of this propaganda comes from lies and competing truths. All one needs is some basic facts, some rigorous thinking or even just some common sense, and the lies wouldn't be so prevalent, which is unfortunately what people are missing.
Teachers or the media may emphasize the importance of both to you, but they likely won't tell you exactly what to do.It is even possible that even they themselves are not sure.But these, will be given in this article.
Sparing you of the lies is not difficult, and you don't need to have the acumen of a citizen investigator, the rigor of a professor of logic, or the erudition of a scholar of history.This article is about organizing the basic knowledge and tools you need to check and think about and judge the information you receive.Remember, practice is much more than theory when it comes to these elements.This article may be the beginning of the road to independent thinking, but it will never be the end.
What are critical thinking and independent thinking?Why are they?
P.S. If you look it up in English, you'll find that in the West, critical thinking and independent thinking are mixed up and both are critical thinking. but the focus of this article is not on their difference or inclusive relationship, but on how they are used.
I hadn't planned to write this section, but in the course of my writing this article, I've learned that it's not redundant to explain the two concepts clearly.Also, in my last reblogged post, I mentioned that systematically writing out your opinion is also a learning experience.
I asked my deskmate "What do you think independent thinking and critical thinking are respectively?"To my surprise, he simply answered "not changing one's opinion because of others" and "being able to identify weaknesses in other people's opinions".
Well, that's partially true, but it's far from the true meaning of these two wonderful concepts.Independent thinking doesn't mean being stubborn, critical thinking doesn't mean simply picking out mistakes, and it's not limited to opinions.
Independent thinking means that an individual analyzes, judges, and evaluates independently of outside influences and develops his or her own unique insights and perspectives when confronted with a problem, information, or viewpoint.
Critical Thinking: it criticizes our thinking in forming opinions, making judgments, making decisions, and forming conclusions, subjecting the thinking process to rational assessment.I.e., for thinking about thinking
I must admit, as a bit of a rebel, I was excited to learn these two concepts for the first time.What I thought was that I could find understanding and support for myself in these seemingly specialized narratives.However, just after I read the first chapter of the book Critical Thinking, my perception changed and I began to see it as an important tool.
From avoiding being provoked by nationalistic propaganda from the authorities to avoiding over-consumption due to the propaganda of commercial companies, from leaving self-publishing media where we want to be noticed to reducing the spread of rumors among our friends and family, we all want to be able to avoid making or accepting bad arguments.We also want to exclude extraneous factors, we want to not let our emotions dominate our thoughts, we want to not fall victim to fallacies and biases, and we want to not listen to incompetent authorities or half-assed assumptions.The less you make these mistakes, the wiser you will be.Not in the sense that you get savvier on a momentary basis, but in the sense that you are wiser overall.These skills can be applied to any area where you use your mind (speaking, thinking, writing).
I Fact-checking
For facts that are not well described in some messages but are really important to you
Distinguish between conclusions and facts Facts: objective statements that are true. Opinion: a subjective statement. p.s. Assertions about facts:not necessarily true, but rather their truth is not subjective
Check Wikipedia for overview
Wikipedia started in 2001. It has matured over the past 23 years to become a trusted resource on the internet, and is the only not-for-profit platform of the most visited websites.
All information ‘must be presented accurately and without bias’, sources must come from a third party, and a Wikipedia article can only be created if there has been ‘third-party coverage of the topic in reliable sources’.
Popular articles are reviewed thousands of times and it’s virtually impossible, for instance, for conspiracies to remain published on Wikipedia. Some media experts argue that because of this painstaking process, a highly edited article on Wikipedia might be the most reliable source of information ever created (Bruckman, 2022). By comparison, traditional academic articles – the most common source of scientific evidence – are typically only peer-reviewed by up to three people and then never edited again.
Less frequently edited articles on Wikipedia might be less reliable than popular ones. But it’s easy to find out how an article has been created and modified on Wikipedia. All modifications to an article are archived in its ‘history’ page. Disputes between editors about the article’s content are documented in its ‘talk’ page.
As with the previously mentioned characteristics, for news, it may lack objectivity and may not even be immediate, but for something that has been happening for a while, it is likely to be accurate.
Some common falsifications
For Quoted Facts: Since there are many fake news sites that mimic the domain names of normal news sites, you're better off using a search engine to search for them rather than clicking on links.
Prevention of fabricated experts/organizations: Several of China's largest media outlets once fictionalized a Swiss scientist named Wilson Edwards to support their claims about a pandemic.They ran this person's social media accounts at the same time.The Swiss embassy later said there was no such scientist.A web search also did not reveal any papers published by this person.
To prevent this, you can't just look at accounts on platforms such as X. You should follow Linkedin and the papers they publish, etc.
Concerned about the date of publication of the quoted information: For some time-sensitive matters, such as unemployment rates and the state of the economy, some news outlets will mislead you with outdated information.
Look up the original text and check the key words： This is a rudimentary but effective form of falsification.A typical example is the Chinese media's description of the fact that 90% of Ukrainians found the peace talks acceptable, whereas the original text was unacceptable.This news was widely believed and forwarded by netizens.
Falsifying statements or positions of others (experts, etc.)： For the beginner independent thinker, when you look up this expert, it is true, and then you may believe it to be true.What you need to focus on is not only the identity of that authority, but also what he has said and what his position is.You can do this by looking up his social media, meeting minutes, etc.
