I believe it is the duty of every logically-minded adult to question anything presented to them as being “just the way things are.”

That being said, don’t adopt a conspiracy theory “the truth is out there” attitude, I’m  promoting the mind of a logical skeptic. Think less Alex Jones and more Adam Conover.

Whatever the reason may be, the general consensus seems to be that naysayers should be looked down upon. A critic or commentator pointing out flaws in some pie-in-the-sky idea is seen more as an attacker than someone bringing reason to the table.

In much the same way, many people I know refuse to watch television news because they are jaded to the constant stream of negative news coming down the airwaves. People don’t like hearing something funny or inspiring is actually a load of crap.

Everything is flawed in some way. This very article probably has a handful of grammatical errors sprinkled throughout despite the numerous copy-editing passes each article goes through at The Shield.

Errors happen. That’s a fact of life.

The key to skepticism is noting those important errors that might fundamentally change how someone lives their life or understands the world.

Let’s look at one national and one local example of ideas that make for fun fiction, but should be taken with many grains of salt.

No, “solar freakin roadways” are not feasibly possible as presented by the popular viral video that made its way around the usual social media channels.

From the standpoint of making a sexy design pitch and an easily sharable message, it works.

From an engineering standpoint, not so much.

No, there probably isn’t a hollowed-out book full of illicit materials somewhere on the fourth floor of the Rice Library.

As much as I’d like to write an exposé on that mythical book, all signs point to it not existing. Why would anyone go through the trouble of setting up some Cold War-era cloak and dagger routine simply to exchange money for legally questionable substances?

If usi_snaps has taught us anything, it’s that legally-questionable substances are easily obtained and consumed on campus without the use of something as antiquated as a dead drop.

Nobody likes a Negative Nancy, but a carefully-administered dose of skepticism  can save you from the many shady things you encounter in life, possibly even something more malicious than a hippy-dippy video about sticking solar panels on roads.