# To Fight Misinformation, We Must Think Like Scientists
> Logical reasoning and theory testing can protect against fake news.
Here I can't stress **theory testing** enough. The world is full of theorists (including myself!), but we are not checking our ideas against reality often enough. Even in small ways, like this article reminds us, just against one's own recent experiences. Most snake oil gets revealed that way.
> 1. We must be empiricists, not ideologues
> 2. We must create tests
> 3. We must encourage others to be empiricists
My speculation is that why people don't engage in such little experiments is due to 1. their laziness;
2. this sort of stuff is difficult to do on your own. It's way easier to do this in a conversation with [oneself, or with others](https://qoto.org/@FailForward/105531544314397677).
3. when the findings of such a process do not align with one's own theories and ideologies, it's better to close our eyes and just move on. Partly this is because of fear of losing face - once we espouse our favourite theories to our social circle, it might be embarrassing to retract them when they turn incorrect.
All this is because we all love neat worlds. Ideas and theories around them are pure, clean and "just work", while the reality outside is messy, colourful and complicated.
