Reject Defaultism – Rethink what you know

When 10 people have contradicting opinions, then at least 9 people have to be wrong. So there is a good chance that you are one of them. As such, it is your duty to look at the other sides. Don’t insist. Don’t blindly believe what you grew up with. Be open as if it was the first time that you hear about it.

Chapter 1: What is defaultism?

The term Defaultism comes from me, but I’m probably not the first one to use it, and my definition of it is to always go with the default, with the thing that’s already there, and to never change anything or do anything differently ever, to not look at alternatives and to just accept the status quo. You believe what you hear first. You use what you get first. You “like” what you know, and everything new or foreign is bad or worse for you. You don’t even look at it, and because of this you don’t see why it might be better, and therefore perceive it was worse. You just don’t know it yet, and don’t care to know.

Chapter 2: real life examples

Why are there such things as Christian or Muslim or Buddhist or whatever countries? Because people who grow up there just accept what they grow up with, and never look at the other things. They never actually try to look at what’s best, and just assume that whatever they don’t know is wrong. But this goes beyond religion. Everything related to cultures, traditions etc. falls under this category. Another example: programs which are installed on your computer. The sports which you like, which is usually the nationally relevant sport. The games which you play, usually the locally relevant games. etc. etc.

chapter 3: the implications

Most people do not bother to change anything whatsoever. To actually use anything intentionally. Rather, they merely use whatever exists, and if it doesn’t exist yet, they won’t use it in the first place. Sometimes people change things and find out that it’s much better. But you move on, thinking it’s just this one thing, and don’t change anything after that either. Your brain is simply not wired that way (I’ll get to why I think that is later)

You probably only know it this way, and think that by doing or not doing certain things, things might be very bad. So since things work, you don’t change it. But do things actually work?

You don’t know, it might be really bad, but since it’s all that you know, you think it’s normal, supposed to be that way, good even. Let me tell you, the default is almost always bad. It requires effort to make something the default. Thing tend to fall into the most effective state. But at the same time, for the reasons described, things also tend to not change once they’re in place. So if some entity, in whatever form, can gain an advantage from a certain state, it’s worth creating it.

Chapter 4: Why do I care?

Because it’s difficult to see how beneficial it is to change things, how harmful it is to not change things, and to then still see most people choosing to not change things and exist in this self harming state. It’s some of the easiest life improvement and people simply don’t do it.

Chapter 5: WHy should you care?

Because many things which you believe are probably straight up false. I’m not saying this thinking I know everything. I say this because I realized with how many things I was wrong. And even now I keep discovering thing after thing which I’m rethinking. It’s freeing. It’s fulfilling. False believes are a massive source of unfreedom and discontent.

CHapter 6: How to get out of defaultism

Realize that you are probably in it. Then, essentially you have to become conscious. As soon as you do something, pause and think “why am I doing this exactly?” As soon as you hear a contradicting opinion, pause and go “why is he thinking/saying this exactly?” And no, not the premade responses of “he’s just crazy” or “evil” or whatever.

Actually pause and think, and don’t resort to these default reactions.

When someone tells you that he or she changed their opinion, pause and become aware. Changing your opinion is one of the best things, because it means that you actually thought about things and reconsidered them. And know this: The people who have “weird opinions” didn’t just wake up one day and have them. They probably too had the same standard opinion as most people, but eventually questioned it, did research, and had a lot of internal rethinking and rearranging going on to arrive at this opinion. They did the work, and as such should be considered.

Now this doesn’t mean that everyone with differing opinions is right. Remember my entry sentence. Most people are probably wrong. But you can be less wrong, and come towards what is right and true step by step