#cult thinking

[rohirric-hunter]

I am not reblogging the post because it is true that most of the time on the internet when people pull out thought experiments it's because they're trying to trap you. But

If everyone drinks the strawberry fanta then no one gets poisoned at all, and actually morally speaking it is not actually wrong to expect other people to not poison themselves so oh yeah okay maybe I should have reblogged that other post because this isn't actually a trap but it's the other kind of thought experiment where the person who came up with it thinks they're deep and are ignoring or unaware of the obvious correct answer and if you point it out to them will start assigning "moral responsibilities" no one has ever concieved of before to try and convince you to drink the flavorade

Anyway pro life tip: don't poison yourself

Especially if it's in a context where poisoning yourself would make other people feel compelled to also poison themselves. What the fuck

[1000rh]

Social theory is largely a game of make-believe in which we pretend, just for the sake of argument, that there’s just one thing going on: essentially, we reduce everything to a cartoon so as to be able to detect patterns that would be otherwise invisible. As a result, all real progress in social science has been rooted in the courage to say things that are, in the final analysis, slightly ridiculous: the work of Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud or Claude Lévi-Strauss being only particularly salient cases in point. One must simplify the world to discover something new about it. The problem comes when, long after the discovery has been made, people continue to simplify.

– David Graeber and David Wengrow, The Dawn of Everything (2021)

[ladyinrainbowglasses]

Inspired by this edited PizzaCake comic:

I ask repeatedly what sources Trumpsters will accept.

There aren't any.

The data does not exist that can change their minds. They did not logic themselves into these positions and few of them have the mental or emotional resilience to logic themselves out.

This does create an automatic respect deficit for me, because I was able to logic myself out of the cult I was indoctrinated into as a child, which held me with the threat that my beloved late mother would see me burning in hell, yet would still be ecstatically happy in heaven, without the capability to shed a tear for me.

I do not have such a high opinion of my own intelligence or resiliency that I think doing that required anything more than a fundamental commitment to honesty - I do not think I am uniquely special for being able to break cult programming forced upon me from toddlerhood. I honestly believe most human beings are capable of doing the same if they value logic, curiosity, research, and honesty. I have never been able to shake my conviction that anyone intellectually capable of learning can be persuaded by verifiable, consensus-reached facts even at the expense of their own emotional comfort.

Trump and Musk have strained that conviction almost to the breaking point. But I guess logicking out of a cult that one did not decide to join is fundamentally different from logicking out of a con. Realizing you were lied to and acted based on lies may produce a lesser psychic wound that realizing you were swindled or tricked and acted based on a swindle. The emotional stakes of "Someone lied to me before I had the cognitive abilities to tell lies from truth" may be lower than "Someone lied to me as a cognitively normal adult and I went along with their lies instead of trying to figure out if they were lying."

[antifaagainstapathy]

Jordan Peterson

Yesterday my former co-worker got under my skin by bringing up arguments from Jordan Peterson and claiming that the guy is a good role model, political theorist, etc....

As I stated yesterday--- Peterson can most succinctly be described as "disingenuous".

Analyzing him and some of John's issues more directly though- please see some of the articles and videos listed below:

Basically chosen at random

Psychobabble …sounds profound but technically says almost nothing (of substance...good or bad)

The Canadian Free speech ruling that particularly fueled Jordan's following:

Are Jordan Peterson's Claims About Bill C-16 Correct?

The U of T professor has made claims about going to prison for his beliefs and criminalizing free speech. Here's what the legislation says.

and finally-- very well done video

[koalastick]

we all know about The Vitamin. we all understand about The Vitamin.

but for those who need to hear this:

under no circumstances is ivermectin The Vitamin.

[deadcatwithaflamethrower]

Cult Thinking (And How to Avoid It)

Are you in a cult? No? Are you sure? I spent three years immersed in cult thinking while writing my latest novel, The Poison Garden, and a very uncomfortable experience it’s been. It was doubly unf…

No matter what you think of anything that’s going on, it’s an educational read.

[10oclockdot]

The problem with trying to convince a cult-thinker that all their "evidence" is just coincidence...

...is that it just makes them better at finding coincidence.