Ask yourself these questions:
When you follow an ideology, a group or a community, you should answer the following questions –
1. What kind of books you read?
2. How many times you have changed your beliefs based on facts.
3. What is the alternative? Have you read the books they are reading? Do you give the alternative a chance to explain their point of view?
4. Is your following based on fear?
5. Do you follow what your parents or culture taught you even when the evidence says something else?
6. Do you follow leaders unconditionally? Does your leaders suffer from God delusion? Do you ignore their lies?
7. Do you forward news on WhatsApp without validating?
8. Is your following based on anger towards opposing points of view?
9. Are your arguments based on facts or based on emotions?
10. Are you following an ideology just because your friends are doing so? Are you scared it will cause a rift between you and them?
Ask yourself these questions
11. When coming to a conclusion do you refer to experts in the concerned topic?
12. Are you aware of the biases in your brain?
13. Do you justify violence in the name of defending your ideology?
14. Are you willing to let go of mistakes of someone you admire and not willing to accept someone else whom you hate even when that side is speaking the truth?
15. Do you cherish diversity? Do you have a variety of friends – Friends having different backgrounds and ideas.
16. Do you get adrenaline rush when forwarding messages of hate?
17. Do you follow news outlets or news anchors even after realizing that they are propagating hate and violence in society? Even after realizing that they are spreading fake news?
18. Do you respect the four pillars of democracy? More than that do you follow or admire people who don’t respect them?
19. Do you believe in continuous learning?
20. Are you willing to accept you are wrong when proved you are wrong?
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