In recent time scientists have spoken a lot about confirmation bias.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
That's the term they use to describe the way we embrace anything that aligns with the things we already believe, while rejecting articles, reports and even clear evidence that goes against the beliefs we hold dear.
You can boil it down to the old saying, "seek, and ye shall find," which basically spells out the way you can find whatever you're looking for if you are really determined to justify your beliefs.
It's how anti-vaxxers can ignore growing piles of medical reports, evidence and data from the world's top experts and respected medical authorities that talk of the veracity of immunisation programs.
And instead they'll seize a random report coming from the fringe of the scientific community to justify themselves and being at odds with the rest of society.
In a way they're really similar to those who describe themselves as sovereign citizens - whatever that means.
You know the ones - they're the people who believe they should not be subject the Australia's laws, but the laws should definitely apply to everyone else like a police officer who breaks a window to get someone out of a car when they refuse to comply with simple requests.
And again they rely on misinterpreting random snippets of laws, or pulling up dubious views of obscure documentation in some sort of vague attempt to justify their paranoid views of the world.
And then we have the Greens.
Now, I always had the feeling that behind the scenes, the Greens were just a bunch of old hippies, and going to a Greens rally or meeting shows that many of the crowd fit into that age bracket.
And now they want to legalise cannabis, in what appears to be an attempt by some in the background to justify their behaviour.
And in the process they want to ignore the scores of reports talking about cannabis use causing mental health problems in the community.
Even headspace, the highly regarded organisation focusing on mental health among young people, warns of the dangers.
Its report on cannabis impacts says, "Young people who use cannabis are at risk of developing mental health issues. It may also increase the risk of psychosis in some people."
But that's not really something we need to consider when all we really want to do is prove to others that we were in the right all along, during the decades we spent breaking the law, right?
