The Loss of Critical Thinking, Coming Out as an Agitator, Christmas is Coming

“I want to taste and glory in each day, and never be afraid to experience pain, and never shut myself up in a numb core of nonfeeling, or stop questioning and criticizing life and take the easy way out. Instead, to learn and think: to think and live; to live and learn: this always, with new insight, new understanding, and new love.”
— Sylvia Plath 

This collection of words will be my last soup from my mountain top chalet for the coming days.  We will return on the 19th for a program I am a part of, but my time here will be sparse; I’ll be a Midwesterner for the next few weeks.

I’m soaking up my time here, a last long look at the view, breathing in the air, locking in on the aspen trees.

We had a full house, Uncle Kyle is here, and Doyle, their friend Charlie stayed, and Bay, our chosen third wheel, is here.  We enjoyed the mountain house yesterday, hanging on the deck, making breakfast, listening to music. Then, we got an alert that there would be a chili cook-off at The Well, one of our favorite places. So we loaded up the Forerunner and headed in.

There were six chili’s in all; we knew the chef’s, all were excellent, it provided a lovely lunch albeit some gas later in the night.  We returned home, more music, the guests were drinking, we did our sober living, serving others, it is weird being the responsible one.  My wife made a big bowl of soup; we bought the Tyson Fury III fight; it was late, but a good brawl between warriors.

I woke up to a text about critical thinking.  I’ve never shared this before, but I, along with two medical professionals, share a text thread feeding it daily with our thoughts about society, what is going on, the silliness of these times; it’s a comedy thread, but one that would get us to put in jail if the wrong people found our work.

I guess our words would equal enemy of the state status in most major motion pictures, but we feel safe to share our thoughts and ideas.  This morning, the topic of critical thinking was pitched; sharing this little concept has been lost on many.  It’s interesting to watch folks that have no idea of how to think with a critical bent. For example, if one were to say to you X, but the data shows Y, are you to believe X because they said it?  Or should you maybe dig a little, go below the surface and do a little research.

You may know this about me; you might not; I’m a little bit of an agitator.  I agitate to stir the pot; I say and do things that are akin to throwing a grenade of sense into a conversation, or maybe social media, and then let the extremes do my bidding. But then, I grab popcorn and sit back and laugh and giggle as the two sides show their extreme views and opinions; thank you, world, I have no words, but I’ve found a way to tickle society.

Look no further than this past week when I shared a photo of about 110000 shirtless fans, screaming, spitting, with the caption “Dr. Fauci said we might not be able to have Christmas.”  I thought it funny, here we have mass gatherings of thousands, but the man who has been wrong at every turn of the pandemic is telling us, “it’s a scary time.”  To me, this is not logical; this is flawed, but I thought, how will the masses react? 

Well, Nellie, let me tell you, there is very little common ground.  Again, using a critical thinking mindset, one person shared, “well, this is outside?”  Um, ok, so 110,000 people can get together inches apart, but your family of four to ten can’t sit in a house and celebrate the holidays?   In Denver, a young man shared that to attend an event, you had to be vaccinated or show proof of a negative test. 

Since I also live here, I thought I might drop a little bit of a truth bomb; I’ve attended many events without showing proof of my status, no test, you go, you spit, laugh, lick, tickle and breath in the air of others.  The concert I attended on Friday was a good example; you can show your vax or get a waiver; the waiver was basically for any reason you wanted; my friend went with “religious reasons.”  What’s that?  I have unvaccinated friends, yes I do. I know several people who have chosen not to get the vaccination; I don’t judge; it’s their life, their body, and choice; society’s problem today is a lack of consistency in logic.

You cannot cry for “my body my choice” and then turn right around and say, “if you don’t get the vaccination, you are a bad person?”  Do you see the flaw in those two approaches? If you are consistent, you get my vote; if you change your stance based on the situation, you lose some credibility points, my friend.

Critical thinking has been lost on many, but there is a pocket of us roaming around, secretly texting, keeping our truth bombs private, snickering at others who follow flawed logic and rules, do not let the government or any other entity tell you how to live your life, don’t be a sheep. I’ve written that wolves ignore the opinion of sheep, and this has never been more true. 

In our little text group, we share stories highlighting the downfall of some of our major institutions. For example, did you know the Bank of America has a 75% chance of going bankrupt due to their short selling of AMC stock?  Look into it; I’m sure you can find a counter-story; that’s the problem, if you read a story about anything, you can find a counter-story sharing the opposing view. So who do you believe?  Ah, that’s where critical thinking comes into the equation.

If you listen to NPR as I do, you must use critical thinking when doing a story on, well, anything.  They shade the news well shine the information up to meet their narrative. For example, they called Dave Chappel a transphobic person due to his new comedy special, here is an idea, watch the new Chappel special and then make up your own opinion, is Chappel transphobic or is it those butt-hurt little college liberals spewing their self-righteous, lies to protect the feelings of .000456 of the population?

Oh my, a little saucy for my last soup at my mountain top chalet.  I hope I didn’t offend you, and if I did, I’m so sorry; your feelings are so important to me; I want to cuddle your feelings more than I would ever cuddle a fact.  Your feelings are paramount to my existence, if you feel sad or angry due to these words, please share your comment below, and I will carry your hurt and pain, reliving your tender heart of worry and strife.  Kidding, of course, suck it up, buttercup, Christmas is coming.

“I want to taste and glory in each day, and never be afraid to experience pain, and never shut myself up in a numb core of nonfeeling, or stop questioning and criticizing life and take the easy way out. Instead, to learn and think: to think and live; to live and learn: this always, with new insight, new understanding, and new love.”
— Sylvia Plath