Convenient Beliefs
Convenient Beliefs
Becoming Aware of Biased Beliefs
There are so many convenient beliefs today. There always have been. However, in today’s day and age, with such rapid spread of information, it’s scary. Yet, I’m excited about the topic.
“Why?” Asks Mr. Skeptical.
“This topic forces one to reflect on why they believe in something, making one better know oneself. It reminds me of a great quote in Shakespeare’s Hamlet:
‘To thine own self be true.’
Subconscious Fat at 30,000 feet
When I think of convenient beliefs, I often think of earning money or religion. Usually, the two are linked. These topics are heavy, and the consequences can be deadly, so let’s start with something light and fun.
I once read in a self-help bestselling book how a man’s lower belly fat rubbed up against his girlfriend’s clitoris during sex, helping her orgasm. At the time, I had a much bigger belly than I do now. I thought, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t worry so much about my gut.’ This was a very convenient belief for me to have. It was comforting.
A few weeks later, a woman spoke about belly fat on a late-night talk show. She said that a man’s penis is greatly affected by lower belly fat. She said that if a man loses two or three inches of belly fat, then that adds 2 or 3 inches to the length of a man’s penis during sex. The pot-bellied host said, “Okay, I see there’s a lot of potential for me.”
The audience laughed. Yet, I’m sure many men took what the woman said as serious, for she was convincing.
“What do you believe?” Asks Mr. Skeptical.
“I believe that whatever one believes creates reality. When I had the belly, thinking that that made me a better lover was convenient. Now that I have a six-pack, perhaps that makes me have a longer penis.”
“I’m sure that’s why you got a six-pack.”
I give Mr. Skeptical a dirty look. “No. It’s not. I don’t really believe it, and I heard this information years ago, so it wasn’t what made me get a six-pack in the last few months. I don’t think it matters much at all if a man has belly fat when it comes to being a good lover. However, both ideas appear plausible. Many convenient beliefs are a half or partial truth. The point of this is how easily we can create our own realities and find information to support our biased beliefs.”
Subconscious Fat at 10,000 feet
“Take the birth of the United States, for example. If you’re a Bible-thumping Christian, you’re more likely convinced that the early settlers to America came here for religious freedom.”
“I remember hearing about that in school.”
“Yes, there’s truth to it. If one is Christian, they’re more likely to believe that freedom of religion was the main reason this country got started. It started as a Christian nation. They’re also more likely to want Christianity mixed in with government.”
“I feel you don’t agree with mixing politics and religion.”
“I don’t. I’ll admit that because I’m agnostic, maybe it’s a convenient belief, but I believe most early settlers came to the US for economic reasons. To grow tobacco, chop down trees and sell wood, hunt beavers for fur, agriculture, and trade with the Native Americans. Many who came to settle in this country didn’t care much about religion. However, after getting here, most of them would attend church to network for business and fit in.”
“Hmmm, you sound cynical.”
“I’m being realistic. Heck, when I was a teenager, I’d go to church to meet cute girls, not because I believed some bearded being in the sky would punish me.”
Subconscious Fat at Eye-Level
Continuing the theme of the early United States, here is another example of how the past can create a convenient belief: The cause of the US Civil War. I was in Mississippi, and I met a fellow writer there.
“Wait. What were you doing in Mississippi?”
I hate it when Mr. Skeptical interrupts me!!! (Insert angry face emoji here). I yell, “Why the hell does that matter?”
Mr. Skeptical’s eyes widen. “Take a chill pill, will you.”
I take in a deep breath. “This individual in Mississippi said that the real cause of the Civil War was about the South having their rights and independence, not about slaves.”
“Well, I learned in school that it was about slavery.”
“So, did I. However, one can still view it as the South wanting its autonomy. That way, you don’t focus on the fact that the southern states enslaved people, and you can detract from the real cause of the war. This individual said it like it was a conspiracy that the federal government wanted us to believe it was about slavery. Like we were all brainwashed.”
“This person was racist, right?”
“Yes, I found out later that he was.”
Practical Suggestions and Conclusions
Whether you’re a Democrat, Republican, Independent, carnivore or vegetarian, rich or poor, ask yourself why. And then keep asking why and see what you come up with. Work on knowing yourself. See if there are inconsistencies with your beliefs. It helps one become aware and confront Subconscious Fat.
“I still want to know what you were doing in Mississippi. That’s like the last place I’d imagine you visiting.”
I can’t take it anymore. Mr. Skeptical is such an asshole.
Wow, Hermann got up and left while giving me the middle finger. There’s Subconscious Fat here, and he’s not telling us. Don’t worry, readers. I’ll find out what he was doing in Mississippi and what’s going on and mention it in a future post.
PS Full disclosure: Chat GPT was used to research and enhance this post.
PSS Since I have two chiropractor friends who live in Italy, I enjoyed this post by
The way we live in the United States is not normal.
Judeo-messianism has been spreading its poisonous message among us for almost two thousand years. Democratic and communist universalisms are more recent, but they have only reinforced the old Jewish narrative. They are the same ideals.
The transnational, transracial, transsexual, transcultural ideals that these ideologies preach to us (beyond peoples, races, cultures) and which are the daily sustenance of our schools, in our media, in our popular culture, in our universities, and on our streets, have ended up reducing our biosymbolic identity and our ethnic pride to their minimal expression.
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are death cults originating in the Middle East and totally foreign to Europe and its peoples.
We sometimes wonder why the European left gets along so well with Muslims. Why does an often openly anti-religious movement side with a fierce religiosity that seems to oppose almost everything the left has always claimed to defend? Part of the explanation lies in the fact that Islam and Marxism have a common ideological root: Judaism.
Don Rumsfeld was right when he said, “Europe has shifted on its axis,” it was the wrong side that won World War II, and it becomes clearer every day. . .
What has NATO done to defend Europe? . . . Absolutely nothing.
My enemies are not in Moscow, Damascus, Tehran, Riyadh or some ethereal Teutonic bogeyman, my enemies are in Washington, Brussels and Tel Aviv.
https://cwspangle.substack.com/p/pardonne-mon-francais-va-te-faire