Introduction

My name is Brian Brooks.  I was born in 1977, I'll die... well, preferably never, hopefully not any time soon.  I'm currently experiencing the little dash in between the dates that bookend our lives.  This blog is my attempt to shout into the void, to pretend my voice is being heard with the hopes of making a change, making things better, and be remembered.

I've tried this in other mediums, but it's largely resulted in frustration.  You see, there's this thing called the backfire effect (follow that link for a thorough explanation by David McRaney on You Are Not So Smart).  People like to believe that their beliefs are rational and correct, but people don't like to be wrong.  This is where the backfire effect comes in.  When someone's deepest convictions are challenged by facts that contradict them, their incorrect beliefs are actually strengthened.  This is why things like dinosaur fossils and radiometric dating reinforce young-Earth creationists' beliefs that the world is only 10,000 years old, why data on rising global temperatures make people deny anthropogenic climate change more strongly, and Barack Obama finally providing his birth certificate made people even more sure he was born in Kenya.  Their beliefs have nothing to do with the truth (the scientific estimate for the age of the Earth is 4.5 billion years, average global temperatures are rising largely due to human activities, and Barack Obama was born in Hawaii), but they hold onto them regardless to everyone's detriment.

For this reason, a lot of discussion is pointless.  I used to try to show people facts to correct their misconceptions, only to have them throw it in my face.  I'd lose my patience at being lied to, or at being accused of lying, when I could demonstrate and back up my positions with references and data.  I would send people to the non-partisan fact checkers, only to have the same bullshit spouted back to me again and again.  I got sick of it, so I removed myself from that situation.

However, I can't just let the lies go.  I have to do something about the falsehoods and false beliefs and inhumanity floating around, but I just can't deal with the backfire effect.  So I'll shout into the void on this unadvertised blog.  I'll post facts, I'll post opinions, I'll post stories.  I may or may not leave commenting on.  I don't know if anyone will read this.  I don't need confirmation, I don't need feedback.  After all, no feedback, no backfire.