I have appointed myself as Reality Czar. Remember, reality stands independent of your whims, wishes, loves, hates, and apathy. Here are my first fourteen imperatives for straight thinking and reality apprehension.
1. The laws of logic are unbending. They are necessary for thought and communication. You can break them, but they will break you. Learn what the law of noncontradiction is and abide by it.
2. You need rational arguments that appeal to logic and evidence to make a point count as knowledge.
3. To know something means you have a justified and true belief about it.
4. For a statement to be true, it must correspond to objective reality. You do not make a belief true by your own opinion, skin color, gender(s), passion, politics, power, or anything else.
5. Learn the basic logical fallacies, such as false dichotomy, ad hominem, straw man, begging the question, and others, and avoid them. Expose them wherever you find them.
6. Learn the basic means of argumentation: deduction, induction, and appeal to the best explanation.
7. Read more than you watch.
8. Listen more than you talk.
9. Think more than you speak.
10. Pray for knowledge and wisdom.
11. Beware of clichés, factoids, and talking points.
12. If you hold to a position on religion, politics, or whatever, as yourself what the strongest objection to your position might be, Then try to refute it.
13. In discussions and writing, try to define and illustrate important terms in order to avoid ambiguity.
14. For any of your beliefs, determine how strongly you hold that belief and whether or not you have good reason to hold it in that manner. We may strongly hold some beliefs, not because of reason or evidence, but on the basis of feelings, tradition, or ego.