[pjc50]

> it is about what happened in your mind, what you take from that experience

Is this fiction or non-fiction? If it's fiction, then sure, yes, enjoy the ride. You can let it change the way you think a little.

If you're going to act on it? No. It's like reading a scientific paper and discovering an error in the statistical work: it invalidates the whole thing and you need to forget it.

Too many people these days are taken in by clever little just-so stories on social media that have no more validity than Rudyard Kipling's animal stories.

(On the other hand, as a piece of media criticism it's totally fine! The observation about pessimism is not new and seems valid even if it isn't and can't be "objective". Separate issue.)

[_nalply]

Even in truth there are grey areas. You read a scientific paper and discover a serious error in a side topic the paper only had a short digress about. Would that invalidate the whole thing?

And where do you draw the line of invalidating errors and not so important errors (Sorites Paradox)?

This said, there are cases where a contradiction undermines the whole thing. I am a legal and one law professor warned us students, if we say A is valid but not A as well, he will dismiss the complete answer.

Once I got a contradictory information from a government agency and I was forced to follow up with a request for clarification. That's bad.

[harimau777]

I could see there being value in the discussion and thinking rather than in drawing a definitive conclusion.

After all, animal stories like Rudyard Kipling's have a long history of providing people with tools for thinking about life and social issues.