Cognitive Dissonance

Do Ask / Do Tell Carelessly curated compendium of curiosities, culture, and cuties. Uber-liberal radical-feminist secular-humanist spiritual-atheist anti-labelist communitarian-urbanist wounded-healer suburban-shaman with eclectic tastes and ADHD. I like pretty, shiny things, bright lights, and big cities. I respond to the female form, psyche, and soul. Many mages NSFW Insert boilerplate here regarding how most of these words and images aren't mine blah blah blah. It's called reblogging folks. It's the latest dance craze and all the cool cats are doing it.

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[irrationalliberal1]

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"Recent studies in industrialized societies have found that adults who experience low socioeconomic status in childhood show heightened cortisol responses as adults, regardless of their current socioeconomic status."

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Across a variety of gambles, the findings were the same: Men took more risks when they were stressed. They became more focused on big wins, even when they were costly and less likely. Levels of the stress hormone cortisol appear to be a major factor, according to Ruud van den Bos, a neurobiologist at Radboud University in the Netherlands. He and his colleagues have found that the tendency to take more risks when under pressure is stronger in men who experience a larger spike in cortisol. But in women he found that a slight increase in cortisol seemed actually to improve decision-making performance.

Are Women Better Decision Makers? - NYTimes.com

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What Sends Teens Toward Triumph or Tribulation - WSJ

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White Americans have essentially never internalized the Kenner Report. Assembled by Lyndon Johnson to address what was laughably referred to as the Negro Problem, the panel very quickly saw that this was a joke. There is no Negro Problem in the US, but rather a white people problem. FIFTY years ago (let that sink in), it opined, “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black and one white–separate and unequal… Discrimination and segregation have long permeated much of American life; they now threaten the future of every American.” The report explained that the race riots were rooted in segregation, inadequate housing, poor access to quality education, systematic police violence, and labor market exclusion. For these factors, the report concluded, “White racism is essentially responsible.” Two generations later (another pause for sinking in) and white Americans are still, in large part, hard pressed to see it, scratching their heads to see just what black people are so darn angry about.

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The Staten Island grand jury must have seen the same video everyone else did: the one showing a group of New York City police officers swarming and killing an unarmed black man, Eric Garner. Yet they have declined to bring charges against the plainclothes officer, Daniel Pantaleo, who is seen on the video girdling Mr. Garner’s neck in a chokehold, which the department bans, throwing him to the ground and pushing his head into the pavement. The imbalance between Mr. Garner’s fate, on a Staten Island sidewalk in July, and his supposed infraction, selling loose cigarettes, is grotesque and outrageous. Though Mr. Garner’s death was officially ruled a homicide, it is not possible to pierce the secrecy of the grand jury, and thus to know why the jurors did not believe that criminal charges were appropriate. What is clear is this was vicious policing and an innocent man is dead. Another conclusion is also obvious. Officer Pantaleo was stripped of his gun and badge; he needs to be stripped of his job. He used forbidden tactics to brutalize a citizen who was not acting belligerently, posed no risk of flight, brandished no weapon and was heavily outnumbered.

[sadgirlstitches]

[teachingyou-isnotmyjob]

white privilege is being surprised at injustice.

[jpnys]

DSC_9024 by kawaya remaster on Flickr.

[fullpraxisnow]

The tragedy of this country is that most of the people who say they care about it do not care. What they care about is their safety and their profits. What they care about is the continuation of white supremacy, so that white liberals who are with you in principle will move out when you move in… [H]ow long can Americans believe that the rest of the world, including me, will take the will for the deed. If the country means what it says, why is the question which ends every argument “Would you let your sister marry him?”

James Baldwin | From Nationalism, Colonialism, and the United States (1961)

[fullpraxisnow]

The tragedy of this country is that most of the people who say they care about it do not care. What they care about is their safety and their profits. What they care about is the continuation of white supremacy, so that white liberals who are with you in principle will move out when you move in… [H]ow long can Americans believe that the rest of the world, including me, will take the will for the deed. If the country means what it says, why is the question which ends every argument “Would you let your sister marry him?”

James Baldwin | From Nationalism, Colonialism, and the United States (1961)

[fullpraxisnow]