We need more information literacy

People are not aware of this, but there aren’t usually that many studies published about a niche topic. In any given field, there’s going to be 1–5 big studies or meta-analyses summarizing a bunch of research. You will often find that news is recycling the same study, but spinning its contents to fit their agenda, adding bombastic headlines and trigger words. News articles will probably use the same study to sustain themselves, a study that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine or The Lancet. When you read something like “researchers have found out X” — providing they are linking the name of the researchers and research paper, it is simply more rational to read the original piece instead.

Simply copy-paste the name of the study, find the PDF, read it, and then you can read the news article to see if it makes sense. Don’t overreach your position if it goes further than your realm of knowledge.

Don’t trust entities telling you that they are giving you access to both sides of the issue because usually, these people have political slants. I say this on the internet, so you should not trust me either.

What do you do if you are wrong? Never expect anybody to change their mind on the spot. It should not matter if your opinion is wrong, because you should be tied to the outcomes, not the processes. This can also go in reverse because if you have first-hand experience with that topic, it might be that you have better arguments than you can give because of that first-hand experience.

Also, have conversations with your friends. Google people that are known for making X arguments. Keep yourself humble. Remember to maintain the balance. The amount of information you can voraciously gather now is probably not going to overtake what you can collect in 2–3 days.