Search
Conventional search
Have you heard of the search operator?It makes the search more focused I think that knowing how to use the search operator is what really makes you a good searcher.
Here are some of those useful operators.
Basic operators
These basic operators are mostly Boolean operators that work with other search engines (like Bing or Yandex) or with other Google services (like Gmail ,Drive , and YouTube).
- "Theme ": strict match.You can use this search operator to find specific forms of terms (plural or singular only) or to exclude synonym searches.
- Theme A|Theme B: Finds pages related to one or the other theme or both. Also available as Theme A OR Theme B
- -Theme:Removes items containing specific keywords from search results.
- "Theme ": is a wildcard.Returns results that are missing one or more terms specified in the query. Note that both * and "" must be included.
- Number A..Number B: Finds results with a specified range of numbers.
Advanced Operators
DO NOT put a space after colon :
- site:example.com :Will return results limited to the specified site.This is very common.
- related:example.com :Will return sites that Google recognizes as related.It may not always be accurate, for example it will find my site relevant to Harvard University.
- cache:example.com :Will return the latest cached version of the specified (if indexed) URL. This is useful for investigating some sites that have recently changed.
- filetype:example.com : Limits the results to the specified file type.Useful for digging into some files
- allintitle:example.com : Returns results where all the specified words appear in the title
- allintext:example.com :Returns a web page containing all the specified words
- source:example.com :Searches only the content of the specified source
- location: :Returns content about a specific geographic location.
Mixed Use Cases
"[unique string of words from your website]" -site:[your domain] : Identify other sites that cite or plagiarize.If there are no results then it is normal.
[term] filetype:[file extension] site:[domain researched] : Some sites have files indexed that may not be visible to the public.It is also one of the ways to dig up trade secrets.
For X(Twitter)
You can use Advanced Search easily .
Image search
For images on social platforms, they may not perform well, but for the most part it's worth trying.
Google:Can search for images that are related to the most obvious element of the image.For example images that all contain a house .
The downside is that if the subject of the image search is not very clear, you may not get high quality results.
The search also restricts itself to a theme, so assuming the input is photos of houses near mountains and lakes, you will not see photos with houses located near mountains and lakes, but instead get visually similar houses, which do not take into account the background of lakes or mountains.
Yandex:Provides other sizes of the same image, visually similar images, and many results with similar images on the page.It is the best search engine for face matching and location recognition, and responds well to images on social media
Bing: Recognizes elements in a photo and finds images that contain all of those elements, or you can crop the photo as you like and see real-time results.Will be very useful for high-quality images with multiple recognizable subjects.
TinEye: Provides visually similar photos, and other photos with identical compositions.It performs better with purely digital media (avatars, logos, etc.) than other platforms. can look for a person's different platform account
Verification tools
Fact Search Websites
One of the oldest debunking sites on the Internet, Snopes.com focuses on urban legends, news stories and memes.This site categorizes a series of rumors on the Internet by their truth or falsity.It usually also provides a survey of the history of those rumors and the nature of the rumors. They also cite their sources at the end of each debunking.
A site that pursues facts and debunks hoaxes.Although the analysis of events is not as comprehensive as snopes.com, it is still a very trustworthy site overall.
Evaluates consumer issues and consumer products including health care and money management.The site is free of ads and often takes a step back to avoid biased views.Its assessments and analyses are meticulous and rigorous.This organization also purchases some consumer products just as consumers do.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning Politifact researches the claims of politicians and checks their accuracy
This website is a product of the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC).The site is completely politically neutral and criticizes any political commentary that distorts the facts.
Browser Extensions
Simple extension that shows an alert when you visit a site known for spreading fake news.
Monitors for unreputable sites and displays a browser notification based on a reliability score (1-10)
Powerful image search plugin
OSINT Tools
Maps But not only maps
Bing Maps: Microsoft satellite and mapping service.Has faster, higher-resolution imagery than Google; drawback is that it's harder to check the date of the imagery
Google Earth Pro: Adds Bing Maps satellite image layers.Advantage is that it has historical images.
Mapchecking: Calculates the number of people in a selected Google map area.Click on the map to add points and plot the area.Good for rallies, mass events, or disaster relief ...... and more.
HERE WeGo: For investigating events in the Middle East, it has satellite imagery more recent than Google.
NASA EarthData: WorldView allows visualization of near real-time imagery from NASA.The advantages are many, with a variety of satellite and aerial imagery; extensive search criteria; and other mapping and visualization tools, such as FIRMS for fire incident investigations, to name a few.Access to more than a dozen NASA data centers and related satellite data products.NASA Earth Observations: 50+ datasets for atmosphere, land, ocean, energy, environment, etc.
OpenStreetCam: as the name suggests.
Geo-based search
Liveuamap: interactive real-time map of conflict news.Various countries available: Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, USA, Ukraine, Venezuela, etc. Countries that other tools can't dig up are available here.
Photo-Map.RU: Can check geo-tagged VKontakte posts.Works the same as SnRadar.
Twitter: Insert geocode: [coordinates], [radius-km] in the search box, e.g. geocode:36.222285,43.998233,2km (only works with km, so 500m = 0.5km) Most of the time you can find what you want.The downside is that the location can be easily faked and needs to be combined with other information to verify.
WarWire: Geo-location based search.Verifies posts from social media like Twitter, VKontakte, Instagram
Images, video and metadata
Image Forensics: Web-based image forensics tool.Easily identifies forged or doctored images.
