Political beliefs are both destructive to mental health and an obstacle to intellectual growth. They used to be okay to have before the internet when information sources were simplified. However, once the new technology took off, people didn’t adapt. We went from having a few sources of information to a massive explosion of political information. People instinctively limited themselves to sources of information that their beliefs would accept and view as friendly.
This, in turn, resulted in horrible characteristics and overall hatred/frustration of others. People now anchor to political parties, ideologies, groups, organizations, labels, etc. and this compartmentalization of political beliefs caused all the horrible fighting. The more people fight or insult others, the more their nail gets hammered into the board of beliefs. And people in power know this. They know it well and worst of all, they know how to use it to their benefit.
Beliefs-Led
Once a person’s beliefs find an anchor, their wall goes up somewhere on the spectrum of politics. Anything that lands outside of the belief system is automatically rejected and an argument or negative feelings of others usually results. The beliefs become hardened and actually choke incoming information. When I see people who are overly angry, arrogant, or snarky towards others, I can’t see a highly intelligent person because they are obviously beliefs-led.
Information-Led
When people demote their political beliefs, they become information-led. This is where the beliefs can breathe because they take shape as the information comes in. Information-led people do not stop the flow of information, oftentimes, until death. Overall, they are happier and wiser than beliefs-led people due to the constant incoming of information from all angles.
Information-led people will seek out the entire political spectrum and be far too busy to adhere to the political parties, ideologies, etc. All opinions are defaulted to an “under construction” format and will not put a stake in the ground. They realize that once this happens, that’s because they have determined that they are good enough with the information to label themselves as “correct” on a topic. This is when the learning stops and the anger rises. So why not get as much information as possible?