Think What You Will

In the aftermath of the blowup between President Trump and President Zelensky (I never know if it should be one "y" or two) the competing partisan narratives are lining up to do battle. Pointlessly, in my opinion, as no matter what happens, few, if any, minds will be changed.

People believe the things they do because those beliefs work for them. Those beliefs don't have to work for, or even be intelligible to, anyone else. If someone's understanding of what went down today is directly a function of whether their preferred party is in charge, it's not that they succumbed to willful delusion, it's that it helps make the world an understandable place, where the effects that they're interested in directly flow from the causes they pay attention to. But more importantly, it's not any different for the person who follows the fundamentals and sees the cause and effect that way.

About the only thing that a genuine understanding of causes and effects brings is an ability to predict the future with reasonable accuracy when given enough information. And most people don't do that. And they don't care that they can't. Because so few other people care. If people can make one inaccurate prediction after another, yet still show up on the news because they're good for a catchy soundbite, people are going to understand that there aren't really any consequences for getting things wrong. And so they believe those things that bring them comfort, or pleasure, or whatever other feelings they're chasing at the moment.

I tend to be of the opinion that there's nothing wrong with that, but, well, that's because it works for me... I don't see most people's beliefs as being relevant to my day-to-day life, and that gives me a certain amount of leeway to allow people to believe whatever they want to. After all, I might have problems in life, but the various things that people believe that I find to be bizarre are not among them. I've learned that I don't have to care, and that gives me the freedom to allow people to think as they will.

But I understand that this is only a contingent fact, it could have been different, and at some point in the future it might well be. But for now, it's a certain level of freedom from anxiety about what people think. So I'm going to enjoy it, while it lasts.