Public access only.
FotoForensics: An image forensics tool.Web-based, easy to use.The downside is that it is only publicly accessible.
Jeffrey's Image Metadata Viewer: A tool for extracting metadata online.Only need a web browser can be.But also only public access.
Foca: extract metadata.Windows-based, open source in 2017.The disadvantage is that there is no native linux support (need to install wine in linux)
Irfanview: a tool for extracting metadata.Windows-based. disadvantage is that it does not support Linux.
InVID: This is a verification plugin to help journalists verify images and videos.Contextual data, metadata, reverse search (Google, Yandex), image forensics and more.
Social Media
Graph.tips: automated advanced search of Facebook profiles.
IntelTechniques: various tools for analyzing Facebook profiles and pages.
Facebook livemap: Search live streams from all over the world.
Search Tool: Find accounts by name, email, screen name and phone number.
StalkScan: Automated advanced search for each Facebook profile.
Video Downloader Online: Download Facebook videos.
Skopenow: Social media survey - name, phone, email, username search.
Instagram.
Websta: Find other locations in the Instagram database near a specific location.Use direct URL with location ID, e.g. websta.me/location/116231
StoriesIG: Tool to download Instagram messages.
Save Instagram Stories: Allows you to perform username searches on saved stories.
Tumblr.
Tumblr Originals: Finds the original post for each Tumblr, thus excluding reblogs.
Twitter.
Onemilliontweetmap: tweet map each location up to 6 hours, keyword search option.
Treeverse: Chrome extension to visualize Twitter conversations.
Tweetreach: find the range of tweets.Provides advanced search operators, same as Google advanced search.We'll have a special post on Google's operators in the future!
Twitter advanced search: find dates, keywords and more.
Twitter geobased search: geocode: [coordinates], [radius-km], e.g.: geocode: 36.222285,43.998233,2km
Twlets: Download anyone's tweets, followers, and likes in an Excel worksheet.It's quick and easy to use, and there's a Chrome extension.Get up to 3,200 tweets, followers, and likes.
YouTube
Geo Search Tool: Search YouTube videos by location.
Transportation Information
Air.
FlightRadar24: This one is the most used.Tracks (civilian) flights.
ADS-B Exchange Global Radar: tracks flights, including some military aircraft.You get the idea.
PlaneFinder: a UK-based real-time flight tracking service that displays data about flight overheads as well as global flights.Data available to users includes: flight number, speed at which the aircraft is moving, altitude traveled and destination.Several variants of the service are available as mobile applications, including free, premium 3D and augmented reality versions. Web browsers can access flight tracking maps and databases.
Sea
MarineTraffic: an open, community-based project that provides real-time information on ship movements and the current position of ships in ports and harbors.The ship information database includes, for example, details of where the ship was built and the ship's dimensions, gross tonnage and International Maritime Organization number.
Rail.
Trains: A complete interactive map of the railroad networks in Europe.Think "One Belt, One Road" ......
Date and time
Scientific method for determining the authenticity of information
SunCalc: shows the movement of the sun at a given location on a given day.The thin orange curve is the current sun track, and the yellow area around it is the change in sun track over the course of a year.The closer the point is to the center, the higher the sun is above the horizon.The color on the time slider above shows the sun's coverage during the day.The identity of the publisher and the veracity of the claims are inferred from a video or multiple photos claiming to be consecutive.
Wolfram|Alpha: An online automated question and answer system from Wolfram Research.It features the ability to return answers directly to the user, rather than providing a series of related web pages that may contain the answer the user is looking for, as traditional search engines do.Data sources include academic sites and publications, commercial sites and companies, scientific organizations, and more.
Web
Security
DNS Trails: The world's largest repository of historical DNS data.The site contains access to a database of approximately 3 trillion DNS records, 3 billion WHOIS records, and 418 million hostnames.All of this has been collected daily since mid-2008.Probably the most data returned for you.Free and easy to use.
Censys.io: Complete knowledge of Internet-connected devices! Censys continuously monitors every accessible server and device on the Internet so you can search and analyze them in real time, understand your cyber-attack surface, discover new threats and assess their global impact.Drive security through data.
Geo IP Tool: It's for you.Check your own IP and easily check if your VPN is working properly .
SpyOnWeb: For retrieving websites through their tracking code.A website that constantly grabs website tracking codes, nameservers and other information so it can help show connections between websites.
Whois: for domain name search and information, whois.net or whois.icann.org
Archive
DMCA: search for deletion notices.
Wayback Machine: archive site.Download the entire site from the Wayback Machine."The Wayback Machine is a web preservation program of the Internet Archive, which is in fact documenting the changing ecology of the web on a daily basis.Crawlers crawl more than a billion web pages a week!Using a large number of servers, bandwidth to provide the service, and trying to save on data size, you can find very old backups of web pages on this site. The Wayback Machine also has a passive "web backup" feature.
Archive.is: Archives any web page.A privately funded digital time capsule site.Archived pages are removed based on Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) compliant takedown requests from copyright owners.Each request captures the textual content of the page, loads a Web 2.0 site without active elements or scripts, or JavaScript-generated images and frames. The screenshot is 1024×768 pixels with no popups.
Others
Hunch.ly: Automatically collects all visited websites!The only web capture tool designed for online surveys. Hunchly automatically collects, records and annotates every web page you visit.A very powerful survey tool, for a price.
