You need knowledge
Many consultants, ‘experts’ and internet trolls have a common trait: They leech on other people’s failures.
Every time someone experiences a mishap or failure, something astounding happens: People who have no business lecturing and criticising the very people who went out and at least tried do it anyway. Chairmen of political parties, authors or entrepreneurs nearly get slayed by dumbasses every time something doesn’t go according to plan, or, as you might call it, reality happens.
Why is that so? It’s just that much easier to criticise and to condemn than to think for your own and let other people be.
Criticising others makes you feel superior and you gain emotional satisfaction from the fact that others fail. It lets you off the hook for not even trying to make your own dreams come true. It makes you feel good in playing it safe.
Intellectually, it’s also that much easier. Just take a look at Gawker or Techcrunch (or many other often snarky publications). Have you ever seen them consistently reporting on people’s successes or investigating thoroughly? They don’t because you can ridicule and critique in a much shorter time and it sells that much better. Gawker doesn’t sell news or gossip. It sells emotional satisfaction.
It’s intellectually lazy and emotionally dishonest to stick with criticising others. You can do so much better. You learn, you grow, you keep your self-respect. All by just keeping your mouth shut more often and thinking before opinionating on any topic you don’t know enough about to provide real value. As Marcus Aurelis said, “the best response is not to be like that”.
Critical thinking is an oxymoron. What passes for critical thinking these days is often intellectually lazy, snarky witticism in disguise. You need knowledge to warrant thinking.
