Distrust that Particular Flavour

I'm here today to talk about the blue pills.

Note the plural.

It's easy enough now to understand what many people call "THE" blue pill, especially since others have done all the hard work for you. Just read the sidebar. What's harder to come by is an understanding of just how those others came to say those things, and how that might apply to other things.

Grasping the truth about women and sex is one thing. Grasping the truth about grasping the truth is quite another.

But does anyone out there think that women are the only thing in life you've been lied to about? There are many, many Blue Pills in life, and nobody's going to make a discussion group for each and every one. So without the ability to do what others did, the ability to spot blue pills yourself instead of merely understanding someone who points them out to you, you're going to remain vulnerable to a lot of nonsense of all sorts.

Now, it's easy enough to see a lie when you already know the truth. And it's easy enough to discern lies when you can test a proposition for yourself. But that doesn't cover all of reality. How can you avoid being bluepilled when you don't have the resources to test, or access to the data, and can only hear what others tell you about it?

When you can't find out the truth, you need to learn to spot the lie by its own characteristics. That won't tell you what the truth is, of course, but it will tell you when to skeptical, and suspicious. Lies have distinguishing features.

Blue pills have an aftertaste. Learn to distrust that particular flavour.

A selection from Whisper's bullshit blue pill detection tools:

• Lies are told by those who want them believed. Be suspicious if the person telling you a thing profits from you believing that thing, or learned it from someone who profits from you believing that thing.

• Truth can be observed many times from the universe, but lies spread from their authors. Be suspicious if every person who tells you an idea uses the same words. Odds are they all heard it from each other.

• Lies are told to get you to do something. Be suspicious if the man telling you something to believe also has something he wants you to do because of that.

• People are defensive about lies. Be suspicious if proponents of a narrative get mad that you don't believe them.

• Liars hate the burden of evidence, and want to shift it. Be suspicious of any speaker who demands justification for your skepticism.

• Liars don't like competition. Be suspicious of anyone who tries to silence other narratives, instead of ignoring or criticizing them.

• Profitable things justify investment. If someone is spending a lot of money to spread a story, be suspicious. They expect to profit from that investment.'

• People tend to believe what they want the truth to be, but the universe is perverse. Be suspicious if a story contains no bad news. Since when did the universe become friendly to our desires?

• Liars love language. Those who have no evidence can't show you anything... they have only words. Be suspicious of anyone who tries to change the words you use... they are trying to influence how you think. (Thanks, /u/Heathcliff--)

• Liars rely on reverence. If you're afraid to have your story questioned, you attach it to the coattails of that which it is socially unacceptable to question. This might be JESUS (as opposed to just the moral traditions of our culture) in some communities and SCIENCE! (as opposed to just plain old science) in others. Remember that liars want to stop the argument, not settle it.

• Liars make compound assertions. Be suspicious of someone who doesn't want to let you pick and choose what to believe from his story. Anyone can start with an obviously true statement, but truth is not contagious. It doesn't infect the rest of this narrative.

You can sample any story, from religion to late-night television commercials, from these characteristic tastes, and for others like them. But even more important is the process of tasting again to find them in what you already believe. The lies you never notice are the ones that hurt you the most. Learn to recognize the distinguishing smells of a lie in the things you know to be lies. Then look for them elsewhere.

Remember that skepticism is free.