To be a free thinker, one has to educate themselves so that they can step out of a glut of information and observe calmly from the outside.

We each live in our own bubble (community). What effects here may not effect someone in another bubble.

If that person doesn't belong to any group of centroism, only that of an optimistic club.

Can that person be a free thinker?

@Castlepaloma When I was in grad school, one of my profs asked if humans are written or do we write? Can we truly be free of the culture in which we are raised and can anyone come up with a truly original idea? Or are all of our thought influenced by how we are raised and the culture in which we are raised?

My view is that we are written. We can alter the script, i.e. religious people can become atheists and vice-versa, but we are never free of the conditioning we have received even if we realize and reject it. A person might not belong to a group, but that person is still a product of the culture whether he/she conforms to mainstream thoughts or not.

To quote the Hebrew Scriptures, there is nothing new under the sun, and that applies to people. I have studied myth for decades, and myth is about the same things that drive us today.

I do not mean that people cannot come up with new inventions and find out new information about the universe or issues dealing with science, but new religions are offshoot of the old for many reasons.

When I was in my teens, the hippie movement was in full swing, but it was still the younger generation rebelling against the old--the same for the Beat generation. Hippies and goths could/can be identified by how they dress(ed). Conformity among groups is the norm.

I am not sure if that is an answer to your question or not.

@Gwen_Wanderer

I doubt many here have studied about anarchist. From living in 4 different off grid villages, I found anarchist were about the most free thinking entrepreneur of any people I have ever met. Their system is like family. They home school their kids who are the smartest kids I've ever met. An-arc hy mean no one above.me and no one below me.. the Governments and corporations hierarchy chest game is as opposite as anarchist tit for tat game of coopération. More unquie and beautiful style rather than fighting the competition all the time for reward system.. Spiritual sided vs Religious.

@Castlepaloma and they create their own culture. Even that they feel the need to withdraw from mainstream society is being "written" as it is a reaction to the norm. I would like to see how those villages evolve over time as I do not believe that humans can sustain a communal society--or perhaps the villages of which you speak are not communal.

@Gwen_Wanderer

I'm considered a mini anarchist although don't like labels. . Governments running the small stuff ,not our lives. Friendly with all cultures, just don't want join them, it's very limited. I build many tiny houses and urban farming communities. Montreal and Mexico have the largest gathering of anarchist in the world.

Individualist anarchism is the branch of anarchism that emphasizes the individual and their will over external determinants such as groups, society, traditions, and ideological systems. Although usually contrasted with social anarchism, both individualist and social anarchism have influenced each other. Mutualism, an economic theory sometimes considered a synthesis of market economy and property,

I ve had great success in Latin countries with freedom built for individuals and community lifestyle. Canada has been very challenging because three levels of Governments are very corrupt about tiny house communities. Yet, I'm invented industries before with great success, that continues.

Have you met one?

@Ryo1 Charles Bukowski, Jimi Hendrix. Never actually met them but they seemed pretty free

Do you consider yourself as a freethinker? Are you capable of considering a view opposite to yours before questioning it or before giving your own in a dismissive manner?

@Ryo1 bingo.

@Ryo1

Yes, I'm alway open, even though they try to drag me into these pro TAG team of megalomics and narcissist politicaican darksides. The difference is I'm not for these ugly show business caritures. The position of most is they are alway against each other through these terrible so called leaders, instead of being your own best leader. . Being against someone or thing , just joins the problem and conflicts. So they are in fear of each other and my position is fearlessness allows me to do my own thing without enemies. Knock yourself out alway defending the nothingness of the two greatest scammer politicians and Bankers on earth. I listen to what they have to say to know when and where to do the opposite, and it works well almost everytime
.. .Sometimes my best friends won't tell me my downsides, I'll have the opposite people ( yin/yang) of me will tell me whats wrong,, without knowing me. . If they speak the truth, then I'll work on these problems more than my strengths. If it BS,it's ignored.
It an optimistic, win win.

With human being, I agree with them 95% of the time , its just that 5% can be a bitch.

When freethinkers are defined as creative and critical thinkers who are able to look at things from every perspective objectively, and who challenge their own conclusions and layer by layer formulate their own opinions, I can't say that I've ever come across such an individual in real life. So, honestly, I do get suspicious of people who say they are freethinkers.

@Ryo1 Yes me too, it is certainly as you say, a red flag. I think that my steel manning definition, makes it clear that such a think could never really exist, and therefore, that all such claims must be false.

