Self-Bias - Why All Worldviews Are So Skewed

"Every bird thinks its nest is the best." - Congolese proverb

• Definition of Self-Bias : Self-bias is the mind's natural tendency to favor its intellectual positions above others, leading to question-begging worldviews. This phenomenon occurs when individuals are unable to evaluate their own worldview fairly and objectively, creating double standards and justifications for their views' superiority.
• Self-Bias Rooted in Question-Begging Worldviews : All worldviews are question-begging and are usually defended without acknowledging their baseless assumptions. This leads to a circular validation of one's worldview without genuine inquiry or objective analysis.
• Conundrum of Objectivity : The biggest obstacle in philosophy and the pursuit of truth is the need for impartiality and objectivity. This becomes complicated as individuals often believe they are being objective and fail to recognize their self-bias, resulting in a prejudiced approach to knowledge exploration.
• Biased Nature of Philosophical Schools : Each philosophical school, from atheism to theism, science to mysticism, practices self-bias by arguing for its own validity and against opposing views, without fairly considering alternatives.
• Impact of Self-Bias on Leo's Career Plans : Self-bias led Leo to abandon his plans for a career in professional philosophy. He realized that the industry and Western civilization at large are designed to reinforce, rather than critically examine, established worldviews.
• Entrenchment of Self-Bias in Intellectual Positions : Self-bias manifests as the presupposition that one's intellectual stance, such as atheism, is inherently more logical or evidence-based than contrasting views. It manipulates arguments and evidence to align with the predetermined, 'correct' conclusion without true inquiry.
• Challenges in Achieving True Inquiry : A fair and open investigation into subjects like the existence of God is rarely pursued. Instead, each side fails to genuinely explore the opposing views, instead, assuming their conclusions, such as atheism or theism, to be self-evident without rigorous examination.
• Conflict of Interest and Recusal in Legal Systems : Self-bias is acknowledged in legal systems with conflict of interest and recusal practices. Judges and lawyers must withdraw from cases where they may be biased due to personal involvement, ensuring objectivity.
• Self-Bias Beyond Legal Contexts : While the legal system recognizes the problem of self-bias, Leo stresses it should extend beyond law to other areas like business, science, and religion, where bias can heavily distort perceptions and decisions.
• Influence of Self on Perception and Reality : An individual's identity acts as a lens that distorts not only their perception but reality itself, affecting science, logic, relationships, and even emotions. This self-bias complicates the pursuit of truth.
• Survival and the Compromise of Objectivity : Leo examines how survival instincts compromise objectivity using the example of a judge who faces personal survival challenges. The desire to survive can corrupt even the most integral parts of society when truth is second to personal needs.
• Personal Cost of Pursuing Truth : The pursuit of truth can come at a great personal cost, often conflicting with one's survival and comfort. This inherent cost is a significant reason why self-bias occurs and why individuals may avoid admitting biases.
• Denial of Self-Bias for Survival : People often deny their self-bias as acknowledging it can create doubt, potentially threatening their worldview and survival. This avoidance is driven by the assumption that truth should be beneficial, leading to a cessation of the search for truth when no personal benefit is perceived.
• Intellectual Dishonesty and Defense Mechanisms : In the pursuit of survival, individuals craft rationalizations and defense mechanisms against the truth. Admitting to these mechanisms would lead to cognitive dissonance and a threat to one's defense against the harsh reality of truth.
• Deception and Self-Deception for Survival : To deceive others effectively, individuals must first deceive themselves. Self-deception is a strategy for survival within a social species which enables the perpetuation of biased worldviews.
• Unreliability of Evidence, Proof, and Logic : Due to the pervasiveness of self-bias, logic, evidence, and proof cannot be fully trusted. Many individuals throughout history have used these tools to justify incorrect beliefs, demonstrating that reason alone cannot always lead to truth.
• Recognition of Personal Self-bias : It's easy to spot self-bias in others and criticize their fallacies and double standards, but recognizing one's own self-bias is challenging. This realization triggers serious doubt, marking the essence of skepticism.
