It is difficult to discriminate the voice of truth from amid the clamor raised by heated partisans.

Volume and conviction are the two qualities most easily mistaken for accuracy. In a loud dispute the careful, qualified account is nearly inaudible, because it lacks the energy that makes a claim travel, and the most certain people usually hold the least information capable of raising doubt. Difficult is the honest word: the signal is not absent, it is buried. Finding it takes deliberate effort rather than better instincts.

When an argument is at its hottest, go looking for whoever is being careful rather than whoever is being persuasive. Read someone who concedes points to the other side. Certainty is cheap, and worth learning not to pay for.