For me it's a family trait: trust, but with caveats.
Can the trust be verified? What happens to me if the one you trust betrays you? What do you do then? Is it someone actually betraying a trust or is it yourself overreacting due to similar past experiences? (That one is really important!) What recourse is there against a betrayer? Always look at a deal no matter big or small with an eye if it's set up without any kind of tangible liability for any party.
All of this I got from my upbringing, not codified as such but in proverbs and examples and explanations from parents and grandparents.
Trust but verify. Don't confuse your own self with the surface that you use to interact with others: you own self is for you and your family to know, not strangers. Don't give out information which gives others leverage. Learn the difference between knowing what is real, and what the system wants you to know as real - this is why you should keep up with main stream news:
When in the company of true believerswhich you are dependant on, you need to know what you are supposed to know so as to not give the game away. Also, with careful phrasing you can fish for like minded people, only with care: fanatics might do the same to ferret out dissidents.
As you can see, growing up in a socialist democracy leaves it's mark upon those who simply can't kill their own soul, and those who grew up in the real communist dictatorships had it much harsher.
But if I have to pick a similar childhood experience, it's this:
In our third grade book on natural sciences, there was a black and white image of the Milky Way. My grandmother's book on astronomy had that same picture as an example of how you make compound images by extrapolating from radio and other energy sources in space. (Used to read that book with the dictionary next to me. Was grandma proud or what!) But the school's book and our teacher (a lifer) said it was a photograph of the Milky Way.
Taken by satellite from outside the galaxy and sent here via radio.
An argument ensued which got me sent to the principal and psych eval. That psych later barred me from military service, which back then was done by conscription.
After dutifully following the "expert" advice of doctors, big pharma and the government's pediatric vaxx schedule, we watched our 17-month-old son regress before our eyes (after his MMR jab).
He's now a junior in a college honors program and a black belt in Kenpo Karate.
However, his recovery from Autism was not without a price. It took 10 years, a quarter million dollars, a good chunk of our marriage, my wife's career (and the lost earning opportunities) and his childhood.
The bright side is, the journey with our son most likely saved us from participating in the biggest medical experiment in the history of mankind.
Mar 25, 2022·edited Mar 25, 2022Liked by SimulationCommander
Simple, I have a good memory and most of the people who try to bullshit me again forget that I remembered the line they sold me the first time around (I can remember news cycles for over a decade so suck it CNN). It can be hard to tell who is lying the first time around but boy does it become easy after that!
When I was in my early 20s, I bought the book "The Experts Speak" by Christopher Cerf. I have no idea why I bought it, but I did. And perhaps that is when I lost all faith in those in positions of authority - the "experts" - and shifted to a position of "prove it to me, else, it's BS".
Even as President Trump was fast-tracking the vaxx development, my position from the get-go was NFW. I'm not taking any experimental drug until it has been fully tested on at least a billion people AND has at least 5 years' reliable safety data associated with it. ('course I had no idea how easy it would be to get a billion people to agree to be jabbed...)
About halfway through my career I found myself in the Regulatory Affairs Dept. of a medical device company. My boss thought I should get credentialed, so I attended a study group. When reviewing answers to the mock exam I was told that the correct answers were the ones that most people agreed upon and not necessarily what was attained through logic and reasoning. I knew right there and then that I would never be a certified regulatory specialist and therefore struggle to move up the regulatory ladder. I was willing to stall my career rather than to pin my reputation on bullshit credentials. I just couldn't stomach the lying.
I was a kid a lot like you… I noticed the inconsistencies between what the authorities said and did (my parents included) from an early age. As an early 20 something, I started learning about the killing fields, and the horrible prisons in Cuba. Later I learned about and eventually met a Romanian who had been in an underground prison for 14 years before he was ransomed out by Israel (Richard Wurmbrand.) I became obsessed with understanding what happened behind the iron curtain. Then behind the bamboo curtain. Read tons (and we were still in the cold war). The Russian Doctor, Gulag Archipelago, Life and Death in Shanghai (and probably 30 others). Later in life, I had my own issues with big pharma and big food. I knew that margarine was bullshit! I saw what food/pharma were going after people who disagreed or raised concerns (about sugar or cholesterol!) I saw them try to destroy some doctor’s lives for suggesting to people that they change their diet instead of resorting to drugs with dubious side-effects. I guess I was primed to be a canary in the coal mine. It all has the same root and they use the same playbook. Act like liberators, punish those who notice the lack of liberation. I was also suspicious of operation warp speed. I had a nurse friend who offered me a vaccine when they first rolled out, before I was in the “age group” to receive it. When I told her, “no thank you I’m waiting for more long-term data” She asked how long I would wait… I said two or three years. She was absolutely shocked. She acted like I was CRAZY. Damn! am I glad I waited for that long term data!
