How to know you triggered your critic into cognitive dissonance:
- Changes topic
- Goes ad hominem
- Mind-reading
- Word salad
- Uses analogy in place of reason
- Insists it is “complicated” and can’t be summarized
- The “So….” tell (indicates a straw man coming)
As soon as you detect one of the seven tells for cognitive dissonance, excuse yourself from the conversation. You can’t deprogram someone via reason.
Scott Adams @ScottAdamsSays
Tweeted (and here) on February 7, 2023
Does this sound familiar?
It’s impossible to talk about your dick because words don’t exist at the Planck level
Grandma Canada @Grandma_Canada
Tweeted on December 10, 2022
It’s not only another Markley’s Law Monday, it is another science denier!
I’d give her some bonus points for originality and knowledge of what a Planck length is. But one doesn’t need word length to match the size of the object being discussed.
Baltimore City’s math scores were the lowest in the state. Just 7 percent of third through eighth graders tested proficient in math, which means 93 percent could not do math at grade level.
But that’s not all; Project Baltimore combed through the scores at all 150 City Schools where the state math test was given.
Project Baltimore found, in 23 Baltimore City schools, there were zero students who tested proficient in math. Not a single student.
Chris Papst
February 6, 2023
23 Baltimore schools have zero students proficient in math, per state test results
This is so bizarre to me.
I find it difficult to believe any of the following hypothesis to explain these results:
I’m left with, “This is deliberate.” Could it be some sort of “Math is racist” thing is going on? What could be the motivation? Creating an “army” of non-thinking drones for welfare and votes?
Being the most talkative person in the room may be a good way to get people’s attention, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you have the best ideas.As a neuroscientist, I’ve worked with large companies like Google and Deloitte on how to attract and retain top talent, and I’ve found that employers tend to favor extroverts.
But there are some surprising strengths that introverts bring to the table, and they shouldn’t be overlooked.
Friederike Fabritius
February 7, 2023
A neuroscientist shares the 4 ‘highly coveted’ skills that set introverts apart: ‘Their brains work differently’
This could be the theme of my entire career. I clean up the messes of the incompetent extroverts who then get the promotions.
A couple of years ago someone who is not an engineer, never been an engineer, and never will be an engineer (lacking in math ability as well as some other things that are beyond them) was given a position as Principal Engineer that I also applied for. I asked HR, “How did they even get past the resume screening? They didn’t meet any of the ‘required qualifications’ and only partially meet two of the ‘qualifications’.” At my manager’s request, I had WRITTEN most of those qualifications around my skill set. HR assured me that the best candidate had received the promotion because, “This position requires someone who is well known.”
A Principal Engineer requires someone who is, “Well known”? But they are not required to have any engineering skills or do any engineering?” Being “well known” was not even hinted at in the qualifications for the job.
I was so upset at this I terminated the conversation. There was no point in further discussion with someone like this and I was not in any state of mind to talk without high risk of saying something which was “career limiting”.
Today I received notification of my yearly salary, bonus, and other compensation changes. No promotion. I’ve been in the same position for almost eight years with nothing but high verbal praise but not a single promotion. Being constantly called the team’s ‘Q’ (as in the James Bond movies) is nice, but I would rather be promoted. I’ve seen interns promoted to my job title in half that time. They were decent engineers, female, young, and, of course, extroverts.
In the end, we will be okay. The economy might crash, but in fundamentals we’re okay. Even manufacturing is reviving, even if it’s doing so in American fashion: fewer workers needed, less expense, more production, more profit.
We will be okay. Might “crash” in externals and structure for a while, before coming back, though. Same with the rest of our symptoms.
But we’re the majority. And we’ve already won.
The mop up is going to hurt like a b*tch.
But be not afraid. We got this.
In the end we win, they lose.
Because 2+2=4.
Sarah Hoyt
February 8, 2023
DOING THE ARITHMETIC
The post is about socialism and communism. I think she has things figured out as well as anyone.
