Category Archives: Psychology

Quote of the day—Roberta X

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Be careful what you believe.  Be careful what you wish for.  Dramatic narratives are appealing, but emotional engagement is no assurance of truth.  It’s just the easiest way to manipulate people.  Distrust all cheering crowds, and distrust even more the men and women for whom they shout.

Roberta X
June 12, 2022
A Pause For Reflection
[I am tempted to extrapolate that to say, “Truth does not need emotion to validate itself. Emotional engagement is an indicator you must examine the evidence and logic closely looking for deception and/or error.” But that’s not as succinct.

The problem is that long before we developed logic and formal processes to distinguish truth from falsity we had emotional shortcuts that served us and our ancestors reasonably well as far back as there were pea sized brains. Logic and rational thought is an extremely thin veneer on top of that emotional lizard brain core. People, others or ourselves, can either deliberately or unintentionally bypass than thin veneer and engage that emotional core with minor effort to great effect. It is a wonderful system for generating extremely fast decisions with minimal effort. This works well for probably 99+% of the decisions we make each day. But this emotional core can also override reality. It takes a lot of evidence and effort to correctly conclude the earth is not flat and is not the center of the universe if you have have spent 20 years believing it was flat, motionless, and were certain the sun and stars move in the heavens.

Reality is really, really tough. Don’t let emotion, especially that created by a charismatic leader, degrade your ability to discern truth from falsity.—Joe]

Insightful observation

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If found this very interesting:

Stop conflating mass shootings with mental illness

It’s important to understand the most common underlying factors that lead to violence: untreated anger, family violence, past history of violent acts, growing up where violence is used, and being young and male. To be clear, anger is not a mental illness. Hatred of others is not a mental illness.

It strikes me as probably true and gives us insight as to why Federal law against people who have been involuntarily treated for mental illness being banned from gun ownership is mostly useless and should be repealed.

A bigger issues is, “Can this this knowledge be leveraged in some way to reduce violent crime without infringing upon the rights of individuals?”

Quote of the day—Gwenie @GwenieThinks

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If black people start purchasing AR15’s today, gun reform laws will begin tomorrow!!!

Gwenie @GwenieThinks
Tweeted on May 27, 2022
[There are number of different things that could be going on here:

  1. Her projection is displaying her racism.
  2. She believes she can read the minds of gun owners (a sign of a personality disorder).
  3. Willful ignorance.
  4. Deliberate lying.
  5. Some combination of all of the above.

The last time I know of when the stated mindset had any traction was in the late 1960s (I’m thinking of GCA68). That was on the tail end of the KKK (100% Democrats with an oath you were not a “radical Republican”).

For many years now I have been teaching anyone that showed an interest. The demographics are far from old white men.

Whatever the problem with Gwenie’s brain function, she is clearly wrong.—Joe]

Optimism is associated with higher cognitive abilities

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Interesting:

Researchers were interested in investigating the associations of dispositional optimism and pessimism with cognitive abilities in adulthood. They found that young adults with higher dispositional optimism and lower pessimism had higher reasoning skills and higher pessimism was related to lower scores on memory tests for middle-aged adults.

Previous research shows that optimism is related to positive health and wellbeing outcomes, whereas pessimism is associated with health-related risks and maladaptive behaviors. According to intellectual investment theories, it is suggested that personality traits can affect cognition abilities. For instance, joy promotes creativity and negative emotionality activates people’s thought-action repertoire to prepare them for quick decisions in threatening situations. People with optimistic views tend to pay attention to positive information and believe they are capable of influencing their lives. On the other hand, pessimists tend to believe life events are caused by external forces and their own influence is inferior.

I hadn’t thought of that. I was well aware that pessimists can and do create their own self-fulfilling prophecies. This leads to them to successfully justify their pessimistic demeaner. But, higher cognitive abilities for optimists? That’s very interesting…

This is what they think of you

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VIa email from pkoning.

Tyrants gotta tyrant:

IN GENERAL.—The Attorney General may deny a license under this section if the Attorney General determines that the applicant poses a significant danger of bodily injury to self or others by possessing, purchasing, or receiving a firearm, after examining factors the Attorney General considers are relevant to the determination, including…

(gg) any recent acquisition of firearms, ammunition, or other deadly weapons;

This is one of those “can’t win” scenario those who have mental issues create for you. If you buy some ammo they can declare you unfit to buy a gun because you might actually have the ability to use it.

