{"id":5768,"date":"2023-05-17T23:53:23","date_gmt":"2023-05-18T03:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/?page_id=5768"},"modified":"2023-05-17T23:53:23","modified_gmt":"2023-05-18T03:53:23","slug":"everyones-a-philosopher","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/?page_id=5768","title":{"rendered":"“Everyone’s a Philosopher”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bacon Scrapins<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 \u201c<\/strong>Everyone\u2019s a Philosopher\u201d<\/h2>\n

by Barry S. Wolfe<\/p>\n

Bacon Scrapins<\/em><\/strong> are the little bits of meat left in the greasy fry pan. They\u2019re tasty, but the \u2018nutrition\u2019 needs searching for. This tale is a<\/em> bacon scrapin<\/em><\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

You can ask anyone, in any situation, and they\u2019ll have an opinion. Trust me, I know!<\/p>\n

Everyone knows what is \u201cgood, right, fair, just, the way things ought-to-be\u201d in any situation. That\u2019s probably a good thing \u2013 it shows we\u2019re thinking about stuff. Maybe.<\/p>\n

What happens, though, when each of us stops thinking about others\u2019 ideas and we close our minds to alternative considerations?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not talking about \u201calternative facts\u201d when someone reverses the meaning of words to intentionally ignore reality \u2013 like \u2018that barking sound is coming from my neighbour\u2019s cat\u2019, or a thousand people were in my backyard for a BBQ\u2019. \u201cAlternative facts\u201d are just lies.<\/p>\n

I might be including \u201cconspiracy theories\u201d like a group of international elites controlling the world\u2019s governments, industry and media in order to establish dominance over everyone in the world. Or \u2018ID microchips implanted into pets to track them are being miniaturized and injected into human blood to control our brains\u2019. Or \u2018political and media elites are conspiring to replace these people with immigrants\u2019. Or \u2018the election was stolen\u2019, or \u2018fluoride has been a way to dispose of industrial waste\u2019, etc. These disregard the evidence of objective truth.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a researched fact that 50% of Americans believe at least one medical conspiracy, 48% believe in a \u201cdeep state\u201d conspiracy to rule the world, 30% believe the 1969 moon landing was faked, and only 66% of millennials believe the earth is round. Have you heard the one that there are some in Kitchener, Ontario, who believe that the 118th<\/sup> British Battalion, stationed in Kitchener during World War I, is still present and controlling local politics?<\/p>\n

This approach to digesting information is not due to a lack of \u2018education\u2019. It may be, though, what kind of education? There may be a low level of scientific literacy, and analytical thought processes. But it\u2019s said to be more of a distrust of authorities and institutions. There\u2019s a growing gap between the decision-makers and the \u201cus\u201d? A lot of misinformation comes from the internet and postings can be placed by anyone with no formal experience or credibility on the topic.<\/p>\n

Maybe we believe what we want to believe. Maybe we are predisposed to being receptive to anything that provides a simple answer to a complex question, or provides direction where we are uncertain, or reinforces an impulse we\u2019ve been hiding. Maybe we respond positively to anyone who pays us any close attention and makes us feel good about ourselves \u2013 sincerely or with an agenda?<\/p>\n

Maybe because we each believe we know what is \u201cgood, right, fair and just\u201d, we also know what is true and false, what is real and fake. Does that mean, then, that everyone\u2019s a philosopher?<\/p>\n

You can believe what you want, but whatever you do, if you visit my neighbourhood, don\u2019t bring your cat.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t stand the racket of cats\u2019 barking!<\/p>\n

NOTE: Characters\u2019 names in the Bacon Scrapins tales are fictional. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>You may send appropriate email comments to the writer at thisiswilmot@gmail.com<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bacon Scrapins \u2013 \u201cEveryone\u2019s a Philosopher\u201d by Barry S. Wolfe Bacon Scrapins are the little bits of meat left in the greasy fry pan. They\u2019re tasty, but the \u2018nutrition\u2019 needs searching for. This tale is a bacon scrapin. You can ask anyone, in any situation, and they\u2019ll have an opinion. Trust me, I know! Everyone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":4072,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5768","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5768"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5768\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5769,"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5768\/revisions\/5769"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}