BlockExplore: Track bitcoin leads or follow bitcoin accounts.
LittleSis: A free database to learn about relationships at the business and government level.A grassroots watchdog network that connects the dots between the world's most powerful people and organizations.A unique resource for investigating cronyism, conflicts of interest and systemic corruption!
Lumen: Collects and analyzes legal complaints and requests for removal of online material, helping Internet users know their rights and understand the law.This data enables users to research the prevalence of legal threats and allows Internet users to see the source of content removal.
Maltego : Interactive data mining tool for presenting directed graphs for link analysis.Used in online surveys to find relationships between information from various sources on the Internet.Very powerful!Not only does it automatically collect the required information, but it also visualizes the collected information and presents the results to the user in an extraordinarily aesthetically pleasing way.You can see a lot of useful information, such as DNS information, mail servers, IPs, users, e-mail IDs, networks, etc.
Pipl, the world's most powerful people search engine, find the person behind the email address, social media username or phone number, pipl.com
Tor Site Searcher: search for hidden tor sites via clearnet.You get the idea.
Malicious URL Tester: test unknown URLs. for security.
OpenCorporates: A database of companies around the world.It contains information on 138 million businesses and 176 million employees, and is constantly being updated!
Zoopla: Search for properties using the UK's leading resource.Browse houses and apartments for sale and rent and find real estate agents in any area.The Chinese are buying houses worldwide, especially the rich (and you know where the rich Chinese get their money from) so ...... it's very useful.
DataBasic.io: Web tools for beginners that introduce the concept of working with data.These simple tools make it easy to work with data in interesting ways, so you can learn how to find great stories to tell.The pages are cute haha.
DataWrapper: easy to use charting and plotting tool.
Google Fusion Tables: Data Fusion Tables is a web service provided by Google for data management. Fusion tables can be used to collect, visualize and share data tables.Data is stored in tables that can be viewed and downloaded by multiple Internet users.
Open Desktop Semantic Search: Good for searching unstructured data.
TrustServista: online news validation and visualization tool!
Namechk.com: great for recognizing online accounts using usernames.Simply insert the username and this tool recognizes the location of all users using that name.
II Identifying Errors in Argumentation
Common Logical Fallacies [Important]
- The purpose of studying this section is not to memorize their definitions, but simply to be able to react quickly when you encounter them.*
Logical Fallacies are flawed reasoning creating false arguments, or arguments constructed wrongly.
The best way to avoid making logical fallacies is first to learn the most common fallacies. Secondly, and just as important, is to assess your own arguments, and see if the arguments you're making are using any logical fallacy, and if so, which one(s)? This requires self-assessment, analyses, and reflection. The goal is to be able to have an ongoing ability to determine this as the argument is being made(not after the fact, but while the conversation is occurring). It requires having an internal monitor as to the cogency of what you're saying or writing.
Knowing and understanding logical fallacies is important because it stops the exchange of untruth. They're only so good as they root out what's not true, so that, when determined, an argument ceases to be valid, and hopefully(merely hopefully) ceases to be asserted and/or believed.
One caveat is that there are certain informal fallacies that are likely always fallacious, such as the Ad Hominem fallacy.But for the Slippery Slope, that prediction may come true as a consequence of that first step down the slope. Such is the nature of some informal fallacies. They may be wrong, but they may also be right. It depends on what's at issue.
Straw Man Argument
When you're having a hard time beating a real person, replace your opponent with a scarecrow and you can beat it easily, right?It's the same in arguments .
Eg.
Mrs. Mark said, "Mark, it's time to clean the garage."Mark protested, "What?It's time to clean it again?Do I have to clean the garage every day?"Mark's response then commits the straw man fallacy by misrepresenting his wife's meaning.
Prevention:
Make sure that you understand your opponents position clearly. Restate it to the opponent and ask if what you stated is an accurate representation of their argument's position. This will also prevent against them changing their position later on.
Ad Hominem Argument
It's attacking a person, which can include their identity or personal character (such as their physical appearance), instead of attacking their actual position. This is common in political debate.
Eg.
If you think the mathematical precision behind the universe is randomly established, you are a complete idiot.
Prevention:
What is important to remember is that the weaknesses or strengths in a person are not the same as the weaknesses or strengths in that person's ideas, suggestions, theories, opinions, assertions, or arguments.
Slippery Slope Fallacy
One form is "if X is allowed to occur, Y will follow".But in fact there is no reason why "X will lead to Y".
Another form is "We must continue a certain action because we have already begun the process".
There is also the insistence that such a line be drawn at some precise point on occasions when a precise line is not in fact necessary.
The slippery slope argument is quite influential because mentally, one thing does often lead to another, even if logically it does not.For example, when we think of X, we may immediately think of Y. But this does not in any way imply that the mere presence of X must lead to Y. To repeat, to think that Y must follow X is to engage in slippery-slope thinking; if there is no specific reason to think that Y must follow X, then one is committing the slippery-slope fallacy.
The Slippery Slope, however ,isn't always or necessarily fallacious. It is merely making predictions based on an initial step and circumstance.
Eg.
1.If you're distracted in class now you'll do poorly on your exams, and if you do poorly you won't get into college, and if you don't get into college you'll do nothing with your life.
2.Despite the fact that this stock has been losing money, we have been investing in it for several years, and to dump it now would be a waste of previous efforts.