A federal law prohibiting marijuana users from possessing firearms is unconstitutional, a federal judge in Oklahoma has concluded, citing last year’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that significantly expanded gun rights.
Nate Raymond
February 6, 2023
Ban on marijuana users owning guns is unconstitutional, U.S. judge rules
If one gun law were to bite the dust every day we would be down to the number where we should have always been in about 55 years. That’s slower than I would like but the up side is the slow torture for the anti-gun people.
Quote of the day:
Insanity in individuals is something rare – but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.
There is overwhelming evidence to support this assertion.
It is willful ignorance. They are stupid on purpose. By not knowing how things work, they can propose the silliest things and still pat themselves on the back for “doing something.” Gun laws don’t care about history, reality, or even basic physics. Usually the stuff they propose will actually be backwards and make the problem they supposedly want to fix worse. That’s a feature to them, not a bug. Because as long as the problem keeps getting worse they can keep voting themselves more power and authority.
Larry Correia
January 21, 2023
Gun Wars: An Interview with Larry Correia
This interview is about Correia’s book, .
I have a copy. This is a book to read, loan out, and give to others.
Dr. Nicole Prause (@nicoleprause@qoto.org) @NicoleRPrause
Tweeted on December 5, 2022
[It’s not only another Markley’s Law Monday, it is another science denier! Well, that is a little bit of an exaggeration in this case. There wasn’t actually a debate on gun ownership in the context of this post.
You would think that, as a penis size preference researcher, she would know penises have nothing to do with gun ownership.—Joe]
In April, the CPRC also hired McLaughlin & Associates to survey people’s estimates of the percentage of violent crime that is committed using guns. They found that those most strongly supporting gun control dramatically overestimated the percentage of violent crime committed with guns. While the average Democrat estimates that 56.9% of violent crimes involve guns and the typical Republican gave an answer of 37%. (The actual rate is less than 8%.) This suggests that Democrats, who are more likely to favor gun control, are particularly ill-informed about the realities of gun violence.
John R. Lott, Jr.
President, Crime Preven9on Research Center
December 15, 2022
Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security
Only the delusional, the ignorant, the stupid, and the evil support gun control.
The anti-gun culture of lies and deception is universal. It’s not just those in the U.S.
The way the Liberals introduced this amendment after we had completed our witness testimony, I think was a sign of bad faith.
Alistair MacGregor
January 19, 2023
Opposition MPs united in ensuring Canadian hunters aren’t disarmed by Liberal government
From the same article:
Conservative MP Glen Motz said comments by both the prime minister and Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino suggest the two men know little about firearms or the legislation that currently regulates their use.
“If the prime minister and Liberals were actually serious about public safety, they would be focusing on criminals, sentencing with the use of firearms for the commission of offences, or gun smuggling,” he said.
“Not the easy way of going after hunters, sport shooters and farmers who have not, are not, and never will be threats to public safety.”
Motz said bureaucrats who testified before the committee all but admitted the bill was politically motivated, and said what eventually ended up before the committee was nothing like the bill debated in the House.
“It was first introduced as a handgun freeze, if you will, that’s was what people coined it,” he said.
“At committee, the Liberals introduced a whole bunch of amendments, almost 50, which included this whole focus on centre-fire firearm and semi-automatics — basically hunters and sport shooters’ firearms.”
Motz said the bill is out-of-scope to be dealt with at committee, describing it as “underhanded” and lacking basic parliamentary procedure.
“They didn’t have the courage to have this debated in the House of Commons,” he said.
These people are evil.
Prepare and respond appropriately.
Quote of the day:
With the right technology enforcing gun control and safety would be an easier task for Law enforcement.
Currently All guns manufactured have a serial number on them, this process takes much longer when trying to identify who owned the gun, who sold the gun, etc. This is where an app for a smartphone could truly make a difference. Of course this app would be available to law enforcement only and not the general public. With this mobile app, Law enforcement would have the ability to tag guns in real time. Such as when a gun is purchased the name of the owner, and the store from where it is sold is put in to the system, as well as the date and time.
