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The other day, I read both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, but the thing I read that was most enlightening was a bumper sticker on the rear fender of a car in Pittsford Plaza. It said: “Don’t Believe Everything You Think.”
What a fresh and welcome idea—especially in this time when half the country is certain the other half is crazy.
“Don’t Believe Everything You Think” suggests we take half a step back from being so sure about our own opinions.
The origin of this five-word bit of wisdom is unclear.
An early appearance in print came in the 1992 self-help book, “Don’t Believe Everything You Think: The 6 Basic Mistakes We Make in Thinking” by Thomas Kida, a professor of business management.
Where did the author get the idea for the title?
“I can’t honestly remember,” Kida told me in an email. “At the time, I was brainstorming with friends and colleagues for a catchy title. My best guess is I took the often-used phrase ‘don’t believe everything you see (or hear)’ and … just changed ‘see’ or ‘hear” to think.”
Some contend the phrase dates back decades earlier and was inspired by Buddhist-influenced self-help books.
But I found a similar sentiment expressed in another possible source—from thousands of years ago.
The Talmud, a compendium of Jewish teaching and debate, warns: “Don’t be certain of anything until the day of your death.” (Pirke Avot, 4:2) Attributed to the sage Hillel, this insight into humility may have been inspired by the life of another famous rabbi, Yohanan Cohen Gadol (“John the High Priest”) who late in life radically shifted his ideological viewpoint.
As many of us do.
I recall being in my 20s and 30s and knowing for certain what was right about lots of things—politics, social issues, even movies and food—only to find years later that much of what I’d been certain about no longer reflected my views. In some matters, in fact, I’d come to believe just the opposite.
If I’m fortunate to live many years more, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of my views change yet again.
“I reserve the right to be smarter tomorrow than I was yesterday,” Konrad Adenauer, the first chancellor of West Germany after World War II, is said to have remarked.
Shifting perspective, coming around, wising up, doing a 180, or having a change of heart—whatever we call it, changing one’s mind is a common experience.
So common, in fact, that the Wall Street Journal has a regular feature called “About Face” where readers submit first-person essays about how they changed their minds on personal or societal issues. The essays highlight moments of self-discovery or shifts in understanding. Recent articles address changes in perspective on family relationships, marriage vows, career paths, and personal habits following significant life events.
The division and political polarization we see today result from many factors, including divisive rhetoric from political leaders, biased news, and social media algorithms designed to reinforce our own views. All these encourage us to be certain that what we think is right and that those who think differently are wrong, even crazy.
And yet, experience cautions that there is danger in such certainty. Not only may we not be as right as we think, but in time our own views may change.
This isn’t to say we should all be centrists or refrain from expressing our viewpoints with passion, but leaving the door open to doubt—even just a little—can keep us curious and open to dialogue with others who think differently.
As British philosopher Bertrand Russell said: “The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.”
So, as both ancient and modern sages—and today’s bumper stickers—advise: let’s not believe everything we think.
Peter Lovenheim is Washington correspondent for the Rochester Beacon. He is author of “In the Neighborhood” and other works. His most recent book, “Gift Shop of Gratitude,” was published in 2024. He can be reached at [email protected].
The Beacon welcomes comments and letters from readers who adhere to our comment policy including use of their full, real name. See “Leave a Reply” below to discuss on this post. Comments of a general nature may be submitted to the Letters page by emailing [email protected].
The warning here is what organization consultant, Adam Grant brilliantly describes in his book, “Think Again!”
“Don’t get stranded on the summit of Mount Stupid!”
IDEA CONTESTS for Democrats might help.
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Why not ask people to submit ideas for DEMOCRATS on how to wake up voters, now?
Democrats tend to ramble on, endlessly, boring and insulting voters, while TRUMP continues BRAINWASHING people….
Trump has DAILY DRAMA. Trump has GUTS. Trump has endless media REPETITION.
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How do we wake people up? That is the question, I think we should be asking, daily.
How do we wake OURSELVES UP, when we are “sleep walking”?
Play the FOOL, for a moment. Act SILLY. Be CHILDISH. Do it, again and again ???
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DEMOCRATS must admit they are wrong, wrong, wrong, over and over, to wake up, now.
The Framers of the Constitution feared that someday a demagogue might try to size power in America aided by an uninformed and gullible populace. To prevent that they constructed a government to limit the electoral power of the masses and to restrict their ability to directly elect public officials. As a result, the question of who had the elective franchise was left up to the individual states, election of the president was left in the hands of electors, and Senators were to be elected by state legislatures. Then, over the next 200+ years, it was decided that demagogues didn’t pose a threat and that as many people as possible should elect as many of their leaders as possible (with the remaining exception of the presidency). Now that it may in fact be too late to save the America created by the Framers, we can sadly and belatedly agree with their fear of demagoguery.
Setting aside the humor and hypocrisy of one of our resident Trumpublicans talking about thinking and information, the above bumper sticker philosophy reminds me of an exchange between two character in the movie, “Inherit the Wind”.
Matthew Harrison Brady: I do not think about things I do not think about.
Henry Drummond: Do you ever think about things that you DO think about?
Don’t believe what you think, do think about what you believe with the information you have.
WE FLIP (NY License plate)
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I saw this NY license plate, from a real estate dealer, who flips houses.
Perhaps, this can serve as a warning about truth and the future of our nation.
1 – Will we FLIP to a dictatorship, built on lies and threats, under Trump?
2 – Or will we FLIP to a promising, new democracy, built on truth and kindness ?
