Some people just love to be right.
If you present them with an opinion, they will probably
disagree. They will stop whatever they
are doing and try to pull your opinion apart, turning it round and yanking
it from every angle.
If you present them with a fact, backed up with hard scientific
evidence, then they may still disagree.
“Who conducted this so called scientific study?” they will
say. “Can they really be trusted?”
Scepticism is important. We always need to challenge the information
and opinions we hear: Where did this come from?
Could it be wrong? But life is too
short to be forever ultra-sceptical.
There comes a point when refusing to believe just damages yourself. People will stop inviting you to parties, for
one thing.
Some people are so determined to prove you wrong that they
will even shoot themselves to do it.
This was literally true in the case of Clement Vallandigham. He was an American lawyer who shot himself in
1871 while demonstrating that his client was innocent of the charge of murder. He wanted to show that the dead man had not
been murdered, but had in fact shot himself accidentally. To show how easily a gun could go off when
pulled out quickly, he pulled out his own gun in the same way. It went off and he shot himself and
died. Apparently, he had forgotten to
take the bullets out. So his scepticism
was shown to be well founded. But
was it worth it?
Donald Trump famously claimed that climate change was a
hoax, despite all the hard scientific evidence to the contrary. His scepticism is not just shooting America,
but the rest of us as well.
And what of Britain? We
have recently heard plenty of sceptical voices.
During the Brexit referendum campaign, every time an economist said that
Britain’s economy would be damaged, politicians said that they must be biased
or wrong. Every time a diplomat said
that the EU would punish Britain and offer them a bad deal, politicians said
the diplomats were just protecting their own jobs.
And how are Britain’s attempts to negotiate with the EU
going? The EU is united and strong. Britain looks weaker than ever, with the
Prime Minister’s authority reduced after the recent election. An EU diplomat told a British journalist, “Britain
has shot itself in one foot. We intend
to shoot you in the other.”
But don’t worry.
Those same sceptical politicians will tell us that everything is all
right. The bullet isn’t a real
bullet. The blood we seem to be losing
is just fake blood. Maybe we should stop
inviting these sceptics to our parties.
Vocabulary:
to pull something apart – to destroy something or break it
into pieces by pulling
to yank – to pull with sudden force
to conduct – of business, negotiations etc., to carry out, to
do
scepticism – the habit of not easily believing, of
questioning
ultra – a prefix (placed before another word to make a new
word) - extremely
well founded – having a solid basis
a hoax – a fake claim, a lie, scam etc.
biased – supporting one side unfairly against another
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