A tool is a means or method for achieving a goal. In a broad sense, various disciplines, thoughts, and ideologies are tools, too. In order to do something well, you need to have the right tools for the situation.
However, in today's society the role of purpose and tool is reversed. For example, some politicians are distorting facts in the world in order to plant their way of thinking and ideologies in the world. In the relationship between reality and way of thinking or ideology, the right way is to correct the way of thinking or ideology according to the reality. But they are distorting reality to keep the justification of their way of thinking or ideologies.