What We Want to Be True
Flattering and convenient falsehoods spread faster than inconvenient truths, because a belief that excuses us, confirms us, or makes us feel good never gets the scrutiny we reserve for ideas that threaten us. A standalone intro names the mechanism; five concrete cases, two of them historical, show a convenient falsehood beating an inconvenient truth precisely because it was convenient. The test running through all of them is simple and uncomfortable: the more an idea benefits you to believe, the higher the bar it should clear.
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Every country keeps the flattering version of its past
For about a century, Americans were taught the Civil War was not really about slavery. The men who started it said in writing at the time that it was. The flattering version survived because checking it cost something and believing it cost nothing.