Final thoughts

“Think for yourself.”

Anyone who has seriously attempted to enact this Trends Research Institute motto knows it’s not all that easy. In the wake of an election, we can’t help but be reminded of how “facts” are manipulated according to the agenda of those delivering them as they strive to orchestrate our thinking, emotions and behavior.

On most issues, facts are difficult or impossible to independently verify. How many civilians, armed or unarmed, have died in police custody? Sorry, there’s no complete national record to give you that number, nor is there any oversight to guarantee that records available in national databases are accurate.

Want to see the raw data behind Javelin Research’s 2014 Identity Fraud Report to verify its methods and conclusions? You’ll have to shell out $3,500 for that proprietary document. Since there is no national registry of identity theft’s cost to individuals, you’ll also have to take it on faith that Javelin was adequate and unbiased. And you’re still dependent on the corporations involved — Target, Home Depot, JPMorgan Chase and others — to accurately reveal the full extent of their data breaches.

Of course, nobody has the time to double-check every fact that feeds into his or her decision- and opinion-making. So, we wind up making choices about whom we can trust to deliver and interpret facts. We usually turn to sources that mirror our own philosophy or political bent; if they get the facts wrong, the thinking goes, at least they will be wrong in our favor.

Some of us feel that, as independent thinkers, we’re best served by putting our trust in a political agnostic beholden to no party or corporate line, a source whose primary agenda involves cutting through the B.S. to get the truth.

That’s why we tune in to Gerald Celente — and read the Trends Journal.