So many of us folks get into fairly animated discussions or arguments, especially these politically confused days. It’s human nature. Even dogs and cats and horses get into discussions and disagreements, in languages and on topics we can only imagine. I’d sure like to know what my dog says to the cats, and what the cats are screeching about, but we’ll never know.

But sometimes in arguments amongst humans, when people run out of things to say or run dry of points to make, or when they feel like their arguments are getting shot down and they ain’t winning and they want a way out, they will do this one peculiar thing. They’ll say something that’s a real buzz phrase these days. What’s this phrase? It’s “Do Your Own Research.”

OK, pardner. You say I should do my own research. So it’s time to do research on my own. But they’re not clear themselves on what “research” really means. And most of them don’t realize that doing good research actually takes research. To make it real simple, hearing “Do Your Own Research” means that that person is trying to put the responsibility of the argument back on you. That’s common when someone feels like they are flailing with their own argument - they’ll try to make you responsible for it. So it is time to for us to be responsible to ourselves and do our own research.

But what is research exactly? Research is fact finding and reading, finding sources of information and evaluating those sources and what you learn from them. Good research assumes you are referring to sources that have credibility.

But like anything, there’s ants in the pants of the details. To many of these folks, “Do Your Own Research” means that one most common place to research, and where many people don’t think twice about going to right away: the Ye Olde Internet.

Let’s back up a bit. I remember doing research in the old days of the 1970’s and 1980’s when I went to to the library. You know, one of those strange buildings full of books where people sat around reading and you had to be quiet and studious. But libraries are still around, and have been in the news lately with all these people trying to ban books. But that’s a subject for a different day. Anyway, in the bad old days (well, maybe they’re the good old days?) and were no computers, but there was a big card catalog. Remember those? If you’ve never seen one, they were giant file cabinets with thousands of little index cards, and if you wanted to find a book, you went through the alphabetical cards for the author or the title or the subject. That would give you a book catalog number, and you went to the appropriate shelf, and that’s where you found the actual book or magazine or newspaper.

My point is that it took time to do research. You had to think about it. You had to flip through the cards and decide what was the best book or two for you. Now, at the time, there was what they call disinformation, but it was harder to get out to people with no Internet to spread the bullcrap around.

These days? In some respects, it takes no time to do research. Which is not necessarily a bad thing. You can dial up a newspaper and search 100 years of back issues for what you’re looking for. You can find a pile of books on the subject you want within a minute, and sometimes even find those books for free on the Internet and not have to go to the library. You can find a bunch of websites that cater to every whim and subject.

My point is that research is very fast these days, and you can get so much in an instant. But that research you’re doing ain’t really research unless you also research where that information is coming from. You have to research the research. It comes down to this: who do you trust? But before you get to trust, it comes down to verifying that that trust is deserved.

I know, I know. Some folks really hate the Washington Post or the New York Times. But they have been around for a long time, and many people read them and keep them in line and keep them accurate. Some bullshit slips through. But what many don’t acknowledge is that the Post or Times is made up of hundreds of people. And editors. And the publisher. And so many of them have agendas. One writer for the Washington Post might be real good, and another not so good. What are there facts?

It takes time to be accurate and informed. It takes work to do research. It takes time to trust media sources. It takes time to trust the people you have discussions with.

Billionaires have a lot of power. Money talks. Loudly. Have you seen what’s happened to this Twitter since Elon Musk blew more money than God has on it? He’s gone down more rabbit holes than Alice in Wonderland. Someone needs to tell Musk to do his own research, but I doubt he would listen. Jeff Bezos of Amazon owns the Washington Post, though he mostly, as people say, keeps his hands out of it.

Whats the bottom dollar? Lots of people put a lot of horse crap on the Internet. You need to be able to know enough to step around the piles. Do your research on the sources of the information you’re discovering as well as what exactly you are researching. Think abut it. Is there evidence? Talk to other people you trust. Get into discussions with others that have a level head, and not the kind of people that will get annoyed and push the discussion back on you..

And if someone pushes off their argument on you, well, that’s fine - do your own research. And do your research on the sources of your research. You will be bettter off than those types who simply tell you to “Do Your Own Research.”