Black & White thinking: the intelligent man's achille's heel

[RickyRetardo]

Most people are tempted to see things in black and white. X is totally bad, Y is totally good. Even smart people do this.

Though I'm not generally a fan of the Abrahamic religions, one good thing that Judaism and Islam teach is that in fact, there's good and bad in everything. Nothing, at least nothing on this earth, is entirely good or entirely evil.

Once you realize this, life feels a lot smoother.

You can look at this issue with marijuana for example. Some people say it's absolutely, completely harmless in every way, but that's not possible. Similarly some people demonize it and say it makes everyone who smokes it into an idiot. Again, not true.

This goes for anything. Even American women are not entirely bad--it's just not possible. Realizing that still allows you to prefer dating foreign women, without cultivating a toxic attitude about your fellow citizens.