• Connection Between Consciousness and Self-bias : There is a direct relationship between a person's level of consciousness and their degree of self-bias. Lower levels of consciousness are associated with stronger biases and more aggressive defense mechanisms.
• Violence as an Extreme Defense Mechanism : Violence is the ultimate defense against challenges to one's beliefs. Individuals with low consciousness and high self-bias may resort to violence to protect their views.
• Ubiquity of Self-bias Across Entities : Ideologies, philosophies, organizations, countries, political movements, and spiritual schools exhibit self-bias, which can sometimes persist even in individuals who are supposedly awakened.
• Self-bias in Pragmatism and Nihilism : Pragmatism exemplifies self-bias toward practical outcomes, dismissing truth for personal gain, while nihilism represents a self-biased view that life is meaningless.
• Distinction Between Selfishness and Self-bias : Self-bias specifically refers to how the mind frames its intellectual positions to justify worldviews, such as the narrative a pragmatist uses to uphold the superiority of pragmatism.
• Self-bias in Authoritarian Figures : Dictators and tyrants, like Trump pondering self-pardon, exhibit self-bias by failing to see their own faults and prioritizing their survival and power above all else.
• Self-bias in Colonialism and its Consequences : European colonialists exhibited self-bias in their treatment of Native Americans by viewing them as inferior, which led to exploitation, forced conversion, desecration of cultures, and violence.
• Slavery as an Example of Self-bias : Slave owners exhibited extreme self-bias by dehumanizing slaves and justifying their ownership and mistreatment on the basis of perceived racial superiority.
• Justification of colonial exploitation : Leo discusses the rationalizations used by European colonizers, who claimed that their subjugation of native populations was justified and benevolent, overlooking the common human desires and sufferings that they shared with those they oppressed. This required a disregard for fairness and objectivity, reflecting a self-bias that historically viewed other races as inferior.
• Perspective on animal exploitation : Leo points out the historically self-biased view humans have had towards animals, using them in wars, overburdening them with labor, and slaughtering them for consumption without considering their worth and experience, essentially due to human-centered justifications.
• Corporate self-interest and self-justification : Leo addresses corporate corruption and lobbying as self-bias, where those involved often believe they are benefiting society while skewing policies in their favor, indicating a blindness to their self-interest and its effects on others.
• Nationalistic and ethnocentric self-bias : Discussing nationalism and ethnocentrism across countries, Leo speaks on how cultures often believe themselves to be superior to others without objectively evaluating or exposing themselves to different cultures, leading to cultural conflicts and problems like the Holocaust.
• Right-wing vs. left-wing self-bias : Leo addresses the accusation of his own bias, acknowledging that while all ideologies, including left-wing, are self-biased, right-wing ideologies tend to demonstrate a higher degree of self-bias. He draws a correlation between self-bias and cognitive as well as moral development, suggesting different levels of these aspects between the left and right.
• Self-bias and toxic masculinity : Leo critiques various men's rights movements, discussing how frustrated young men develop self-biased and misogynistic ideologies as a defense for their personal issues, using false logic and evidence to blame societal problems on femininity and women.
• Self-bias in wartime : Leo notes how self-bias manifests in war, with opposing sides demonizing each other and justifying their own war crimes, while denying or minimizing their atrocities compared to their enemies. He provides historical examples of wartime demonization, concluding that war is underpinned by deep-rooted self-bias.
• Historical Self-Bias in Wars and Conflicts : In ancient times, both Romans and barbarians saw each other as vicious enemies, with each side considering themselves more civilized than the other. Similarly, Athens and Sparta, as Greek city-states, demonized each other reflecting self-bias.
• World War II Demonization : During World War II, Americans depicted Nazis and the Axis powers as monstrous, emphasizing their self-bias in wartime propaganda against the Japanese, Germans, and Italians.
