TRUTH AS NICHE INTEREST

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BGT: Truth as a Niche Human Interest

• Dishonesty learned by age 3-4 — lying protects us from consequences 

• Deception is instinctive; truth comes second to feeling safe and validated 

• Childhood example: claiming dad is 8 feet tall to "win" playground competition 

• Being seen as right has more survival value than actually being right 

• We crave validation like honey and fat — it's deeply rewarding even when wrong 

• After arguments, we hunt for vindication, not education or understanding 

• Everyone adds spin to stories — "enjoyable" becomes "amazing," "might" becomes "definitely" 

• Humans produce delusion constantly, especially when money and power are involved 

• We're too credulous — we want to believe things are as impressive as they first appear 

• Forming one responsible opinion requires enormous work: claims, counter-claims, clarification 

• Truth-seeking feels like nausea — confusion, self-doubt, questioning your tribe 

• Validation is everywhere in partisan headlines designed to reward existing worldviews 

• Truth-seeking is choosing a marathon over a free donut — unpopular by design 

• In the information age, most worldviews are made of "gathered donuts" — partisan talking points 

• Solution: Deep-dive one issue per month, ignore everything else, hunt for best counterarguments

Tagline: "Dispassionate truth-seeking isn't a core human value — it's a nerdy, elective hobby like distance running, forever competing with the instant gratification of validation donuts."