Tamara graces us with her wisdom yet again with The Paradox of Site Moderation.
Category Archives: Psychology
Quote of the day—Brandon Smith
The political left is now the side that is most appealing to narcissists, sociopaths, the emotionally unstable, etc., and this attraction is forming a mob that can be easily exploited by the establishment.
Brandon Smith
January 13, 2022
For Leftists, Your Freedom Is Their Misery – Your Slavery Is Their Joy
[There is more than a little truth in this.—Joe]
Typical
Via Catturd ™ @catturd2:
This kind of thing happens a lot. If you supply someone with irrefutable evidence of their wrongly held belief they will be very creative in protecting that belief.
It’s irrational to expect people to be rational.
Quote of the day—Victoria Parker
Some policies—and some partisans—deserve forceful opposition, even contempt, from the other side. Vigorous disagreement, both within and between parties, is essential in a functioning democracy. But democracy also requires at least some level of mutual comprehension. No matter where people are on the political spectrum, they ought to know whom they’re fighting with and what they’re even fighting about.
Victoria Parker
December 27, 2021
Conservatives and Liberals Are Wrong About Each Other
[It is my belief that instead of treating people as belonging to one tribe or another people should treat each other as individuals. Individuals that have a much more nuanced set of beliefs and actions than the caricatures assigned to them by the leaders of their tribal opponents.
That may be too much to ask. The tribal behaviors are almost certainly deeply embedded in our psyche and difficult to override. As I have said many times before*, “It is irrational to expect people to be rational.”
The end result may be a tragedy of misunderstandings with a great mass of people “targeted” by each side when, if at all, it should only be that small fraction of extremists who are dragging the whole population into the fire.—Joe]
* For example:
- Relearning old lessons (2004)
- Natural disaster, Islam, When Prophecy Fails (2005)
- It’s hopeless (2006)
- Societal engineering (2007)
- One should not expect people to be rational (2008)
- Quote of the day—Alan Korwin (2012)
- Quote of the day—Don B. Kates (2013)
- We defend our… (2013)
- Quote of the day—Scott Adams (2016)
- Quote of the day—Jim N. Taylor (2018)
- Quote of the day—Alan Gottlieb & Dave Workman (2019)
- Amazing (2019)
- Quote of the day—Rolf Nelson (2021)
- Mental gymnastics (2021)
Quote of the day—Noam Shpancer
Mature people use their fire to warm the house rather than burn it down, refrain from assaulting flight attendants, help old ladies cross the street, pack a sandwich for the long road trip, and can take a joke.
Our current cultural climate trends in the opposite direction. Instead of constructive sublimation, we celebrate raw destructive aggression; instead of suppressing dark emotions, we revel in them; instead of preparing for the future, we’re busy destroying it; instead of laughing at ourselves and our shared humanity, we either laugh at the weak or foreswear humor altogether.
In America today, the delicate and complex machinery of democracy is placed in infantile hands. You don’t need a child’s imagination to foresee trouble ahead.
Noam Shpancer, Ph.D.
November 13, 2021
Psychological Immaturity Threatens Our Democracy
Democracy requires psychological maturity, which appears to be in short supply.
[The article does a good job of describing the problem from the viewpoint of a psychologist. I wish he had some suggestions for a solution.—Joe]
Quote of the day—T.S. Eliot
Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don’t mean to do harm; but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.
T. S. Eliot
“The Cocktail Party” (1949), Act 1, scene 1.
[H/T to Phssthpok.
A search for the context of this quote led me to this gold mine of quotes created by Thomas Sowell.—Joe]
The mind of an anti-gun advocate (@Pigdowndog)
See also A process failure aka Peterson Syndrome and truth and falsity for more glimpses inside their minds.
From the comments to Quote of the day—Pigdowndog @Pigdowndog. Please be cautious in extrapolating these results to other people, especially if they come from a different country and/or demographic.
My quick look for more information on Pigdowndog resulted in moderate confidence he is in the range of 75 to 85 years old, lived a number of years in southern France, and I have high confidence he currently lives Southwest of London.
