Cognitive dissonance starts taking its toll

Cognitive dissonance has been quite trendy on social media lately. People trade accusations of cognitive dissonance and mockingly lament it in those they disagree with but cognitive dissonance is more than a joke.

It’s mentally and emotionally taxing to believe in two things that contradict each other or to act in a way apparently contrary to what you believe in or know is true. Sooner or later, the dissonance begins taking its toll.

This week, President Biden made headlines when he said at a campaign rally “No more drilling…there is no more drilling,” just days after slamming U.S. oil companies for returning cash to shareholders instead of, well, drilling more, because it’s safe to assume he knows you can only increase oil production by drilling more wells.

Biden’s stance on the oil industry could make for a great textbook example of cognitive dissonance. The president came into office with the promise to clip the U.S. oil industry’s wings and move the country into the renewable energy era. He did so on his first day on the job, when he cancelled the Keystone XL project. Talk about a symbolic gesture.

At the same time, as the realities of energy supply and demand made themselves impossible to ignore, Biden began calling for, pleading for, and demanding more oil from producers with the justification that, basically, it will only be for a little while until we build enough wind and solar. It’s a tune often sung by the cognitively dissonant.