I’ve experienced and put up with a mental issues environment… for decades. Highly discommended.

The other case you see this sort of behavior is the situation described by Ayn Rand regarding the creation of criminals. This is a situation you want to avoid even more than an individual with mental issues.

But what I find most telling about this proposed legislation is what such a politician must think of you. It must be one of the following:

  1. You are too stupid to see the trap this creates, or
  2. They believe that the desire to exercise a specific enumerated right demonstrates criminal intent.

Just say no, and keep saying no, until you run out of ammo.

Quote of the day—The New York Times @nytimes

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What psychiatry calls psychosis, the Hearing Voices Movement calls nonconsensus realities. It provides support groups for people with hallucinations and is part of an effort to reform how the mental health field approaches severe psychiatric conditions.

The New York Times @nytimes
Tweeted on May 17, 2022
[While some delusions are functional that is not the way to bet.

I find it very telling that the NYTs is onboard with “nonconsensus realities”. That explains a lot of things.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Alice Smith @TheAliceSmith

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“Woke” is commie speak for “Communist But Scared To Say So After What We Did In The Twentieth Century”.

Alice Smith @TheAliceSmith
Tweeted on April 27, 2022
[It is a little more nuanced than that but it is close enough.

These are people that crave power and control. They find rationalizations to exercise control and gain power over everyone they can. “Racism”, “sexism”, “inequality”, “racial justice”, “climate justice”, “algorithmic justice”*, ad nauseum, are just the levers that mostly work in our current society.

And it is a thrill; it’s a high to them. There is no amount of power that will satiate their lust. They will crank the ratchet another click at every opportunity. This is why so many socialist and communist movements result in genocide.

Respond appropriately.—Joe]

* Via email from pkoning and various sources on twitter. See also:

Quote of the day—Melissa Mackenzie @MelissaTweets

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After COVID, I no longer wonder how Stalin, Mao, Hitler, Pol Pot happened.

Inside too many of our neighbors is a little tyrant who desires to tell you how to live your life, use violence to achiever their ends, and clothe themselves in righteousness while doing it.

Melissa Mackenzie @MelissaTweets
Tweeted on April 18, 2022
[At first I thought it rather sad it took this long for Mackenzie to realize how such things happen. Then, a chilling wave of fright swept over me as I realized that it is extremely likely that most people still don’t understand or deny the example she just gave.—Joe]

Quote of the day—David Burge @iowahawkblog

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I swear to god some people’s brains are wired with only two settings, mandatory and forbidden

David Burge (@iowahawkblog)
Tweeted on April 19, 2022
[This is not news. This has been known for quite some time.

While being wired this way does relieve the stress of decision making it also means they can, and probably should, be replaced by a simple robot.-Joe]

Quote of the day—Richard Curtin

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Adam Smith’s legendary invisible hand describes how individuals acting in their own self-interest can create unintended benefits for the entire society. Unfortunately, the country now faces the potential for an inflationary hand that can transform self-interested decisions into losses for the entire economy.

Richard Curtin
April 7, 2022
Inflationary Psychology Has Set In. Dislodging It Won’t Be Easy
[We live in interesting times. Prepare appropriately.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Danny Westneat

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On Friday, 10 days after five people were shot in an apparent drug deal gone bad, city officials and various nonprofit groups met at City Hall to talk about what to do about the city’s homelessness emergency. They seemed bizarrely put off at the idea of shutting The Jungle to homeless access.

One talked of The Jungle’s “sense of community.” Another said some Jungle inhabitants would be worse off if they were uprooted. Others said it was stigmatizing to even call it The Jungle, preferring “Beacon Hill greenbelt.”

Instead, ideas for aiding The Jungle ranged from putting lockers under the freeway so the homeless could store their belongings, to providing encampments with bins for used hypodermic needles.

It was at this mention of needle bins that Dustin Davies and Angel Johnson couldn’t take it anymore. They burst into incredulous laughter and left the council chambers.

Davies was an alcoholic and meth addict who was homeless until 19 months ago. Johnson was a drug addict and prostitute who has been sober 12 years. In recovery, both have been helping the homeless through charity groups.

They came to the meeting to say that the very worst thing you could do for the denizens of The Jungle is keep it open. That the idea was even discussed seemed crazy to them.