In my initial QOTD post, I said “Simple logic for simple minds.” I way over estimated his ability to think logically. Sorry about that. But he arrived on scene and didn’t take long to correct my error. Here is the evidence:
pkoning on October 18, 2021 at 6:42 am said:
You mean the UK, where a defenseless MP was murdered just days ago by a knife wielding religious fanatic?
Toastrider on October 18, 2021 at 6:50 am said:
And that’s with knife control in England.
Lulz.
Pigdowndog on October 23, 2021 at 3:09 am said:
There is no knife control in the UK apart from an age limit to buying them which is wholly sensible.
You’re right about the murder of an M.P. being tragic but that doesn’t mean that he should have been armed.
Even if he was do you think he would have had a chance to reach for the gun before the knife struck?
It’s real life, not Hollywood.
Thankfully those horrendous events are rare over here unlike over there.
Joe on October 23, 2021 at 10:01 am said:
I still would like to know what color the sky is in your universe. It’s very clear we do not live in the same reality. In my universe U.K. law states:
The maximum penalty for an adult carrying a knife is 4 years in prison and an unlimited fine. You’ll get a prison sentence if you’re convicted of carrying a knife more than once.
Basic laws on knives
It’s illegal to possess a banned knife or weapon. It’s also illegal to:bring into the UK, sell, hire, lend or give someone a banned knife or weapon
carry any knife in public without good reason, unless it has a manual folding blade less than 3 inches long
sell a knife to anyone under the age of 18, unless it has a manual folding blade less than 3 inches longThe list of banned knives is long and includes batons and blowpipes.
Pigdowndog on October 24, 2021 at 2:44 am said:
You conveniently left out;
“carry any knife in public without good reason, unless it has a manual folding blade less than 3 inches long”
“use any knife in a threatening way”
“Lock knives are not classed as folding knives and are illegal to carry in public without good reason.”
All sensible sanctions as our knife crime is far too prevalent.
Your gun crime also is far too prevalent but your government just turns a blind eye to the consequences of allowing anyone to possess a killing machine.
I’m more than happy that we have protections in place that attempt to solve the problem rather than allow the carnage to carry on regardless of the outcome.
At first I was a bit perplexed. Is this someone suffering from Alzheimer’s and can’t remember what they said just the day before? It could be. But we’ve seen inability to follow logic or respond logically from Joan Peterson who I doubt was at the age where Alzheimer was a likely explanation.
After thinking about it some I am more inclined to believe they are not suffering from Alzheimer’s or other dementia. If that were the case I think the clues would show up in his twitter posts.
The weird inability to think logically and conform their claims to the hard reality is common in anti-gun people. Many of them simply do not accept reality. How else do you explain this?
Yesterday morning he claimed, “
There is no knife control in the UK apart from an age limit to buying them…
After I linked to and quote U.K. listing numerous knife regulations on the carry of knives and the bans of many common knives he came back less than 24 hours later and said I had “conveniently left out” further knife regulations. What? There is no knife control but when I don’t list all the knife laws he claims some sort victory by adding to the list of controls that supposedly don’t exist?
He then doubles down on the contradictions. Yesterday, referring to a stabbing, he said:
Thankfully those horrendous events are rare over here…
This morning he claims:
our knife crime is far too prevalent
There are other things I could point out but this should be more than sufficient to draw the appropriate conclusion.
These are symptoms of someone with mental problems. It may not be dementia but things between the ears are not in working order. It’s almost certainly Peterson Syndrome.
Quote of the day—Caitlin Johnstone
It doesn’t matter what you’re allowed to say if it doesn’t matter what you say. It doesn’t matter if you’re allowed to call the oligarchic puppet put in office by the last fake election a dickhead. It doesn’t matter if you’re allowed to Google any information you want only to find whatever information Google wants you to find.
Caitlin Johnstone
October 10, 2021
The Science Of Propaganda Is Still Being Developed And Advanced
[True.