I grew up in a family of six kids with a very strict, and authoritarian, academic father, and a sweet but weak mother who defended him, even though you felt she knew it was wrong. I fought hard to stand up for myself, to let my ideas about life have value for me; it sure wasn't easy as my father was also very verbally and physically abusive. Church services were the place where I learned truly what hypocrisy means...most likely those weekly visits planted the seeds of distrust in many institutions and people, and my default mode was to question everyone and everything. Still the only one in the family to do so, have always been the black sheep and so happy to stay so! I'm the only one left in my family of origin with pure blood...none of this BS Covid mess made any sense from the beginning, and I am proud of myself for not caving and believing the false narrative. Stay curious, and question always! I taught my two kids to do the same and encouraged them to think for themselves....they are also unjabbed! There are many of us like this, and these posts make me feel supported!
Mar 29, 2022·edited May 10, 2022Liked by SimulationCommander
I’m retired military. Based on personal experience, I don’t trust anyone in a position of authority. It’s nothing personal, but people in authority are always shading and dissembling and outright lying. And it’s not just politicians either.
It's funny you ask about what in our development lead us to become who we are. I have spent a great deal of time getting to really know myself after a difficult divorce, and let me tell ya... found out a lot that I had never really been aware of. My path to being a skeptic started early, I think I remember my first introduction into racism, and it came from a teacher towards one of my good friends. It really opened my eyes to the fact that the world was not the same as I had thought. I also think from a very early age, I tended to be a little bit of a contrarian. Not for the sake of being different or disagreeable, but because I didn't want to sign off on something that I didn't fully understand or agree with. Not sure if anyone else here agonized over test questions that offered absolute answers, but I always did because my mind would instantly recognize exceptions to the absolutes. The older I have gotten the more that I think my "outside of the box" thinking has helped me in my life, as well as my ability to keep my thoughts to myself unless it's safe or prudent to share them.
I also love to debate others who can share thoughts without a deep emotional attachment. In my world there are a TON of left leaning people that just cannot have an honest conversation or defend a position without getting angry or emotional. It strikes me That so many people can have such deeply held beliefs without the ability to explain WHY they think these things. Part of the fun of growing as a person is to discover new information and be willing to open your mind and heart to new possibilities. How sad must it be to have blinders on and only accept information into your world that reinforces what you think you know, even if you kind of know your not right...
Seeing this in others helps me to question my own beliefs, therefore I am very quick to question others. Only seems fair to me, and within civil discourse, we both might learn something.
Mar 25, 2022·edited Mar 25, 2022Liked by SimulationCommander
I started a business before going to business school. I quickly realized the worst way to answer any quiz question was based on real life experiences. It was the way “the textbook” said it or it was wrong.
That was my great awakening.
Also, I didn’t receive this in my Inbox either. Get well, SC.
I gave the answers the teachers wanted, even when I knew it was wrong. I was very intuitive at figuring out what the teacher's or lesson's goal was.
When I was in grade 8, I read a book about the history of particle physics. It explained how and why wave-particle duality applied to atoms, and how the standard model of elections orbiting a nucleus is a complete simplification, a lie. So all through high school I had to "lie" in my chemistry classes. I'm not sure we even covered the topic in first year university.
At this point, I've come to realize that probably almost everything we think we know in science is incomplete, a gross simplification, or flat-out wrong. Everything. (I'm an engineer in training, doing modeling of stormwater - that's tons of simplifications and assumptions.) It's a bit of a brain-melting position to take, as we still have to keep on keeping on even though we are wrong.
I actually dropped out of school for being chastised for asking to many questions and or why? For years I looked down upon myself until I finally realized being self taught is the very best education you can possibly have. School teaches you what to think not how. I don't own a TV nor have I ever and spend my life reading which I then research relentlessly before believing anything. My philosophy has always been PROVE to me what you're saying is true or accurate. Few people love a good debate more than I do. There is no better form of information than listening to all sides of an argument.