3.The obvious thing is that if we give someone $50 million dollars, one dollar at a time (quickly, of course - maybe we have a dispenser), she is rich.However, according to the delimitation argument, if we can't determine which dollar makes her rich, she can't be rich no matter how much money we give her.
Prevention:
Think about whether you actually understand the causal agent or causal story, and that you're not inferring causing from the order of events. If you realize that you don't know the cause of the phenomena, it's best to just suspend judgments until the cause is known.
Sometimes the "slope" is long: if X is practiced, it leads to Y; if Y is practiced, it leads to Z; and if Z is practiced, it leads to ...... ultimately disastrous consequences.To avoid falling into such fallacies, it is necessary to argue and justify each possible successive step.
Loaded Question
This occurs whenever a person asks a question which includes their desired outcome, against the position of the person answering the question.
Every question relies on assumptions, and even a simple question like "What time is it?" relies on assumptions such as that the listener understands you and has a way of knowing the time.But a loaded question does not simply mean that there are assumptions in the question.The point is that loaded questions contain more or less unproven assumptions.
Eg.
"Are you still beating your wife?" Whether the person answers yes or no, the person is framed as a wife beater, whether they are or not.
Prevention:
Complete the argument (the "Assumptions" part of the "Premises"), see the section at the end of the text.
Begging the Question (circular argument)
The real problem with begging the question is that it misunderstands the premises (and definitions) that are psychologically acceptable and reasonable to the audience.The begging-the-question fallacy is committed when the audience is asked to accept the conclusion in dispute, when the premise offered in support of that conclusion is equally disputed, and when further support for that premise is offered on the basis of the original conclusion in dispute.
Eg.
Some people say they can prove that God exists and when asked how, they reply:"The Bible makes it very clear that God must exist."
When asked why we should believe in the Bible, they reply, "Because the Bible is God's own divine work, it must be true:
"Because the Bible is God's masterpiece, it must be true."
Prevention:
Try to argue this assertion on the basis of consensus between the parties.Attempting to discover consensus as a suitable starting point for argumentation is an important cornerstone of the entire enterprise of rational argumentation.
False Dilemma
As an informal fallacy, this occurs when the arguer is presenting only two possible options or outcomes to a position, when in reality there are more options.It's done to narrow the opponent's position to only two possible outcomes. It's an argument tactic designed to lead to intentionally chosen narrowed and specific options.
Eg.
There was many, for example, when it was suggested that the word "God" be removed from the Pledge of Allegiance to the United States, and his opponents reacted as if he wanted to eliminate the entire declaration.Conservatives opposed further increases in sulfur dioxide emission standards, and liberals accused him of wanting to relax them.A Democratic congresswoman says she opposes tax cuts, and her Republican opponent accuses her of wanting to raise taxes.
Prevention:
Think about whether the options you're considering do indeed exhaust all of the possibilities, or if there are other legitimate possibilities to consider as well. Think about alternatives before the list of possibilities is narrowed to only two or one.
Biased Generalization
It is sometimes described as generalized reasoning based on samples that are too small (relative to the totals they represent).But reasoning based on small samples may not be wrong if it is done under conditions of large margins of error or low confidence levels, even if the aggregate is large.The error lies in overestimating the strength of arguments based on small samples.If the sample is only from hearsay, you are committing a type of the fallacy of hasty generalization: the hearsay fallacy
Eg.
This Pit Bull bites, therefore, all Pit Bulls bite.
Prevention:
Consider what the evidence is, and how large the sample size is, and whether they're sufficient to be representative of the whole before making the claim.
Appeal to Popular Opinion(Bandwagon fallacy
)
This is the use of popular opinions to create an argument, and it relies on a rumor to gain support. It does this by trying to provoke emotions and excitement of the audience rather than articulating an argument.
Eg.
- The bandwagon argument: This approach claims that because most people believe in an argument or choose a specific route, it must be true and others also should believe it.
- The patriotic argument: This claim says a viewpoint is correct because it embodies patriotism, and those who disagree are unpatriotic, meaning their opinion isn’t valid.
- The snob argument: This approach claims if people who have a strong reputation, whether socially or financially, believe in an idea, it must be true.
Prevention:
Think critically. Consider how your position, needs, or opinions differ from those around you.Look for reliable sources of information.And make decisions more slowly.
Appeal to Authority
Relying upon the view of apparent (as opposed to genuine) authorities to settle the truth of a statement or argument.
Eg.
Richard Long, a respected retired New Zealand newsreader featured in advertising campaigns for Hanover Finance. Long had no financial expertise.
Prevention:
Appeals to authority conflict with the basic tenet of good logical and critical thinking which calls upon us to take responsibility for evaluating the grounds for our beliefs. Adopting a belief merely because someone else simply told us it was true is a way of avoiding good logical and critical thinking.
Sometimes, however, good logical and critical thinking will itself lead us to rely on genuine authorities. That’s not avoiding logical and critical thinking: it’s reasoning about a matter related indirectly to the question I’m trying to settle.
Appeal to hypocrisy
Also known as a tu quoque fallacy, is a rebuttal that responds to one claim with reactive criticism rather than with a response to the claim itself.
Eg.
“You don’t have enough experience to be the new leader.” “Neither do you!”
Prevention:
The fact that someone is also does not obscure the correctness of the point or practice being discussed, and you should concentrate on the error itself.