I’m at a loss for a solution as is Johnstone.
Sometimes I wonder if a major reset (economic collapse?) would improve things. But when I give it more than a moment’s thought I decide things will get worse under those sort of circumstances.—Joe]
Quote of the day—Tom Ozimek
he New York Fed’s August survey of consumer expectations showed that Americans anticipate food prices to rise by 7.9 percent in a year, higher than the overall inflation expectation of 5.2 percent.
Federal Reserve officials have repeatedly characterized the current bout of inflation as “transitory” though they have increasingly expressed concern about the risk of a de-anchoring of inflationary expectations. That’s where confidence in the “transitory” narrative falls and people start to believe and behave as if inflation will be far stickier than previously believed, impacting wage and price-setting behavior and potentially even sparking the kind of upward wage-price spiral that bedeviled the economy in the 1970s.
Tom Ozimek
October 9, 2021
Food Prices Hit Highest Level in a Decade
[See also Biden’s Inflation Now Costs Families $2.1K A Year And About To Get Worse.
One of the things about economics, the stock market, and retails sales that was difficult for me to accept was that significant components are emotion driven. It wasn’t that I rejected that it was true. It was that I wanted it to be false.
I wanted to believe that “everyone”, at least a sufficiently high percentage of people, would act rationally enough that most of the time shortages, crazy housing/tulip-bulb/Dot-Com/whatever bubbles and extreme economic cycles wouldn’t occur. I would think, “How many times must these lessons be taught in the school of hard knocks before people learn the lessons?” The answer I didn’t want to accept was that the majority of people will never learn the lesson.
I’ve become more cynical (realistic?) in my old age.
If people believe there is high inflation coming then they increase the odds that it will happen.
Prepare appropriately.—Joe]
Quote of the day—Pam Carlson (@PamCarlson3)
Big man sticking up for the tiny penis crowd trying to sic his tiny penis followers on me. Better hope this doesn’t go the way you want. Twitter has a harassment policy, you know.
Pam Carlson (@PamCarlson3)
Tweeted on September 27, 2021
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday!
This was in response to my blog post which automatically posted a link to it on Twitter.
I found this hilarious! She starts out by harassingly gun owners with childish insults. I merely quoted her and pointed out she appeared to be incapable of bringing anything but childish insults to the discussion. I did not advocate or even suggest anyone engage with her. In response, she projects her harassment of us as harassment of her and continues harassing us.
Quote of the day—Cantankerous Socialist @Cante12175815
Bless, did I hit a nerve Cletus
Perhaps you need to visit a gay bar and get rid of all that pent up frustration.
Toodle pip
xxx
Cantankerous Socialist @Cante12175815
Tweeted on September 20, 2021
[This was in response to receiving the honor of a Markley’s Law Monday quote of the day a couple weeks ago.
I would like to thank Cantankerous Socialist @Cante12175815 for confirming my previous diagnosis.—Joe]
Quote of the day—Catherine Clifford @CATCLIFFORD
There have to be more people at different levels in the organization, in different parts of the organization, who are given the platform and the ability to initiate, to mobilize, to move things forward. It doesn’t only live at the C-Suite.
And ideally, if it’s done well, each person, no matter what part of the company you’re in, feels that they have a stake in this climate change response. Nobody is exempting themselves because they don’t know enough about climate. An effective response is one where everyone has something to add here and is a part of the response.
Catherine Clifford @CATCLIFFORD
September 26, 2021
Climate psychologist says neither gloom-and-doom nor extreme solution-obsessed optimism is the best way to discuss climate change productively
[I knew there were dog psychologists, horse psychologists, and I found out there are cat psychologists and even cow psychologists. But climate psychologists? Wow!
I wonder if she has a heavy client load. Are there a lot of climates in need of a shrink?
To be fair, I poked around a little bit I can can’t find where she claims she helps climates with their mental health issues.