I posted part of this with Eugyppius back in January.
My 4th grade teacher was a pedophile and the school tried to cover it up while he was touching my friends, two preachers at my Baptist church were caught with their pants down with parishioners, and my Boy Scout troop leader was caught lying about his own Eagle Scout accomplishments ( he didn'tsave any lives), plus, my wife works with autistic children and the studies and trends from that part of Healthcare are ridiculous.
AND, my mom lied about Santa Claus!! (ok, that one was harmless)
Blame is squarely laid at Bill Watterson’s feet. He’s the cartoonist behind Calvin and Hobbes.
Memories are a bit fuzzy, but I was reading that stuff as soon as I knew how. May have helped teach me to read.
If you’re unfamiliar with it, a six year old kid and his stuffed tiger/imaginary best friend run roughshod over everything and anything that comes their way.
Going back and reading it now I’m shocked and slightly embarrassed how much influence it had over my life. Well, maybe I wasn’t reading John Calvin or Thomas Hobbes, but I suppose Bill wasn’t a terrible option at the time.
And you can just imagine my face when I ran across Wormwood (cartoon Calvin’s teacher) in C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters.
Don't have a clue. I was always questioning the narrative from a very young age. I used to get in trouble all the time in public school for not doing things the way we were told we *had* to do them. Or if 4 out of 5 doctors recommended something, I want to find out why that 5th one doesn't recommend it! In the military I got a lot of that brainwashed out of me and it took quite a few years for me to remember who I was. I'm happy to say I've experienced a full recovery and don't trust anyone or anything anymore. Even my own family gets questioned at times. Lol.
I had a horrible childhood. That's what taught me not to trust. But here's the thing. That concept was reiterated over years. The most valuable lesson was this. I was in Physician Assistant school. One of my preceptors was an old, old, doctor who told me to never be the first to try out any new drug. He said for me to let others try it. If they succeeded after a while, go ahead. But wait, be cautious, and never be an early adopter.
I learned the lesson well, and it came in very handy about the time that the COVID vaccine came out. A little caution and a little skepticism can be excellent.
For me it's a family trait: trust, but with caveats.
Can the trust be verified? What happens to me if the one you trust betrays you? What do you do then? Is it someone actually betraying a trust or is it yourself overreacting due to similar past experiences? (That one is really important!) What recourse is there against a betrayer? Always look at a deal no matter big or small with an eye if it's set up without any kind of tangible liability for any party.
All of this I got from my upbringing, not codified as such but in proverbs and examples and explanations from parents and grandparents.
Trust but verify. Don't confuse your own self with the surface that you use to interact with others: you own self is for you and your family to know, not strangers. Don't give out information which gives others leverage. Learn the difference between knowing what is real, and what the system wants you to know as real - this is why you should keep up with main stream news:
When in the company of true believerswhich you are dependant on, you need to know what you are supposed to know so as to not give the game away. Also, with careful phrasing you can fish for like minded people, only with care: fanatics might do the same to ferret out dissidents.
As you can see, growing up in a socialist democracy leaves it's mark upon those who simply can't kill their own soul, and those who grew up in the real communist dictatorships had it much harsher.
But if I have to pick a similar childhood experience, it's this:
In our third grade book on natural sciences, there was a black and white image of the Milky Way. My grandmother's book on astronomy had that same picture as an example of how you make compound images by extrapolating from radio and other energy sources in space. (Used to read that book with the dictionary next to me. Was grandma proud or what!) But the school's book and our teacher (a lifer) said it was a photograph of the Milky Way.
Taken by satellite from outside the galaxy and sent here via radio.
An argument ensued which got me sent to the principal and psych eval. That psych later barred me from military service, which back then was done by conscription.
"Pathologically anti-authoritarian", it reads.
After dutifully following the "expert" advice of doctors, big pharma and the government's pediatric vaxx schedule, we watched our 17-month-old son regress before our eyes (after his MMR jab).
He's now a junior in a college honors program and a black belt in Kenpo Karate.
However, his recovery from Autism was not without a price. It took 10 years, a quarter million dollars, a good chunk of our marriage, my wife's career (and the lost earning opportunities) and his childhood.