Appeal to ignorance
Claiming that something must be true because it hasn’t been proven false. It can also be a claim that something must be false because it hasn’t been proven true. This is also known as the burden of proof fallacy.
Eg.
There must be fairies living in our attic because nobody’s ever proven that there aren’t fairies living in our attic.
Prevention:
The best way to avoid appealing to ignorance in your writing is to focus on the available evidence rather than what a lack of evidence might imply.
However, there are some non fallacious appeals to ignorance. - If qualified researchers have used well-designed methods to search for something for a long time, without success, and it’s the kind of thing people ought to be able to find, then the fact that they haven’t found it might constitute some evidence that it doesn’t exist.
- Some practices (e.g. law) require us to reject a claim until a certain standard of proof is met: the presumption that defendants are innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt for example.
Causal fallacy
The mere fact that there is a correlation between the two is used to prove that one thing causes the other.Whereas, in fact, they may be opposite or not causally related .
Eg.
Research has proven that there is a correlation between the health of older people and regular sex.Therefore, regular sex promotes the health of older persons.
Prevention:
Rather than assuming a correlation reflects causation (or that a lack of correlation reflects a lack of causation), ask yourself what different factors might be driving the correlation — and whether and how these might be biasing the relationship you are seeing.
1.Is the authority a genuine authority: are they experts?
2.Are they giving advice in the areas within which they are a genuine authority? (We should listen to actors about acting; not so much about investing or medicine).
3.Is there a broad consensus among authorities in the area? If not, we should not decide to believe X solely because an authority says X is true, since other genuine authorities say that X isn’t true.
4.Is the authority speaking sincerely (they might be giving an endorsement because they’re paid to do so) and are they free of obvious bias?
Only if the answer to all four of these questions is “yes” should you accept a claim because an authority endorses it, and even then, we should only do so if we are not in a position to evaluate the evidence for the claim ourselves.
Rhetoric
Technically, they are not fallacies, but they can be persuasive by stirring up anger, sympathy, or fear to reduce your skepticism, which in turn keeps you from thinking about it carefully.
Not all expressions that stir up emotion are fallacious, misleading, or bad.In fact, no difficult task can be accomplished without emotional support and strength.
It is important to make a good distinction between relevant evoked emotions and irrelevant appeals to emotion, so as to avoid reducing rationality in the formation of beliefs.
"Argumentation" from Anger
Anger is not the same as fallacy, and there are times when anger is perfectly appropriate.
But when we are angry, or angry enough to be angry, we tend to become illogical.This manifests itself in two ways.
The first manifestation is the mistake of believing that we have been informed of a reason to be angry when there is no actual reason to be angry.Something cannot be considered incorrect simply because it is outrageous, even if the outraged person is ourselves.It is easy to mistake the emotion of anger for evidence of the object that caused it.But anger is only an emotion and not evidence of any other event.
The second manifestation lies in the fact that anger aroused by one event may influence our evaluation of another unrelated event.If we are outraged at the motives of a detractor, we must remember that the motives of the critic and the appropriateness of the criticism itself are independent of each other, and that impure motives do not preclude the correctness of the criticism.Similarly, even if a person does something that annoys us, we can neither use this as a reason to underestimate other aspects of that person, nor to underestimate others.
A particularly dangerous subcategory is scapegoating - blaming specific groups or individuals for the difficulties they face For example, officially guided Chinese online platforms like to blame the United States or capitalism for social problems, stirring up nationalistic feelings.
Scare tactics
Trying to scare people into doing something or accepting a certain position is a form of intimidation.Arguments that resort to force are a special kind of intimidation.Regardless of whether the usual or extraordinary means of intimidation are used, it is a fallacy to substitute fear for reasoning and judgment in order to get people to take a certain position on an issue.Likewise, it is a fallacy to give in to such tactics when they are practiced in front of us by others.
Of course, when faced with a real threat, people are justified in behaving cautiously, even if they don't recognize it as such when the situation is no longer embarrassing.
Fear can also easily confuse us, and in times of fear we are prone to make the same mistakes we are prone to make in times of anger.
To avoid transferring our fears about something to the evaluation of something unrelated, we need to find out what our fears are about.
Reasonable warnings are not irrelevant or intimidating tactics.For example, a close-up of an adorable (and vulnerable) baby staying in a car tire rim.Anyone watching this would be disturbed, and the reasonable thing to do after reading this ad would be to check our car tires.But the Michelin merchant's advertising appeal is: please buy Michelin tires!is not offering a reasonable warning; it is employing scare tactics.
Arguments for Appealing to Compassion
Compassion for someone leads us to hold a certain position on something unrelated that may be irrational.
The Argument from Jealousy
Sympathy tempts us to reinforce someone's strengths; jealousy tempts us to exaggerate someone's weaknesses.When we fault someone out of jealousy, we fall into the argument from jealousy.
Flattery
A sense of self-importance especially makes us susceptible to flattery, which can cause us to exaggerate our own achievements and abilities on the one hand, and make us make other, unrelated judgments on the other.
Rationalization
People commit the fallacy of rationalization when they use false pretenses to satisfy their desires or interests.Whether or not the reasons they mention exist, covering up their true desires is this fallacy.
Two wrongs make a right
If an act is wrong, it is wrong.Claiming to be a wrongful retaliation for some wrong does not make it reasonable.Wrongful acts do not cancel each other out so that one of the wrongs disappears.