@Fernapple Sadly, I agree.

@Ryo1

Very few are freethinkers because of the broken system. They do exist.

@Castlepaloma Like to think so...

@Fernapple

A red flag can also someone that tells you, they are very honest and very intelligent, when they are less likely.

@Castlepaloma Or humble, (Especially religious humility.) and then you know that they will talk loudly about themselves and nothing else.

Yes I think that it is the original true meaning, against the misused meaning. It happens with other words too. Such as the religious. "I am special. God loves me. I have a relationship with god. I am saved. You can not understand my higher levels of belief. etc." But I also have the highest humility because my religion tells me so. ( Strange form of humility.)

@Fernapple Religious proselytizers are supremely arrogant.

@Fernapple

How to make God laugh.

Tell him my life plans

@Castlepaloma The joke makes a good point. Unfortunately, it also presupposes the existence of a god, and that sort of kills it.

@Flyingsaucesir

Since most of the worlds population is religious. Humor is a good way to communicate and great for defense. I'll not ever understand mainstream religion or God . May as well have fun with them. Because I can't ignore them, they are everywhere as fellow human beings.

@Ryo1 I know he's using the term "prosecutor" here in a non-literal sense, but I fear that Trump supporters would seize upon his words and claim, "See, the prosecutor [in
a criminal case brought against Trump] is not acting in good faith, is unfairly persecuting him, is carrying out a witch hunt, is just trying the make a name for him/herself" etc. etc. So let's just take a moment to remember that an actual prosecutor in a court of law is a lot like a scientist, in that he/she relies on independently-verifiable evidence to make his/her case. And a grand jury must hear that evidence and determine that a crime has probably been committed by the defendant BEFORE an indictment can be issued; and a trial jury must UNANIMOUSLY agree that the evidence indicates guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Prosecutors don't just argue a case because they want to win; they do it to reveal the facts about a crime that occurred in the past, and to force accountability on the perpetrator. Maintenance of a civil society demands that this be done, lest we spiral down into a cycle of blood-letting revenge.

What is in the video that’s relevant to the topic? Grant’s book was pretty good, but he weaponized Dunning-Kruger without much if any allusion to its shortcomings. He also got on my nerves by using the long discredited “lizard brain” construct. So he’s not without his issues being a popularizer.

@Flyingsaucesir Prosecutor mode is actually a basic tenet of science known as falsification. Instead of preaching the virtues of one’s views and succumbing to confirmation bias one should instead try hard to find faults in one’s own views. When one prosecutes the views of others that often causes reactance and mistrust and causes them to shut down. Grant introduces the idea of motivational interviewing as a way to tease out the views of others and put the ball more in their court to find a way to change their own mind. His example was “vaccine whisperers” who are able to get someone to change their mind on the safety and efficacy of vaccines for their kids without slipping into preaching or prosecution modes, the latter perhaps inducing negative pushback or a “backfire” effect.

@Scott321
>>> What is in the video that’s relevant to the topic?
To me, a freethinker is a person who is open to anything other than what they already know because they know what they don't know.

@Ryo1 I'll go along with that.

@Ryo1

If a person knows what he knows and knows what he doesn't know.. That can be a level of free thinking.

@Castlepaloma
'I Know That I Know Nothing.' Isn't that the Socratic paradox?

@Castlepaloma free thinkers hold that beliefs should not be formed on the bases of authority, tradition revelation, or dogma and forms opinion on the bases of reason. like flat earth if i travel west from my farm i see 14 wind mills as drive west 5-6 miles i get more wind mills 25-30 if i go 20 miles wind mills popup as other disappear behind me no it not a 40-50 hill the earth is round like the moon or the other planets i have seen through a telescope. and many other things over the years i have social media friends that believe the earth is flat. i don't argue the point. some don't relay to me any more because they know where in stand on the topic.

@1patriot

My daughter thinks men can have babies. I base my life on good sense,. So I have to not push and leave these topics for her to figure out for herself. She is still the love of my life, so it's a compromise, It makes good sense to have her love overall.

@1patriot, @Castlepaloma
I think freethinkers should be intelligent enough and therefore should be able to determine whether it is worth continuing with a debate.

@Castlepaloma has your daughter been raised by you? Or your wife, or partner? if with you around she would pick up some of your way of thinking. if you weren't around much, than than she would pick up many traits of your wife or partner. is my way of thinking.

@Castlepaloma, @Ryo1 for sure!