Staying smart in a world of "bad information"

I’ve been on a bit of a history-bender (if that’s what you call it) for a while now. Let’s say most of my life. No really, I’ve been getting a renewed interest in history, which is great really. I fell in love with history when I was something like 9 or 10 years old after watching The Tudors (I know, not supposed to watch it at that age blah blah blah). I loved everything about that show and for years, I had a huge fascination for the Tudor period (as well as many others). And that’s exactly what I wanted to write about today.

_{I did not just spend ten minutes looking at pictures of this guy....Image}

The Tudors is a pretty good show, but it’s hugely inaccurate, you know, historically speaking. At least at times. Yet still, even though I know that, I can’t help but have a feeling of affection for Henry VIII, even though he was basically an asshole. But come on, have you seen Jonathan Rhys Meyers? How can you hate him?
But even though the show isn’t the best point of reference and shouldn’t be treated as such, it’s still good information. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, about information intake. I mean, looking back at some of the books I used to read when I was small, like the ones below or Philippa Gregory’s writing, all these things I used to consider highly historical and smart...And now, looking back, I know they weren’t. I know there are better places to get accurate portrayals of people and I’ve learned to distinguish between good historical fiction and books that can actually help you learn and books that can’t. Or, as I like to think of them, bad information.

Except I’m wrong here.

There is no such thing as bad information. It’s just information and if you’re never exposed to wrong stuff, you won’t know how to make the difference between the two, between what is actually true or worth knowing and what is not.
For example, these books in the picture (I remember I was really proud of reading them at about eleven or twelve because they’re big and seem smart) are full of cheap propaganda. Thinking back, they don’t show accurate portrayals of any of the rulers/people they write about. It’s sloppy writing and I hate sloppy writing now, but maybe I wouldn’t, if I hadn’t been exposed to it. I mean, looking back at some of the stuff I used to consider good historical information, I cringe. But those too were part of my learning.

“Bad information” helps you grow. It’s not harmful. What can be harmful, however, is what you do with this information. For example, if you say “okay, this is all the information I need, I’ve read this one book on Roman emperors, I’m set”, then that’s bad. It’s not a healthy way to view knowledge, but some people are like that. Recently, I came across this one woman who thought The Tudors was a reliable history source and she considered herself pretty smart because she was quoting the show.
That’s a terrible mentality. It’s literally what is wrong with this world, this feeling of entitlement and “I know just enough”, of “I can be right even though I’m mis-informed and generally stupid”.
But that’s not the information’s fault. It’s yours because you’re using it wrong.

Take for example, the news. Now, the news can’t really be trusted to provide you with an accurate portrayal of events. Any news channel. See, people seem to think “channel X is full of propaganda or is in so-and-so party’s pocket” and that may well be true. It probably is being sponsored by a certain political party to spread lies.
But where these people fail is they just go on to the opposition, to any of the other news channels and – provided they bad-mouth the first channel just enough – trust them blindly. The news is a lose-lose situation, my friends. Here, there is no good sort of information. It’s only lies. But again, what you do with that information makes all the difference. You can listen to a certain set of lies and go out and protest the other set of lies and think yourself a liberator and a freedom fighter. But you’re not. you’ve just chosen the lies that seem more appealing to you. You’re in no way different to the people who listen to the other channel.

The reason I made this comparison is that there is “bad” information all around us. It doesn’t just concern history books or gardening or any one subject. It exists in each and every aspect of life and it’s important to learn to recognize it and use it accordingly. See, it’s not enough to recognize it’s bad information and just ignore it. That won’t make it go away. You need to learn to see it for what it is and then make up your own mind, take what you can and what you need from any one source of information, but learn to depend on none.

You can learn from anything. From bad books, from bad movies. From good books and good movies. From left wing and right wing and anywhere in between. Often enough, the only thing you’re missing is the right mentality needed to learn.

Thanks for reading,