Start by questioning

not just what you think

but how you came to think it
Examine the sources of your convictions.

Did you reach them through careful consideration

or did you absorb them from your environment?

You strengthen your intellectual independence

by deliberately seeking perspectives

that challenge your existing views.

This isn't about being contrarian.

It's about developing what psychologists call..

'Cognitive Flexibility'

The ability to consider multiple viewpoints

Without being captured by any of them.

Bonhoeffer demonstrated this
by engaging deeply with opposing perspectives,

understanding them from within
before forming his own judgments.

Learning to recognize mass manipulation
requires understanding its psychological mechanisms.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer - How Ignorance ‘Manipulates’ Society
(Germany, 1930s)