A Lovely Harmless Monster

Editing: topics/ideology

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title:Ideology
author:matt
tags:topics, philosophy, politics
date:2025-05-08
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# Ideology

Ideology is when you believe something is true because you believe that it's true; or often, because you believe that everyone else believes that it's true. We rationalize our ideologies with appeals to evidence, tradition, superstition and authority. Even when an ideology is supported by evidence, we fundamentally believe it *because* we believe it, holding evidence in favor of the belief as irrefutable proof, while rejecting any and all evidence against. This is especially dangerous in a poorly educated society, because the average person doesn't know how to discern good evidence from bad evidence.

We all have ideology regardless of what belief system we were raised in. It can be religious or secular, and neither is fundamentally more dangerous: religious ideologies have oppressed and immiserated people for thousands of years, but our current dominant planet-burning ideology is secular in nature. As time goes on, and secular ideologies are proven more definitively untrue, they're usually forced to adopt religious characteristics so people can continue believing them.

It's impossible to completely free ourselves from ideology, but we should all strive to eliminate ideology from our thought processes as much as possible, even the ideology we *"know"* is based on strong scientific principles; scientific understanding evolves all the time, and the cognitive dissonance of having an ideology refuted can be very painful. The ideology that "there are only two sexes" is a recent relevant example: the cognitive dissonance is so strong that it's prompting many people to destroy their lives and the lives of our most vulnerable and marginalized neighbors.

To prevent this fate, it's a good idea to re-examine our own axioms and assumptions on a regular basis to avoid any psychic pain when they're inevitably challenged. We should also form strong evidence-based arguments for the things we believe: "that's just the way things are" is a dangerous thing to think, even if it's about a belief that happens to be true. Accepting TJtWTA about an idea makes us more susceptible to believing untrue and harmful ideas. Also, being able to argue our own positions helps us fight harmful ideologies.

>💡 Recommended Media
>
> * [The Pervert's Guide to Ideology](https://www.kanopy.com/en/product/perverts-guide-ideology)
>* [The Principia Discordia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principia_Discordia#Overview)

>Tags: $$tags$$

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