Blog 3 Critical Thinking

Whenever I hear the words “critical thinking”, I always think back to those exercises in grade school textbooks at the end of each chapter; of course, now I understand the significance of critical thinking, and how no one should try forming an opinion without this skill. The different theories about critical thinking presented in Fisher's article stress that critical thinking is the method in which people (most people) develop their values and personal opinions. For instance, if someone wanted to form a strong, intelligent opinion about American health-care, then, according to the standards set in this article, said person would need to: research American health-care, collect an unbiased spread of reliable information (ignoring all the facts makes critical thinking useless), evaluate this information, and then form an opinion with thoughtful consideration for all the facts.

Now, concerning people who use or do not appear to use critical thinking, I believe the use of critical thinking does make all the difference in the public circle. Alyssa Quart made a point that the difference between The Daily Show with John Stewart and the Rachael Maddow Show, is that John Stewart is already a comedian and “the news is the surprise”, whereas Rachael Maddow is a typical talk-show host and “the humor is the surprise.” However, both Stewart and Maddow are indeed, critical thinkers; the only differences are how they approach making observations and how they deliver their respective opinions. I would argue that John Stewart is a critical thinker, because he attempts to make commentary on news and current events from an intellectual point of view, and with consideration to the facts, though his intent is often to poke fun at how ridiculous the news really makes people look; it is not his fault that most news is already a load of bullshit to begin with. Rachel Maddow also forms her opinions from an intellectual point of view, but with the intent of providing a more thoughtful commentary; she wants her audience laugh, but she emphasizes the seriousness of current events, all jokes aside.

As for people who do not use critical thinking, such as those individuals who “[hurled] venomous slurs” at John Lewis and Barney Frank, they are an example of how critical thinking is lacking when it comes to political or public disputes. I am not talking about a lack of intelligence or a lack of education (though that can be a factor sometimes), I am talking about ignorance and disrespect; ignorance being a lack of general knowledge, and disrespect meaning, in this case, someone has said knowledge, but chooses to ignore, or worse, abuse it. The act of disregarding useful information, and willingly supplementing it instead with hatred or disrespect, defeats the purpose of having a thought in one's head, or even opening one's mouth, because it solves nothing. Instead of channeling their discontentment into something constructive, something that might get the public's attention and actually help their cause, certain people would rather just throw bricks and make a public disturbance.