Upholding democratic principles and protecting the constitutional freedoms we enjoy may depend on our willingness to fact-check and base our actions on what is accurate and true — even if doing so challenges strongly held political beliefs.

Confirmation bias-seeking information that validates our already held beliefs, regardless of the information’s accuracy, is a common human tendency and is a significant factor in contemporary politics.

One example is the way most of us search for or interpret news stories. We are more likely to believe a story if it confirms our pre-existing views, even if the evidence presented is shaky, inconclusive, or nonexistent. And social media algorithms funnel us information consistent with what we want to hear.

Most of us recognize that some statements made by politicians, news commentators, and other public figures with influence are verifiably false. The same applies to AI-generated or fabricated social media memes.

When we assume that such claims are true – when they are not – we risk basing our political and other convictions on misleading information. If we share such information with others, we contribute to the spread of misinformation.

Thomas Jefferson wrote that an informed citizenry is the best defense against tyranny: “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” There is an abundance of evidence to suggest that a lack of accurate information and a diet of misinformation is bad for democracy.

To believe, without questioning, the statements we hear or see from politicians and media sources, is to leave ourselves and our nation vulnerable to deceptive, propaganda-driven positions. Such ignorance could eventually lead to the loss of freedoms we cherish-freedoms that many of our ancestors fought and died to preserve.

According to an AI search, identifying an entirely unbiased fact-checking source is challenging because “human decisions and interpretations” cannot be ruled out.

Several fact-checking organizations, however, have established strong records of nonpartisan fact-checking. Some of these organizations are signatories to the International Fact-Checking Network and its code of principles. Those principles include commitments to nonpartisanship and fairness, transparency of sources, transparency of funding and organization, transparency of methodology, and open and honest correction policies.

Such reliable organizations include PolitiFact, FactCheck.org, and Snopes, among others.

In this age of disinformation and misinformation, the preservation of our constitutional republic, our democracy, may hinge on our willingness to seek and follow the truth, even if it takes us in directions inconsistent with what we would like to believe.

J. Alan Gift is a mental health therapist and student of history living in Harrisville, Utah.