The Problem With Free Thinking

Have you been called a “sheeple” online? Do people ridicule you for following mainstream news? Do people constantly tell you to “think for yourself”?

Well congrats, you’ve encountered a “freethinker”. What is free thinking? Traditionally free thinking was associated with the atheist movement and skepticism of religion.

It was the idea a person should reject dogma and doctrine specifically from a religion. Now in a more contemporary sense it is used to describe a resistance to all kinds of authority, specifically government.

Nevertheless, the free thought movement was strongly connected with progress politics. Now this has changed with many conspiracy theorist and contrarians co-opting free thinking to mean the validation of their particular worldview. Somehow their unconventional views have merit because they “thought for themselves”.

But did they actually think for themselves? Research on conspiracy theories tells us individuals often join groups due to underlying social needs. If you’re in a community which repeats the same thing and then you repeat that thing… how are you a freethinker? How can you claim to be thinking independently when you’re a member of a collective group which all states they’re thinking independently?

The problem is you can’t. You cannot claim to be a freethinker in a group of other freethinkers as none of you are thinking totally independent from one another.