It would be a clear fallacy to think that any retaliation for wrongdoing is justified, as in the case of ultra-nationalists who want to massacre the people of a country that has invaded them.It is also a fallacy if the retaliation is not directed at the one who committed the prior wrong (like the brother or child of the wrongdoer).It is another fallacy to justify hurting someone on the grounds that they will or might do the same to us.
III Sources of information
The fact-checking discussed above is done when you have plenty of time and energy, and when a thing is important to you.More often than not, you shouldn't have to put in a lot of time doing such boring things
Choose credible media
There are truths and falsehoods in any media, but that doesn't mean you have to read them all.
And in more cases than not, you shouldn't have to spend a lot of time doing these boring things.
For example, you're trying to figure out whether Stephen Hawking has been to Epstein's island, as the Chinese self-publishing media massively claimed, but every batch of court documents in the Epstein case has hundreds of pages, and you won't have the patience and energy to go through them as much as a BBC or Guardian reporter would.
Choosing reliable sources of information can be an effective way to save you time and reduce the risk of being plagued by unreliable news.
It's true that there may be gold in the garbage, but you can't expect to find gold in the garbage every day, and it's more likely that you're mistaking the garbage for gold.
World Press Freedom Index (WPFI)
Freedom of the press guarantees truthfulness.In general, the news media in countries with scores below 55 are more likely to be manipulated to achieve government objectives through false or selective propaganda.If an incident does not occur in one of these countries, for those who want to save time, they can simply choose media in other countries for information.
Notice.WPFI only deals with press freedom and does not measure the quality of journalism in the countries it assesses.
Characteristics of media that can be trusted
- Verifiable facts and statistics, not rumors or wild claims.Just because it "sounds right" or seems to confirm what you already believe does not mean it is actually true.
- Cite Sources - Just like citing sources in a research paper, Internet news should do the same.If they don't specify where they got the information from, there's no evidence that it's correct.
- No relevance of interest.Make sure they don't fabricate or report selectively.
- Sources whose URLs end directly in ".edu" and ".gov" are relatively credible.However, be aware that domain names such as ".edu.me" are not credible.
- The site should have an "About Us" or similar tab that lets you learn more about them.
- Who is the person expressing an opinion?Is he or she a subject matter expert or a professional journalist?If not, or if you can't find out who the author is, be cautious about trusting the material.
Avoid unreliable sources
- State-associated or state-controlled news organisations, especially state media in countries with low press freedom, such as the Chinese press agency Xinhua, the North Korean Korean Central News Agency and Press TV in Iran. They may be propaganda organisations. RT, formerly known as Russia Today, and other Russian government-funded sources like Sputnik News have also been described as propaganda outlets for the government.
In the case of officially funded media in Western countries, which are generally subject to public scrutiny and rigorous information verification, there is less likelihood of fake news.However, as stakeholders, they may remove statements that are unfavorable to the government. - From social media
It is not difficult to claim to be a professional on social media, which opens up the possibility for the spread of confusing information, especially news that is opinionated but lacking or insufficient evidence.(These will be discussed in a later section) - In general, tabloid newspapers, such as The Sun, Daily Mirror, the equivalent television shows, should be used with caution, especially if they areThe Daily Express and Sunday Express should be treated with even greater caution.
- Never use conspiracist sites such as Infowars without exception.
- Content farms are websites that produce large quantities of web articles quickly to attract traffic for commercial gain, such as advertising dollars, or for a specific purpose, such as controlling public opinion or leading the way.Often utilizing search engines to achieve eye-catching clicks, they can now appear as accounts on platforms such as short videos.That said, they mostly lack reliable sources, are of poor quality, are not informative, spread misleading messages, are incorrectly translated, and are often laced with a lot of advertisements or malicious programs.
List of common untrustworthy media
No need to memorize, but be careful
When you see a lesser known or dubious media outlet, it's best to do a web search or check the list to determine its credibility
Fake news sites
Be careful if you read news or quotes from them.Unlike news satire sites (which are mentioned in this article), they disseminate false information, primarily for profit, and may even pose as authoritative media outlets .
Satirical News Sites
There is nothing inherently wrong with these sites being set up to be funny or satirical, but some of China's fact-checking media like to quote sensationalist stuff It's not like horses and penguins to start protesting, but there will be more indistinguishable things like "Bezos' Chinese adopted daughter gets $50,000 a week in allowance, and is punished if she doesn't spend it all."
List of satirical news websites
Mainly for the Chinese
Global Times, Observer, China Daily, Fuck People's Daily...
Well, I think you should at least avoid all official Chinese media, plus the Chinese self-published media.
IV Other
Initial credibility judgment
When you read information, you form guesses about its truthfulness; this is initial credibility.If the information is consistent with what you know to be true or commonly known, you would assign it a high level of initial credibility.If it doesn't, you'll think it may not be credible.It's cool to make broad judgments about what's credible and what needs to be verified, isn't it?So you need to consciously develop the precision with which you generate initial credibility .
I suggest the following analysis:
- What does the article convey?
- How does it (want to) make me feel? / What goal they want to achieve?
- Where they got the information? / Does it provide any direct and reliable evidence?
- (If it doesn't provide evidence.) Can I identify it on myself?
Avoiding interference with initial credibility
- Screenshots from chat software or forwarded messages cannot be used as strong evidence It's very easy to fake, you don't even need to have two accounts as there are screenshot generators on the internet.