With this information, a recognition system could be used for guns. Maybe along with the serial number etched on the gun, NFC (Near Field Communication) chips could be embedded in the metal. Thus Law enforcement could simply wave their device (smartphone) over the gun and would immediately receive data to aid in the case.
Vedant Chaudhari
August 16, 2012
How To Make Gun Control More Efficient Through Better Technology
<heavy sigh>
There are so many things wrong with this it would take me more words to describe the errors than it took him to demonstrate his ignorance. Here is a sample:
Not only is the technology suggested impractical. It probably would be found to be illegal. And, in part, is physically impossible.
Nice job Chaudhari! Your ignorance is truly impressive. Thanks for sharing with us.
As I’ve pointed out before people, in this case it is mostly women, are really weird:
A woman has been creating a lot of buzz lately, but for all the wrong reasons, after declaring her “love” for the prime suspect in the Idaho quadruple murders case. Brittney J Hislope on her Facebook page has released multiple posts, pronouncing her admiration for Bryan Kohberger. She also apparently has sent several letters to him.
There is some sort of strange psychology going on here. This not a rare occurrence.
I have personally known two different women who married prison inmates. They did not know them prior to their incarceration, but were attracted enough to them to overcome the obstacles and marry them while they were in prison. One was murderer. The other tortured and raped a teenage girl.
If you read deep into the arrest, incarceration, and even execution, of serial killers, the letters from women nearly overwhelm the jailers at all stages of the murderers stay in law enforcement custody..
What is going on those minds that they are attracted to these scumbags? We have long known some women are attracted to “bad boys”. I suppose this is just an extrapolation of that. But I do not understand it even in the mildest form.
Quote of the day:
Journalists believe objectivity prevents them from accurate reporting, as it bars them from channeling their background and beliefs, the survey found.
Mary Lou Masters
January 31, 2023
Major News Outlets Say They’re Ditching Objectivity In The Name Of ‘Diversity’
Their “own truth” is more valid that “the truth” or even there is no absolute truth. If they believe something, it is just as valid as any other “truth”.
This reminds me of something daughter Jaime observed and found life changing. It is closely related to, if not the same as, Peterson Syndrome where the person does not have a process to determine truth from falsity. Some people are totally oblivious to a distinction between the truth and beliefs. They lack the mental processes to understand the difference.
I’m not quite as cynical as daughter Jaime on this topic, but that could be a personality flaw on my part. I’m more of an optimist than she is.
This was a voicemail left by a reporter who worked for the New York Times:
“Again, I am from The New York Times, and I’m letting everyone in The New York Times know what kind of fucking assholes you are. Congrats on being a laughing stock,” Marquis said, calling the group “f*cking ghouls” and saying she hoped “there is a God in heaven, so he who judges you when you die.”
I’m more than a little surprised the NYT fired her for this. But a cursor investigation indicates they actually did do that. She left jalopnik.com in July of 2021 to work for the NYT, then appears to have got her job back after the Times said good-bye.
I doubt that she has changed her beliefs even if she probably will be a little less candid about them. Sort of like the racist who knows they will get in trouble of they say the ‘n’ word out loud so they whisper it to themselves when they are in public.
Prejudice is such an ugly thing.
Appeals court upholds restraining order on Illinois gun ban
An Illinois appellate court on Tuesday upheld a temporary restraining order on enforcement of the state’s three-week-old law banning semiautomatic weapons, enacted largely in response to the mass shooting at an Independence Day parade in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park.
A three-judge panel for the 5th District Appellate Court affirmed the restraining order issued Jan. 20 by a circuit judge in Effingham County.
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, a Democrat, plans to appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court.
The Protect Illinois Communities Act prohibits the manufacture or possession of semiautomatic handguns and rifles. Those who owned them before the Jan. 10 effective date of the law must register them with the Illinois State Police by Jan. 1, 2024.
You would think the Heller Decision would be sufficient information for these people to know a ban on all semi-automatic handguns would fail to pass constitutional muster. But no, either they are doubling down on their failure to connect with reality, or they believe they are above the law.
