If you look up the word “lunacy,” you’ll see that it is based on the belief that the phases of the moon affect behavioral disorders.  In fact, a fairly recent article in a prestigious psychiatric journal notes that “as many as 81% of mental health workers” believe that the full moon correlates with people losing their minds.  That would make it once every twenty-eight days.  And while this journal disputes this notion in their article “Psychiatric Presentations During All 4 Phases of the Lunar Cycle,” I must wonder whether we can truly shut the door completely on this matter. In this post, I will speak about Scary Stories, Pizza Parlors and Critical Thinking, or why critical thinking is important when deciding whom to vote for.

As a matter of fact, my hypotheses is that people in America act crazy not once every month, but once every four years.  These are leap years ending in an even number and correlating with presidential elections in the U.S.  Such as 2024, where we once again find ourselves outside (or, perhaps, inside) an asylum.  That should give us pause. And this would be a good time to refill your coffee cup.

I put off an essay on critical thinking years ago because I did not want to offend my Republican friends.  Their opinions on critical thinking and scientific theory are a matter of record to the general public and especially to educators who pushed for Goals 2000 and especially the Common Core. The Common Core was an initiative which featured critical thinking prominently.  Apparently, our elected representatives on the right side of the aisle were concerned that critical thinking and scientific theory might close our minds to other possibilities to explain our world, such as urban legends and ghost stories. Knock on wood.

The straw that broke the camels back for me was Donald Trump’s media circus conference yesterday. I am expecting a transcript of it momentarily (and you can get a transcript here, yourself, when it is available.) Now, admittedly all I heard were soundbites, which is really a good thing for me, because I did not have to listen yet again to patent falsehoods such as that the 2020 election was stolen, that no one died on January 6, 2021, that President Vladimir Putin deserves more credit that we are willing to give him, that Jews in America should be ashamed of themselves for not enthusiastically supporting Trump, and so on. What I did witness before Donald Trump snatched a box of Cheerios off the table and shuffled back to his clubhouse at Bedminister, not far from where his first wife Ivanka is buried next to the first hole was a confusing rant about “bird cemeteries” and how Kamala Harris would make a bad President because she laughs so much.

I just cannot put off any longer the reminder, if not to you, then to myself and our golden retriever Molly, how important critical thinking is. And Molly actually knows this, because she at least sniffs something before she swallows it hook, line and sinker.

When I first became a Christian at the age of nineteen, I would occasionally hear all sorts of fantastic stories mixed in with what people would say and believe about the Bible. There was the story about the hitchhiker. Two guys pick him up on a lonely stretch of road and he slips into the back seat of their two door sedan. As they drive along, he tells them about Jesus and they convert to Christianity because of what the hitchhiker said. When they pull over for gas, they find that the hitchhiker has vanished and conclude that he was an angel who disappeared as easily as Barbra Eden. Boink!

Then there was the one about “the missing day.” Bell Laboratories or some other institute needed to account for every day for the last ten thousand years. They discover there is a missing day, and the only thing that explains it are two passages in the Old Testament. For a while, urban legends like this would cause my pulse to race, but then I moved on. I did not lose any sleep when I read that the Proctor & Gamble logo was Satanic, or that UPC codes (i.e., bar codes) were the “mark of the beast.” By the time I heard about the Comet Ping Pong Pizzeria in Washington, D.C. being involved in child smuggling with help from Hilary Clinton (who happened to be running as a Democrat against Donald Trump), I barely blinked. Thomas Jefferson faced likewise ridiculous accusations in his day, I knew from my studies. It’s always the Democrats who are in league with the Devil. Even today.

I think I lost interest in conspiracy theories around the time I went to graduate school. I knew I could get away with writing reckless and outrageous things if I could support them. I just couldn’t find any credible sources to substantiate that there are fifty foot alligators in the NYC sewer system, that chocolate milk comes from chocolate cows, that Hitler is alive (he’d be 135) or that the Earth is actually flat. But not everyone seems to have made that leap towards critical thinking with me.

WHAT IS CRITICAL THINKING?

Critical thinking does not come naturally to people. Not even to Jesuits. It’s a skillset that must be learned and developed through practice. And failing to do so has consequences that can cause great harm. For a President of the U.S. to twist the truth (as Lyndon Johnson did to get Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964) is inexcusable, even criminal! Johnson did not use critical thinking when he processed a sketchy incident involving Vietnamese fishermen and most members of Congress did not apply critical thinking to what he said. For the few that did, they were tarred as traitors. Critical thinking is a healthy process. It does not threaten my faith in the least! There is nothing wrong in challenging your assumptions. If your assumptions can be easily overturned, they were not that important to begin with. I came late to the discussions on global warming, but eventually the evidence supporting climate change became overwhelming. The facts supporting global warming are clear and convincing (at least to me.)

Why critical thinking is important when deciding whom to vote for

We all know not to automatically believe what people say. There is some truth, after all, in the saying “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t.” We don’t want to be paranoid, but some suspicion is healthy. Especially if you win the lottery, or you are on a dating app, or looking for a general contractor to make major (expensive) renovations on your home. Critical thinking requires that you listen to all points of view carefully. Listen to CNN. Watch Fox. Balance the news sources you solicit.

Then, there is the question to consider: Which seems to be the most plausible explanation? You may have heard of Occam’s Razor which indirectly says that the simplest explanation is probably the most likely. Here is where the term comes from:

Occam’s razor is a popular mental model, to say the least. But, before we move on, let’s address your burning question. Why is Occam’s razor called a razor? This mental model cuts away competing solutions, leaving the simplest—and supposedly most likely—explanation in place. By slicing and leaving aside more complex theories, it metaphorically acts as a razor.”

It is also important to be skeptical if something seems to be untrue. Some of you may have served on juries. You’ll recall that the accused has the presumption of innocence. If the prosecutor or the police present evidence that seems to be sketchy, you should treat it with suspicion. I have a fair amount of respect for the justice system in America, but I know that prosecutorial misconduct occurs, and much too often.

Hopefully, this short essay has convinced you why critical thinking is important when deciding whom to vote for.

If you don’t practice critical thinking in the eighty odd days left before Election Day (and some of you may vote in October), then the wrong person may become president. We might have a cheap–though wealthy—charlatan elected who will cost you your future, your fortune, your very lives. That, my friends, is a scary story!