I am someone who seeks to be right. I often don’t contribute to conversations on topics I haven’t spent at least some time doing research on. And in my desire to be right, if someone challenges me, I am open to being wrong. I will listen and evaluate, and if I determine that I am either wrong or just not fully correct, I will gladly adjust my position, because I want to be right.
Contrast that with the abundance of people currently on display in the conservative Right in America who are much more obsessed with being “not wrong”. Being “not wrong” is very different than being right. Being “not wrong” means that you will not accept challenges or corrections, you have your position and you will not be moved because you are “not wrong”. In fact, when presented with any information that contradicts your position you will essentially refuse to hear it, and you will double down on your position because you are “not wrong”. Even if someone were to show you that you aren’t at fault for being wrong, but that you have based your position on false information that someone else provided, on lies that someone else told, you will not move because you are “not wrong”. You have internalized that you are “not wrong”, made it your identity, and any suggestion that you are wrong, for any reason, is seen as a personal attack on you, and you will respond by, at minimum, putting your foot down and insisting that you are “not wrong”. You might even lash out at people, and turn things around, stating that clearly the evidence being shown to you must be fake, that the person saying you are wrong has an agenda, some nefarious purpose for convincing other people that your position is wrong when it is “not wrong”.
This is particularly prevalent in the Trump administration. They make decisions, those decisions turn out to be bad, but since they are “not wrong” they don’t reverse course unless they can frame as “part of the plan all along”. Like tariffs. Trump doesn’t understand how to employ tariffs in a good way, partly because he will not accept a situation that is mutually beneficial. He always has to win. And he defines winning as “paying him money”. You cannot explain any of this to him, because he has his (incorrect) understanding of tariffs and he is “not wrong”. When his tariff announcements are received poorly, he doesn’t listen to any of the criticism or analysis because he is “not wrong”. He knows that tariffs are the solution, he knows it, and he is “not wrong”, so anyone suggesting that tariffs are wrong, bad, or not working, they have to be wrong because he is “not wrong”. And further, how could he be wrong when people keep paying him money to get an exception to his tariffs, that they don’t want because they are bad and will ruin companies, so he must be “not wrong” since it is making him money.
Climate change is fake. They know this, and they are “not wrong”. It no longer matters how many studies there are, or how many scientists support it, or even how many wildfires burn, or if the sea levels rise as the glaciers melt, they are “not wrong”.
Masks do not work. They know this, and they are “not wrong”. Any attempt to require masks is a personal attack. It doesn’t matter if you can show that masks do work.
Vaccines make people sick. They know this, and they are “not wrong”. Decades of history with employing vaccines safely, mountains of supporting evidence. We have all the stats showing how many people used to die from various illnesses, and now people aren’t dying. But all that doesn’t matter.
Trans people are dangerous. They know this, and they are “not wrong”. It doesn’t matter how few trans women are actually in women’s sports. It doesn’t matter if every study on gender affirming care shows that it is at worst harmless and reversible, but more often is greatly beneficial.
Illegal immigrants are invading this country, mass murdering people, and stealing all our stuff. They know this, and they are “not wrong”. And no one will inform them otherwise.
I could go on. Every position they hold they are “not wrong”, and they are willing to burn down the whole system, the entire world, before they would ever admit to possibly, maybe, being mistaken.
We can’t go on like this. We will never survive if we keep periodically putting in charge people who are “not wrong”. We need more people who strive to be right.