I do wonder about her mental health some though. She seems to presume facts not in evidence. I’m fairly certain her claim that everyone should feel “they have a stake in the climate change response” is not true. For example, there are those who are more concerned about another ice age putting a sheet of ice a mile thick over southern Canada and the northern states than the possibility of a dozen feet of ocean rise. Hence, if we really think we can affect the climate then we should error on the side of keeping the earth warm rather than on keeping it cool.
Does she want those people to feel like they have a stake in the climate change response? Or is she is living in a delusional world where everyone agrees with her view of reality. In other words, is she a liar or delusional? It could be both, but I have insufficient evidence to conclusively determine which.—Joe]
Self-esteem correlated with number of sex partners
An analysis of data collected across 10 world regions suggests that men’s self-esteem is more strongly tied to their sexual success than women’s. The findings were published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.
…
The study authors accordingly proposed that having a greater number of past sexual partners should increase self-esteem. They further reasoned that this positive link between self-esteem and number of past sexual partners should be stronger among men since greater sexual acceptance is more adaptive for men. That is, men’s ability to pass on their genes relies strongly on having a high number of sexual partners, while women’s success in passing on their genes rests on having higher quality sexual partners who will invest in offspring.
The first thing that came to mind when reading this was, “Correlation doesn’t mean causation. Perhaps having a high self-esteem, as a consequence of such things as job success, physical attractiveness, etc. contributed to the higher number of sexual partners.”
The authors are concerned about that as well:
The authors note that past experimental studies have found that manipulating self-esteem seems to impact sexual desire differently among men and women, suggesting that self-esteem might be “both a cause and a consequence of short-term mating success in men.”
“Future work should seek to disentangle the many functions of self-esteem within men’s short-term mating psychology,” the researchers write, “including work to identify how self-esteem may serve specially-designed functions as both a consequence, and a cause, of short-term mating success.”
Many years ago I would hear things to the effect that women with high number of sexual partners by women was frequently a result of low self-esteem. At the time I knew two young women (in their mid 20s) who that seemed to apply to but it did not appear to be a consistent pattern. More recently with women in their 50s and 60s I have talked to about numbers of sex partners don’t seem to show any correlation one way or the other. But this did not involve any accurate self-esteem measurements.
More study is required before, if ever, the head shrinks start prescribing lots of sexual partners to increase self-esteem.
Quote of the day—Goober
Their hatred of guns is deeply rooted in their hatred of personal responsibility. The very idea that you might be responsible for your own safety is abhorrent to them. The very concept that the maintenance of personal freedom and responsibility might actually be worth living a more dangerous life is simply a repellent concept to them. They want to be kept. They want others to make their choices for them. They want to live the comfortable, gray, meaningless lives of a pet.
People that do not desire this are lamented by them, not because those people are wrong, but because those people demonstrate to them how absolutely pathetic they are, and they hate that.
Goober
July 21, 2021
Comment to Quote of the day—Tom Knighton
[One should be careful to not attempt “reading their minds”, but I believe there is a lot of evidence to support this hypothesis.—Joe]
Quote of the day—Gad Saad
Utopians believe that the world could be a perfect place except for this one group that is stopping the world from becoming a perfect place.
Gad Saad
May 31, 2021
Woke Ideology Mimics Precursors to Totalitarian Slaughter, Experts Say
[See also this YouTube video.
We are facing “Woke” and Marxist utopians infiltrated into government, schools, and many large businesses. They are accumulating power and each concession of power increases their lust for more.
History shows us this is a well worn path to genocide.
Prepare accordingly.—Joe]
Quote of the day—Roger L. Simon
As Tal Bachman notes at Steynonline, it’s now our state religion, a state religion in a country that—constitutionally and for good reason—isn’t supposed to have one.
But “Wokism” is yet more than that, too. It’s a mass psychosis similar to many that have arisen throughout history when the masses followed leaders who, in their zeal or self-interest, took them to disastrous ends.
Roger L. Simon
May 9, 2021
How ‘Woke’ May Be Leading Us to Civil War
[See yesterday’s QOTD as well.—Joe]
Quote of the day—George Strong
America is a great playpen of civilization filled with toddler adults who have never experience the violent brutality of life outside the safe confines of our political borders.