The bright side is, the journey with our son most likely saved us from participating in the biggest medical experiment in the history of mankind.
Simple, I have a good memory and most of the people who try to bullshit me again forget that I remembered the line they sold me the first time around (I can remember news cycles for over a decade so suck it CNN). It can be hard to tell who is lying the first time around but boy does it become easy after that!
When I was in my early 20s, I bought the book "The Experts Speak" by Christopher Cerf. I have no idea why I bought it, but I did. And perhaps that is when I lost all faith in those in positions of authority - the "experts" - and shifted to a position of "prove it to me, else, it's BS".
Even as President Trump was fast-tracking the vaxx development, my position from the get-go was NFW. I'm not taking any experimental drug until it has been fully tested on at least a billion people AND has at least 5 years' reliable safety data associated with it. ('course I had no idea how easy it would be to get a billion people to agree to be jabbed...)
About halfway through my career I found myself in the Regulatory Affairs Dept. of a medical device company. My boss thought I should get credentialed, so I attended a study group. When reviewing answers to the mock exam I was told that the correct answers were the ones that most people agreed upon and not necessarily what was attained through logic and reasoning. I knew right there and then that I would never be a certified regulatory specialist and therefore struggle to move up the regulatory ladder. I was willing to stall my career rather than to pin my reputation on bullshit credentials. I just couldn't stomach the lying.
I was a kid a lot like you… I noticed the inconsistencies between what the authorities said and did (my parents included) from an early age. As an early 20 something, I started learning about the killing fields, and the horrible prisons in Cuba. Later I learned about and eventually met a Romanian who had been in an underground prison for 14 years before he was ransomed out by Israel (Richard Wurmbrand.) I became obsessed with understanding what happened behind the iron curtain. Then behind the bamboo curtain. Read tons (and we were still in the cold war). The Russian Doctor, Gulag Archipelago, Life and Death in Shanghai (and probably 30 others). Later in life, I had my own issues with big pharma and big food. I knew that margarine was bullshit! I saw what food/pharma were going after people who disagreed or raised concerns (about sugar or cholesterol!) I saw them try to destroy some doctor’s lives for suggesting to people that they change their diet instead of resorting to drugs with dubious side-effects. I guess I was primed to be a canary in the coal mine. It all has the same root and they use the same playbook. Act like liberators, punish those who notice the lack of liberation. I was also suspicious of operation warp speed. I had a nurse friend who offered me a vaccine when they first rolled out, before I was in the “age group” to receive it. When I told her, “no thank you I’m waiting for more long-term data” She asked how long I would wait… I said two or three years. She was absolutely shocked. She acted like I was CRAZY. Damn! am I glad I waited for that long term data!
I grew up in a family of six kids with a very strict, and authoritarian, academic father, and a sweet but weak mother who defended him, even though you felt she knew it was wrong. I fought hard to stand up for myself, to let my ideas about life have value for me; it sure wasn't easy as my father was also very verbally and physically abusive. Church services were the place where I learned truly what hypocrisy means...most likely those weekly visits planted the seeds of distrust in many institutions and people, and my default mode was to question everyone and everything. Still the only one in the family to do so, have always been the black sheep and so happy to stay so! I'm the only one left in my family of origin with pure blood...none of this BS Covid mess made any sense from the beginning, and I am proud of myself for not caving and believing the false narrative. Stay curious, and question always! I taught my two kids to do the same and encouraged them to think for themselves....they are also unjabbed! There are many of us like this, and these posts make me feel supported!
I’m retired military. Based on personal experience, I don’t trust anyone in a position of authority. It’s nothing personal, but people in authority are always shading and dissembling and outright lying. And it’s not just politicians either.
It's funny you ask about what in our development lead us to become who we are. I have spent a great deal of time getting to really know myself after a difficult divorce, and let me tell ya... found out a lot that I had never really been aware of. My path to being a skeptic started early, I think I remember my first introduction into racism, and it came from a teacher towards one of my good friends. It really opened my eyes to the fact that the world was not the same as I had thought. I also think from a very early age, I tended to be a little bit of a contrarian. Not for the sake of being different or disagreeable, but because I didn't want to sign off on something that I didn't fully understand or agree with. Not sure if anyone else here agonized over test questions that offered absolute answers, but I always did because my mind would instantly recognize exceptions to the absolutes. The older I have gotten the more that I think my "outside of the box" thinking has helped me in my life, as well as my ability to keep my thoughts to myself unless it's safe or prudent to share them.