Danny Westneat
February 5, 2016
Keeping Jungle open is the opposite of compassion
[“The Jungle” was a Seattle homeless encamping area over six years ago. This is the same author on last Saturday:

I’ve argued in this space for more than a decade now that allowing these makeshift encampments is a humanitarian catastrophe — back to the days of The Jungle, which itself was only closed after a mass shooting. The shantytowns are an embarrassment to both Seattle and the liberal project.

The “city officials’ have been told their ideas are crazy for many years and the data is there to back up those claims. Yet they insist the world should change to match their beliefs rather than their beliefs change to match reality. This, by some definitions, is insanity. A diagnosis of evil also fits the available data.

Prepare and respond appropriately.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Sïstēr Märy Bäphømēt @marybaphomet

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With the state of his AVI, is there any wonder he’s defending his fellow gun fellating nutbars? The very epitome of tiny dick energy.

Tweeted on April 1, 2022

Tiny.

Dick.

Energy.

Gun fellating snowflake.

Tweeted on April 1, 2022

When they’re using semi-automatic weapons to compensate for their inadequacy, it’s relevant. How big is your gun collection? (Big gun = tiny penis) Tell me petal, do you drive a big truck too?

Tweeted on April 2, 2022

These trigger-happy, gun-humping, 2A flag-wavers are a sensitive bunch aren’t they?

Tweeted on April 4, 2022

Sïstēr Märy Bäphømēt @marybaphomet
[It’s not only another Markley’s Law Monday, it is another science denier!

People were having a perfectly reasonable and thoughtful conversation and this penis obsessed freak went off the deep end. If it didn’t happen all the time it would be really weird. As it is, it has become a law. Markley’s Law.

It is listed in the Urban Dictionary. I wonder how long it be before it is listed in the DSM.

Via tweets (and here) from In Chains @InChainsInJail.—Joe]

Projection/Evil/False-Flag

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Via Firearms Policy Coalition @gunpolicy:image

image

The indictment:

image

There are at several ways to interpret this:

  1. The anti-gun people want you disarmed so they can more easily kill you (evil).
  2. The anti-gun people think you are just as murderous as they are (projection).
  3. The anti-gun people want more “gun violence” to justify their agenda (false-flag).
  4. Two or more of the above.

Prepare and respond appropriately.

Reality is tough

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You hear the phrase “two movies, one screen”, right? People perceive what they expect/want to perceive. This makes it really tough to be in touch with reality. You may think, “Not for me!” I’m not so sure. Watch and listen to this:

These sort of things demonstrate the difficulty of distinguishing between truth and falsity. It takes a great deal of effort to change minds, even when the facts are overwhelming, because people’s brains get hardwired into thinking about something in a particular way.

My mom learned to do subtraction in a different way that what was taught in my elementary school. She could not help me learn how to subtract like Mrs. Cole was teaching it. She asked Dad to help me. After I learned to subtract I asked Mom to show me her way. It was incomprehensible to me. Dad could not understand it either. She got the right answers, but she could not understand our method either.

I came up with a different way of viewing exterior ballistics problems. Someone who was taught the traditional way is completely confused by my method. I understand how they do it but my way is simpler and has broader application. I can teach either way to newbies just fine. But teaching it to someone who has done it conventionally will result in their total confusion.

It’s obvious to some people that banning guns will save lives. The facts don’t matter because elimination of “gun deaths” mean fewer people are dying, right? Their brains have become hardwired down a particular path. Once they start down that path it is a slippery slope to the same conclusion regardless of the factual obstacles presented.

Spooky action at a distance is a very difficult concept. It just “can’t be true”. But it is.

Socialism/communism must be the most tested and failed political system ever. Yet people believe the false reality.

Reality is really, really tough. For everyone. I’m sure there are countless examples all around us that no one has yet properly deciphered and we all believe one or more flavors of falsehood about it. It may even take a generation or two after the truth is discovered before people are comfortable thinking in terms of the “new reality” and people laugh at “the things people used to believe”.

Sadly, I think she is right

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Tamara graces us with her wisdom yet again with The Paradox of Site Moderation.

Quote of the day—Brandon Smith

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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

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Via Catturd ™ @catturd2:

image

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

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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:

Quote of the day—Noam Shpancer

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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

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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]