Recent Articles
|
| This website and its contents are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License |
Bias
An encyclopedia is supposed to be written free of bias. It must adhere to objective reality. Is that possible?
No
Okay but why not? Is it just because we exist within reality and thus can only ever see one perspective of a greater whole? Is it that perfect objectivity would involve perfect knowledge, and as of yet no human being has experienced spontaneous omniscience? Is it because our experience and beliefs color everything we see?
Okay yeah I suppose. Well, humans are social animals. What about consensus? What if we all get together and independently observe reality, then compromise on one shared vision? Could we approximate objective reality if we did that?
Maybe
Oh, come on! We have senses, capable of observing the world. We have language, capable of expressing ideas. We have cooperation, capable of working together to achieve things we can't achieve on our own. How can this not be enough? Don't tell me you're afraid of the assholes.
Look, I get it. Consensus reality is a powerful tool. It is allowing the perceptions of others to override our own perception, because no single person can see the whole. But this is an era where it is easier than ever to manufacture this consensus, to pretend things are a certain way that everyone else believes is so. People become wealthy because they deserve to be. Transgender people are dangerous. Immigrants are destroying what makes this country great. Enjoying problematic fiction makes you a bad person. It's normal for women to be forced reluctantly into sex. Taking pride in enjoying kinky sex doesn't belong at Pride. AI chatbots are here to help.
If you give yourself over to consensus, you are giving up a part of your volition, you are giving up the ability to think critically about your surroundings.
This is an encyclopedia
Yes but this is no ordinary encyclopedia. This is the Encyclopedia of Pointless. Trying to be objective about reality is Pointless. Trying to adhere to every consensus belief is Pointless. Trying to exist without bias is Pointless. So that's why we do both. Generally, articles here are written from a humorous but nonspecific viewpoint. This is not always the case, though, and articles written from a singular perspective will carry with them the badge of Bias to show that here we accept every kind of nonsense.




