Yes and no. IMHO, the ideal is to not hesitate and continue to act based on what you think you know. But also make a habit of questioning how you came to know what you know. If you come across a piece of "common knowledge," especially about history, that you realize you actually picked up from a lifetime of it being a trope in pop-media, correct it or at least revise your certainty around the point. Then continue acting without hesitation.
If you think you're uniquely immune to propaganda, you're probably a great target for it. Willingness to re-evaluate positions that you strongly held is the thing that counters it. And re-evaluate doesn't mean you change your position. It just means tracing the steps you took to get there instead of being dogmatic about it.
I certainly don't think I'm magical and unique, but my presence here is the result of the many years of realizing "oh, they were just lying" over and over. I've done so much reevaluation that I'm not sure how to hone down my belief system any further. I started a thousand mile journey in a different era, and 700 miles down the line I realized I was being led the wrong direction and had to backtrack decades of my beliefs about people and the world.
I do not think I am very good at describing my positions, and rant and ramble a lot while flickering between different ideas. I tend to overuse metaphors and analogies to try getting my point across. It's the result of having to undo so much of what I was taught in my childhood and adolescence.
Yes and no. IMHO, the ideal is to not hesitate and continue to act based on what you think you know. But also make a habit of questioning how you came to know what you know. If you come across a piece of "common knowledge," especially about history, that you realize you actually picked up from a lifetime of it being a trope in pop-media, correct it or at least revise your certainty around the point. Then continue acting without hesitation.
If you think you're uniquely immune to propaganda, you're probably a great target for it. Willingness to re-evaluate positions that you strongly held is the thing that counters it. And re-evaluate doesn't mean you change your position. It just means tracing the steps you took to get there instead of being dogmatic about it.
I certainly don't think I'm magical and unique, but my presence here is the result of the many years of realizing "oh, they were just lying" over and over. I've done so much reevaluation that I'm not sure how to hone down my belief system any further. I started a thousand mile journey in a different era, and 700 miles down the line I realized I was being led the wrong direction and had to backtrack decades of my beliefs about people and the world.
I do not think I am very good at describing my positions, and rant and ramble a lot while flickering between different ideas. I tend to overuse metaphors and analogies to try getting my point across. It's the result of having to undo so much of what I was taught in my childhood and adolescence.