- Pictures may not be real In addition to common fakes such as photoshopping, attaching unverifiable pictures to a message can also be faked. eg. Chinese social media platforms have seen people posting photos of large numbers of dead fish, claiming that they are the result of Japan's nuclear wastewater.However, no evidence exists that the pictures were taken in Japan, and the pictures look more like scenes of electro-shock fishing.
- Beware of so-called experts The people on social media who wear suits, stand in front of bookshelves and speak confidently are not necessarily experts.You should pay attention to their education (in an authoritative organization) and experience in the field (not the same as being in the profession for a long time).Next are things like accomplishments, reputation, and position in the field in which they work.Note: Being an expert in one field does not make them qualified to express opinions on matters in other fields **Note: Being an expert in one field does not make them qualified to express opinions on matters in other fields.
- The word of a stakeholder is less trustworthy With a product, a company spokesperson is more likely to tell false news than a user, right?The words of interested parties need to be scrutinized (or at least questioned) more carefully than those of uninterested parties.It's easy to lose objectivity, even when attempting to remain objective, when the stakes are relevant.
- Watch out for repetition Goebbels said that the essence of propaganda is repetition.There is also an old Chinese saying that three people make a tiger.Repetitive information is more likely to create a true impression, which is why companies like to have different people send ads for them on various platforms.That way when you need to buy an item, you first think of the one you've seen over and over again, even if there are other widely recognized and reasonably priced products.Fortunately, this effect on people may be smaller than it would otherwise be when buying something expensive.
Use social media cautiously
I decided to avoid seeing all kinds of rumors with lack of rational opinions and protect my perceptions by not following social media until my critical thinking matures.I stopped using and cleared messages on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc. last year.For the same reason, I think my frequency of social media use will be drastically reduced after this.If you are struggling with the same, try it too.
Read More
The publication of books other than self-published books needs to be scrutinized, which at least ensures that the quality of the books is better than the man-made garbage you see on forums or social media.
I recommend reading books that are neither boring nor theoretical, either popular science books on political science, history, social psychology, quantum physics, etc., or professional works or textbooks with lots of examples and detailed explanations.Because their readership is rich in knowledge base and hard to fool, these types of slightly specialized books are more likely to give the reader something of value.
Think about what you need before you read, and targeted reading involves filtering and sifting, effectively reducing the memory burden so that what is really useful is more likely to be remembered.
When reading such books, you need to think and absorb the complexity of the arguments and plots. At the same time, a large proportion of the authors of such books are good thinkers, and you can learn from them what angles they take, what evidence they choose, and how they argue their points. In short, you can learn their way of thinking so that you unconsciously think in that way.
After reading, you can comb through what you have learned to deepen your understanding. This article is an example. As mentioned in the previous blog, systematic presentation is also a kind of learning. If you can express the important content of the book rigorously and clearly, it means you understand it, and the purpose of reading has been achieved.
In addition, reading expands knowledge. Human knowledge is vast, even an expert in a certain field can not fully grasp the knowledge of the field, want to be proficient in all areas of knowledge is unrealistic.
Therefore, my strategy is to master multiple fields of knowledge (but not necessarily be proficient in all of them) so that when you look at something, you're more likely to know which angle to look at it from, what information you need to add to it, and how to correlate that information as a premise to a conclusion.
Practice Consciously
When you read an idea, whether it's in the news, social media or a textbook.Understand its premise, conclusion and argumentative process and think about some questions
- Conclusion: 1 Which words are ambiguous? 2 What are descriptive assumptions (descriptive assumptions are ideas about what the world was, is, and will be like, the writer's point of view about the facts, and if it is not true, the premise is faulty)? 3 What are values assumptions (unarticulated, but value-based presuppositions.They may vary from country to country, from society to society, or from individual to individual, and the same person may have opposing ideas at the same time, depending on the degree to which they are accepted)? 4 What conclusions might be justified?
- argument: are there fallacies in the reasoning?
- Premise: 1 How credible is this evidence?2 What important information has been left out?
On whether or not to complete the opponent's argument:
Yes.
Many authors prefer to conceal their premises for reasons of economy, to cover up flaws, or to mislead.That is, they make "assumptions".Assumptions include definitions, values, and perceptions.It's easy for non-critical thinkers to overlook this, but for us, digging out the premises is an important step in identifying holes in an argument.
Critical thinking and independent thinking is an awareness as well as an ability, such things are difficult to learn through someone else's description, and you need to gradually build up a process of reviewing various arguments (your own or others').This article is only a guide to critical thinking in contemporary situations, and as stated at the beginning, this article may be just the beginning, but it is by no means the end.
Postscript
I started conceptualizing this post over twenty days ago, but I put it off for a long time due to so little time after school and other things, during which time I was nearly driven crazy by my to-do list.
The time I really spent looking it up and writing it was around six hours, which may have been a bit rushed.The article is also brief compared to professional works and lacks examples and analysis.Please feel free to suggest corrections if there are any shortcomings.
But I'm proud enough of myself.This article is probably the only practical manual on the Chinese Internet that integrates so much necessary information.These specifics are also almost impossible to find, except on a few sites such as Programming Thinking.
Reference:
Wikipedia
Critical Thinking by Moore, Brooke Noel, Parker, Richard
Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking by M. Neil Browne, Stuart M. Keeley
MACDONALD-KELCE LIBRARY in The University of Tampa
Indeed.com
Grammarly.com
Successfulstudent.org