"If you eat, invest, and think according to what the 'news' advocates, you'll end up nutritionally, financially, and morally bankrupt."
-Naval Ravikant
This includes taking advice from Internet personalities that prop up the status quo.
Here's a useful heuristic I've been refining over the last few years that is shockingly accurate most of the time:
The more widely accepted, the more mass appeal something has, the MORE LIKELY IT IS TO BE WRONG.
So I remind myself of this quote:
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.
Here's the gist: If you want exceptional results in life, you can't do what people with average results are doing.
You can't think like these people.
So you have to take what they are doing and pull out what is useful, what truisms there might be, then build on top of those.
And in some cases, you have to discard the status quo altogether and start from scratch.
This concept applies to everything in your life, from finances to raising kids to nutrition. Everything.
Stop giving your attention to the useful idiots in government or the nitwit celebrities or the political activists that call themselves "journalists."
Think for yourself. Seek out the truth by accepting that you know nothing. Let go of your labels, judgments, bias, and idols.
Only by unlearning the bad habits culture has infected you can you gain autonomy to think and live for yourself.