zlacker

And lots of people will only ever hear what you said second hand. After all nuance has been intentionally stripped out and the message has been spun to serve the aims of the person interpreting it. “Journalists” do this all the time, but I’ve also seen this happen in the workplace.

When I was in grade school I remember my teachers used to constantly stress the importance of primary sources. And I didn’t really understand the importance until much later in life. Why do all that work when someone else has neatly summarized it for me on wikipedia? Now I basically have a rule where I don’t allow myself to have a strong opinion on something unless I’ve gone and read up on primary sources.