I also love to debate others who can share thoughts without a deep emotional attachment. In my world there are a TON of left leaning people that just cannot have an honest conversation or defend a position without getting angry or emotional. It strikes me That so many people can have such deeply held beliefs without the ability to explain WHY they think these things. Part of the fun of growing as a person is to discover new information and be willing to open your mind and heart to new possibilities. How sad must it be to have blinders on and only accept information into your world that reinforces what you think you know, even if you kind of know your not right...
Seeing this in others helps me to question my own beliefs, therefore I am very quick to question others. Only seems fair to me, and within civil discourse, we both might learn something.
I started a business before going to business school. I quickly realized the worst way to answer any quiz question was based on real life experiences. It was the way “the textbook” said it or it was wrong.
That was my great awakening.
Also, I didn’t receive this in my Inbox either. Get well, SC.
I gave the answers the teachers wanted, even when I knew it was wrong. I was very intuitive at figuring out what the teacher's or lesson's goal was.
When I was in grade 8, I read a book about the history of particle physics. It explained how and why wave-particle duality applied to atoms, and how the standard model of elections orbiting a nucleus is a complete simplification, a lie. So all through high school I had to "lie" in my chemistry classes. I'm not sure we even covered the topic in first year university.
At this point, I've come to realize that probably almost everything we think we know in science is incomplete, a gross simplification, or flat-out wrong. Everything. (I'm an engineer in training, doing modeling of stormwater - that's tons of simplifications and assumptions.) It's a bit of a brain-melting position to take, as we still have to keep on keeping on even though we are wrong.
I actually dropped out of school for being chastised for asking to many questions and or why? For years I looked down upon myself until I finally realized being self taught is the very best education you can possibly have. School teaches you what to think not how. I don't own a TV nor have I ever and spend my life reading which I then research relentlessly before believing anything. My philosophy has always been PROVE to me what you're saying is true or accurate. Few people love a good debate more than I do. There is no better form of information than listening to all sides of an argument.
I posted part of this with Eugyppius back in January.
My 4th grade teacher was a pedophile and the school tried to cover it up while he was touching my friends, two preachers at my Baptist church were caught with their pants down with parishioners, and my Boy Scout troop leader was caught lying about his own Eagle Scout accomplishments ( he didn'tsave any lives), plus, my wife works with autistic children and the studies and trends from that part of Healthcare are ridiculous.
AND, my mom lied about Santa Claus!! (ok, that one was harmless)
I trust no one.
Blame is squarely laid at Bill Watterson’s feet. He’s the cartoonist behind Calvin and Hobbes.
Memories are a bit fuzzy, but I was reading that stuff as soon as I knew how. May have helped teach me to read.
If you’re unfamiliar with it, a six year old kid and his stuffed tiger/imaginary best friend run roughshod over everything and anything that comes their way.
Going back and reading it now I’m shocked and slightly embarrassed how much influence it had over my life. Well, maybe I wasn’t reading John Calvin or Thomas Hobbes, but I suppose Bill wasn’t a terrible option at the time.
And you can just imagine my face when I ran across Wormwood (cartoon Calvin’s teacher) in C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters.
Don't have a clue. I was always questioning the narrative from a very young age. I used to get in trouble all the time in public school for not doing things the way we were told we *had* to do them. Or if 4 out of 5 doctors recommended something, I want to find out why that 5th one doesn't recommend it! In the military I got a lot of that brainwashed out of me and it took quite a few years for me to remember who I was. I'm happy to say I've experienced a full recovery and don't trust anyone or anything anymore. Even my own family gets questioned at times. Lol.
I had a horrible childhood. That's what taught me not to trust. But here's the thing. That concept was reiterated over years. The most valuable lesson was this. I was in Physician Assistant school. One of my preceptors was an old, old, doctor who told me to never be the first to try out any new drug. He said for me to let others try it. If they succeeded after a while, go ahead. But wait, be cautious, and never be an early adopter.
I learned the lesson well, and it came in very handy about the time that the COVID vaccine came out. A little caution and a little skepticism can be excellent.