So any display of reality confuses them the same way a toddler is confused as to why we can’t help the poor homeless meth addict.
George Strong
April 25, 2021
Comment on Facebook.
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
Quote of the day—Rick Moran
Small-minded, even ignorant people see salvation in controlling the minds and lives of others. Is it a mass delusion that they believe they are actually “fighting racism,” that they’re doing this for white people’s own good? Or are these the same efforts at control that have been around since humans created civilizations?
Rick Moran
February 20, 2021
‘Critical Race Theory’ Costs a Brave Smith College Whistleblower Her Job
[There are alphas in most social animals so I expect the answer is that control of others has extremely deep genetic roots which go well beyond the first human civilizations.
And of course “racism” is just the current tool of choice in our country. In other times and places the tool was chosen to match a vulnerable target. Classic example from early in the 20th Century are Hitler with the Jewish (and other) people while Stalin had Trotsky, counter revolutionaries, capitalists, etc.
In the U.S., in addition to “racism”, some of the tools of control are “climate change”, “equality”, “social justice”, etc. And those tools are used against the political right. Don’t believe for a second it is actual racism they believe they are fighting. If that were the case you wouldn’t have people talking about multiracial Whiteness. Or claiming that asking students to show their work in class is “white supremacy”. These two examples are just the beginning of what is to come.
History is full of examples to provide hints as to how this may turn out. If the people who would be masters get their way, as they did in the USSR, the bar to pass the purity tests will continually raise. Even now things like the “master” branch in software version control, and “whitelists” and “blacklists” have come under attack. And non-trivial amounts of resources are being expended to satisfy the ever increasing demands of the power hungry.
Each victory for these people increases their thirst for more. They get a thrill from it. Even a “high”. They absolutely love it and in more candid moments admit this. Such people need to be stood up to because the end game is far worse then standing up to them now.
Here is one brave woman standing up:
If she can do it so can you.—Joe]
Quote of the day—1776 United
With HR127 being brought forward in early February of 2021, somebody tipped me off to a very small page where the phrase of the Second Amendment was being censored. So we tried to replicate what we saw with an experiment. On Monday the 15th of February, First I posted a screenshot of the censored post, and it was fact-checked and censored behind the fact-check wall. Then I took a screenshot of the actual Second Amendment on Google and the same thing happened.
They were trying to tie it back to some misquoting of George Washington. They were saying the Second Amendment was fact-checked as not true.
1776 United
February 18, 2021
1776 United: Censoring the Second Amendment
[Emphasis added.
Perhaps, in their reality, it doesn’t actually exist. I’m okay with that. But their friends and relatives really should see that they get the help they need rather than letting them let them cause others harm when they are experiencing such delusions.—Joe]
Quote of the day—John Rubino
If you’re over 40 you’ve lived through at least three epic financial bubbles: junk bonds in the 1980s, tech stocks in the 1990s, and housing in the 2000s. Each was spectacular in its own way, and each threatened to take down the whole financial system when it burst.
But they pale next to what’s happening today. Where those past bubbles were sector-specific, which is to say the mania and resulting carnage occurred mostly within one asset class, today’s bubble is spread across, well, pretty much everything – hence the term “everything bubble.”
When this one pops there won’t be a lot of hiding places.
John Rubino
February 8, 2021
Is This The Biggest Financial Bubble Ever? Hell Yes It Is
[I wrote about complex systems and emergent behavior last night. Our financial markets are another example of emergent behavior. The rule sets are large and complex but behavior still emerges that some may claim can only be explained by a conspiracy. But, again, no conspiracy need exist.
There is a financial bubble about to pop. Simultaneously there is a growing mass delusion about the existence of millions of “extremists” who must be “canceled” or even killed. And there is a pandemic (real or imagined, it doesn’t matter much in the context here) that are all contributing to epic shear forces in our society.
Prepare accordingly. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.—Joe]