That the courts are imposing restraining orders on them only shortly after the ink is dry on their legislative turds should give them a clue. But I don’t think they will respond in a rational manner. I believe they will continue insisting 2 + 2 = 5 until law enforcement is approaching to put the cuffs on them and haul them away for contempt of court.
They are just that delusional and/or evil.
It is very rare that anything monumental gets done in America’s political system without strong public support. That’s certainly the case with gun control.
The emphasis here is on strong support.
What we need to attain that is a hefty gun safety TV ad campaign.
Polls have consistently shown that the vast majority of citizens support gun control — but not strongly enough to force meaningful bills through Congress, such as requiring universal background checks and banning assault weapons, particularly their high-capacity magazines.
It’s not at the top of voters’ priority lists — and hardly thought about between mass killings at schools, churches, bars and dance halls.
That’s not true, however, of hardcore gun addicts. They’re single-issue voters whose candidate choices often depend solely on a politician’s uncompromising allegiance to unrestricted gun rights. That enables them and the gun lobby to wield extraordinary influence over members of Congress, especially Republicans.
And it’s why America’s national firearms restrictions — unlike California’s — are pathetic.
George Skelton
January 30, 2023
How do you win voters over on gun control? Meet them where they are — in front of the TV
[I find it very telling that the question of minority rights never come up in his proposal. Would if the majority of citizens supported the deportation of communists? Or lying in public? Or the banning of abortion? Or citizenship and government ID to vote? Or a tax on your skin color based on the number of “your kind” in prison?
This is not a majority rule country. And to suggest a majority supporting the denial of everyone a specific enumerate right is sufficient basis to do that is either a demonstration of profound ignorance or evidence of evil intent.
One of the things I have observed in the last few years is our opponents are far more open about their intentions. In the 1990s and through the 2000s as they were advancing they kept “reassuring” us they didn’t intend to take our guns. And they “respect the 2nd Amendment”. The big players make almost no mention of the 2nd Amendment now. It is further conformation of the observations made in the When Prophecy Fails book. When their prophecies fail (the 2nd Amendment doesn’t apply to individuals, gun control saves lives, blood will flow in the streets with concealed carry, etc.) instead of revising their beliefs to match the facts they proselytize all the more vigorously. They are “doubling down” on their failures to connect with reality.
Notice also that people who vote for the protection of civil rights are “addicts”. That is what they think of you. That is their dehumanization in preparation for the next big “reveal” of their true intentions.
Prepare and respond appropriately.—Joe]
Innocent after innocent has been murdered. Burial after burial has been consecrated. Eulogy after eulogy has been delivered. Tear after tear has been shed. Vigil after vigil has been held. Plea after plea has been made. Solution after solution has been offered. Column after column has been written.
Still, nothing changes.
Today, this much is clear if it wasn’t apparent before: most of America has conceded. The National Rifle Association (NRA) has won.
The slick defenders of America’s absurd addiction to guns have prevailed. The NRA’s victory over scores of unarmed Americans – including grade-school children – who have forfeited their lives to the astronomical arsenal of guns that litter America is as complete as it is emphatic.
The merchants of mayhem are no longer obliged even to feign concern for the latest casualties of the latest carnage or to trot out the familiar, trite catch phrases to defend what enlightened Americans consider indefensible.
Andrew Mitrovica
January 28, 2023
The NRA has won
[The comments have quite the ratio in favor of the right of the people to keep and bear arms. But Mitrovica is one of the “enlightened” ones who believes they should be allowed to infringe upon that right.
But how “enlightened” is he really? Does he know how many people have been murdered because they didn’t have access to a gun? Does he know how many of those mass shootings were in “gun free” zones? Those victims were, in some sense, created by “enlightened” people like him. And tens of millions of others were murdered by their own government by similarly “enlightened” people who first disarmed.
Just keep saying, “No!” to those “enlightened” people who insist on infringing your specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms. They are not “enlightened”. They are ignorant and/or evil. Just keep saying, “No!” until you run out of ammunition.—Joe]