• Criminal Self-Justification : Many criminals, especially white-collar ones, do not view their actions as wrong or do not see themselves as criminals, illustrating self-bias in their perceptions of their own actions.
• Legal Disputes and Lawyer Bias : Courtrooms represent a battleground of self-bias, where defense and prosecuting attorneys argue one-sidedly for their client's interests rather than for objective truth, despite the judge's role as an adjudicator.
• Negotiations as Self-Biased : Whether it's salary discussions, business deals, or purchasing a car, negotiations are rarely about truth or fairness but rather about each party promoting their own self-interest, often related to survival or financial gain.
• Religious Self-Bias : Every religion believes itself to be the true path, creating justifications and ignoring contradictions present in other faiths, with institutions like the Catholic Church unable to admit systemic issues due to self-bias.
• Self-Bias in Spiritual Schools : Even seemingly unbiased spiritual schools, such as Zen Buddhism, Sufism, and various yoga traditions, exhibit self-bias by believing their practices are superior and more enlightening than others.
• Science and Epistemic Self-Bias : Mainstream science shows self-bias by focusing on quantifiable evidence, being dismissive of non-measurable phenomena like mysticism and spirituality, and holding onto paradigms resistant to change, as outlined by Thomas Kuhn.
• Reductionism and Nepotism : Reductionists display self-bias by insisting all phenomena can be broken down to physical components, dismissing what can't be. Nepotism exemplifies self-bias by favoring family in positions of power, highlighted by Trump's administration.
• Romantic Relationships and Gerrymandering : Self-bias destroys many romantic relationships due to the focus on individual needs. Gerrymandering is a clear case of political self-bias, with parties redrawing district lines for their advantage, overlooking fair representation.
• Debates, Partisanship, and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict : Debates are often counterproductive due to the self-bias of participants. Partisanship divides reality to favor one side over another. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is deeply rooted in self-bias, particularly with the contentious issue of Israeli settlements.
• Self-biased support for Israel by Americans : Leo points out that American support for Israel, particularly among evangelical Christians who see Israelis as the chosen people, is self-biased and unfair to Palestinians. He also notes past agreements by the UN to allocate this land to Palestinians, which are often ignored due to this bias.
• Self-bias in daily situations like parking : Using the example of critiquing someone's poor parking at Walmart, Leo illustrates how self-bias leads to judgment and double standards. When one's own urgency leads to poor parking, excuses are made, while others' reasons are dismissed without consideration.
• American exceptionalism and Western culture's biases : Western culture, especially American, favors rationality over emotion, materialism over spirituality, and individualism over collectivism. Leo criticizes American exceptionalism and U.S. foreign policy for bullying other nations and self-biased interference driven by notions of superiority and self-interest.
• Self-bias among intellectual figures : Figures like Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro, Sam Harris, and Neil deGrasse Tyson are named by Leo as being self-biased, lacking in meta-level understanding. He warns of the widespread human species bias, where humanity views itself as superior and disregards other species' epistemologies.
• Terms synonymous with self-bias : Leo lists related terms that often indicate self-bias including selfishness, conflict of interest, hypocrisy, double standards, cherry-picking, and paradigm lock. He ties these to past episodes where he's covered topics such as 'devilry' and 'self-deception'.
• Detriments of self-bias : Self-bias is detrimental as it impedes self-reflection, distorts reality, breeds intolerance, creates conflict and 'evil', and ultimately hinders the quest for absolute truth and discovery of God.
• Indifference towards others' problems : People generally lack genuine empathy for others' hardships unless it impacts them directly. Leo urges the audience to recognize their lack of concern as a sign of low consciousness and extreme self-bias.
• Cultural self-bias : Leo comments on how people often absurdly favor their own culture, cuisine, and nationality, believing them to be superior due to self-bias without objective evaluation.
• Human indifference towards other species : Humans generally show little concern for the death and suffering of other species, highlighting the self-bias and the absence of objective value for life across species.