This is not time to wait for Trump and the Right to fall. They have their excuses and their threats ready. Democrats must gather the best ideas and talents, to deprogram brainwashed people. Democrats must keep trying, day by day, to find what really wakes up voters, over and over, again.
“United, we stand. Divided, we fall “ (Aesop and others)
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By all means tell us what arguments we can use to deprogram and wake up the 77,000,000 voters who supported Trump at the polls last year despite his felony convictions, his irrational behavior during his first term, and his hysterical ranting during his bund…I mean campaign rallies.
Some of those will be deprogrammed when their rural hospitals close, their senior parents start eating cat food as seniors did in the past, when their children no longer get the special help they need at school, when they choke on dirty air, when they swelter in summer heat.
When it effects them and they make the connection.
Yet, I have no confidence that his cult like following will ever learn.
They will go down as Jim Jones followers did at the Peoples Temple.
Except that when they eventually do go down, they will take the rest of us with them. Unlike Jonestown, this is a cult with the entire power of the federal government AND the Supreme Court AND social media (foreign and domestic) behind it. Add in that it may well be that honest American elections will soon be a thing of the past. We are well and truly screwed.
WE flips to ME (Upside down)
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WE, the People vs ME, the Trump Kingdom
Let me suggest that Democrats use simple plays on words, like this, over and over, again.
Instead, Democrats love to ramble on, boring and insulting Trump voters, endlessly.
Trump knows how to turn ON voters, by saying NO to the truth, over and over.
I pray that Democrats will learn from Trump, with simple, endless warnings, right NOW.
NOW, backwards is WON…
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I’ve heard this before, I can’t decide it’s true or not.
An excellent observation and one I endorse. For myself I’ve taken the following steps:
* I don’t watch any television or video news. I read all my news.
* I use a curation service (in the case of myself I use https://ground.news
This service does the following: it collates news articles from a wide variety of sources (including excellent ones like the Beacon) and rates stories based on ACCURACY and BIAS. Each story is rated, its sources revealed and picks out “blind spots” – news stories that one bias may cover that the other does not. This allows a more balanced and objective view of the news, and a way to judge just how accurate the reporting on it is. It covers both paywalled and open sources and lets you screen out any specific sources or whether the source is paywalled in your results. Each article has the following:
* A chart based on accuracy of the sources for any particular subject (with links)
* A list of all the sources
* A chart based on bias of all the sources (with links)
* An objective summary of the subject and key points
I’m not usually one to flog any particular service, but in this day and age I think that having SOMETHING to help you sort the wheat from the chaff and judge accuracy is important.
This is very interesting. I think having a trustworthy “editor” type service is probably the wave of the future, when we’ve seen how easy it is to manipulate coverage on ABC, CBS, CNN, and the NY Times. You just have to know the right people in that world to get your pet topic covered, apparently. Not like they write much about the minimum wage or other topics that don’t apply to rich elites. So I think if I want news that isn’t bent to please Murdoch or Bezos, I have to find not a single source, but an accumulation of sources that are being vetted. I’ve been using the Bulwark for this myself as they link out to trusted sources. One thing is for sure: using social media to get the news doesn’t work for me at all. Even when I try to curate my feeds carefully, I get nothing but propaganda.
The keys are “know what you’re consuming” and “what is the level of accuracy of the facts in the story regardless of the bias”. Its also useful to know what the relationship is from the bias to the accuracy. This is why I don’t WATCH news any more, impossible to judge those things when the information is spoken to you, but reading it allows you to research, run the facts past other sources, and ground news helps you see what others are consuming so that you can also judge how they might react based on what they are seeing and what is the best way to show them the facts instead of the BS.
This piece is spot on! Even while being, bright, well-educated, and world-wise, I find my thoughts and feelings often can be misleading, especially about issues or experiences that trigger fear in me. I am grateful for a 50-year meditation practice that encourages me to recognize what I am thinking or feeling, understand that it may – or may not – change over time, and extend compassion to myself and others regarding difficult feelings and thoughts because this is true for all of us. Sometimes for protection I need to set clear boundaries regarding the actions I allow -both from myself and others – to minimize harm. But we are all imperfect, changing critters.
“These are the times that try men’s souls” (Thomas Paine, 1776, “The American Crisis”)
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Thanks so much, Peter, for waking me up, to the challenge we all face, personally and politically, after 250 years. You make me feel that I must engage with others in debate and discussion for change in how we think and how we act, towards ourselves and with others.
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Thanks to Trump 2.0, there is a new urgency to push for change, on a DAILY BASIS.
As crazy as we might think this is, we might give him some credit for pushing US onward.
I find myself, using the new “American TRUMP Crisis” to challenge myself and others, now
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Are we a PROCRASTI – NATIION, or are we willing to explore a better future, step by step?
That is MY sticker! It is worn now, but the message is more important than when I placed it on my van so many years ago. I’m glad it made someone think. Just that simple concept could fix so many of the divisions in our society. Thank you for sharing this message.
-Lori Ingalsbe
The virtue which manifests the statement “Don’t believe everything you think,” is humility. Humility is based on honesty and honesty is based on truthfulness. America is based on capitalism and the primary value is profit. Profit is valued more highly than honesty and truth and so Americans not only accept lying and disingenuousness, they expect it and approve of it unless they are personally harmed by it. Americans expect sales people to lie to them whether the sales person is selling a product, a service, or a belief system. Americans believe that the end, profit, justifies the means, lying and deception.
Until Americans give up their idol, profit, they will not give up believing what they want to hear.