• Accusations against the objective : Individuals who point out societal and personal issues from an objective standpoint often face demonization or accusations of disloyalty as the existing self-biased views perceive objectivity as a threat.
• Attack on the selfless : Selfless and unbiased individuals working to correct societal problems are ironically attacked and labeled as selfish or unscientific due to the projection of self-biased flaws by others.
• Self-bias and group conformity : Leo observes that self-bias can be magnified within groups where biases are mutually affirmed, preventing individuals from recognising their own bias and complicating efforts to overcome it.
• On Self-Bias and the 'Devil' : Leo describes how bias operates by explaining that those with a selfish perspective (referred to as the 'devil') see objectivity and impartiality as evil, bias, and disloyalty. The devil projects his own bias onto those who are objective and selfless, attacking them for characteristics they are actively working to remedy.
• Reaction to Objectivity : Leo points out that efforts to be objective and impartial are often met with resistance and hostility. People who are called out on their biases react defensively and may label the person pointing out the biases as biased themselves, a phenomenon observed in various ideological groups.
• Examples from Art History : Leo draws on art history to illustrate objectivity and impartiality. He discusses two paintings by Jacques-Louis David—"The Death of Socrates" and "The Lictors Bring to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons"—as representations of ultimate integrity and impartiality.

• Education and Self-Bias : Leo criticizes educational institutions for not teaching objectivity and impartiality, arguing that such principles could threaten the institutions' underlying biases.
• Self-Reflection on Bias : Leo admits his own biases and emphasizes that his aim is not to judge others but to encourage self-reflection, suggesting that awareness of one's own biases leads to personal growth and avoiding self-deception.
• Continual Vigilance Against Bias : Leo underlines the necessity of constant vigilance against self-bias and self-deception throughout one's life, even after spiritual awakenings, as new levels of bias can appear.
• Accessing Absolute Truth : Leo concludes that despite the prevalence of self-bias, accessing absolute truth is indeed possible, but not through conventional means or philosophies discussed earlier, hinting that a deeper approach is needed.
• Possibility of Objective Reality : Leo explains that through deep introspection and deconstructing human perception, one can access the absolute truth, which is the objective reality sought in the process of Awakening.
• No Simple Metric for Unbiased Thinking : There's no concrete metric or simple checklist for ensuring unbiased thought; the challenge is inherent because self-deception can always occur, requiring ongoing vigilance and self-reflection.
• Conscious Effort to Address Self-Bias : To combat self-bias, Leo advises becoming aware of biases (both major and minor), avoiding double standards, ceasing to prioritize personal interests, and cultivating integrity and a genuine desire for truth above personal survival.
• Broadening Perspectives to See Self-Bias : Engaging with diverse points of view, especially from outside one's "propaganda bubble," can greatly help in recognizing personal biases and expanding one's intellectual horizons.
• Admitting and Relinquishing Biases : Leo encourages acknowledging one's biases as a first step, then moving on to letting go of those biases, which can be a challenge requiring courage and a willingness to step out of comfort zones.
• Non-Duality as Transcendence of Bias : Non-duality is presented not as a bias, but as the transcendence of all self-biases, leading to ultimate truths such as God, immortality, and infinite love.
• Breaking Loyalty With Personal Identities : Leo recommends a radical approach to improving life—letting go of all personal loyalties and identities, which can be difficult but ultimately rewarding.
• Rewards of Living an Unbiased Life : Despite living unbiasedly being a challenging process, the rewards are profound, including truth, God, immortality, and infinite love.
• Continuous Practice to Eradicate Self-Bias : Overcoming self-bias is an ongoing journey that requires persistent effort, self-reflection, and the pursuit of intellectual integrity. Regular practices like yoga and meditation can aid awareness but need to be balanced with vigilance.
• Self-Bias in Teachings : Leo acknowledges the inherent biases within his teachings and emphasizes the importance of exposure to a variety of sources and ideas to avoid toxic ideologies or restrictive outlooks.