#groupthink

[unsolicited-opinions]

We've Made Changing Your Mind Look Like a Flaw Instead of a Virtue

The internet has taught people to archive your opinions and weaponize your growth. If you evolve, you're a flip-flopper. If you admit uncertainty, you're weak. If you take time to rethink, you're stalling.

So people fake certainty to avoid punishment.

Intellectual honesty, though, requires change. If your views haven't changed in ten years, that says less about your clarity than it says about your lack of reflection.

[animentality]

[susanoos-wife]

[poisondepoetry]

12 Angry Men is a fascinating look at how fragile justice becomes when filtered through personal bias, ego, and group pressure.

jurors 2, 5, 6, 9, and 11 adjust their verdicts according to the group’s direction ~a perfect illustration of "conformity"~ they’re the second favorite type of people for dictators who wear the mask of democracy.

~the first are the sheep: those who follow blindly, never asking why~

jurors 7 and 12 represent a different issue ~indifference. Juror 12 was literally doodling during the deliberation, as if someone’s life was just a casual office break.

the immediate vote of “guilty” from several jurors was based almost entirely on eyewitness accounts. But after learning about the Kay Robinson case, I’ve become deeply skeptical of any testimony presented as absolute truth.

there’s a great article in Scientific American titled “Why Science Tells Us Not to Rely on Eyewitness Accounts”, which explores this beautifully.

and Juror 8? He wasn’t defending the boy. He was simply doing what a true juror should: questioning, analyzing, and refusing to be rushed by pressure.

The film reminds us that justice doesn’t belong to the loudest voice ~ it belongs to the one that keeps thinking when others stop.

[infiniterichesinalittleroom]

It’s easier to accept just what society gives you “this is the way that it is, this is how you grow up, this is religion, this can help you“ it’s much easier because it’s all laid out for you and it takes less effort, but to challenge everything, to refuse, to accept anything without having thought about it first takes a phenomenal amount of effort and I don’t think most people are prepared to put that effort in so they choose to become part of society…

Brian Molko • Placebo: This Search For Meaning

[momentsbeforemass]

Five

Groupthink. Herd mentality. Peer pressure.

Whatever label we use, however we articulate it, we can’t ignore the impact that other people have on us.

To make it specific, even personal, you can’t do better than Jim Rohn’s practical summary,

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”

Your five are the group that shapes you. The ones that have the greatest influence on you. Theirs are the attitudes and behaviors that you are regularly exposed to.

Without even trying, you will start to think and behave like your five. Eventually, you won’t be able to do anything that clashes with how they do things.

Need proof? Today’s Gospel. With a horrifying display of the power that the five people we spend the most time with have over us.

King Herod had imprisoned John the Baptist for speaking out against him.

John was his prisoner, but Herod knew John was a holy man. And Herod wasn’t a lost cause – because even though he had John locked up, he still wanted to hear what John had to say.

But Herod made a stupid promise. Even though Herod knew it was wrong, and was deeply distressed by it. To keep from embarrassing himself in front of his five, Herod had John executed.

Think about that. To avoid conflict with his five, Herod violated his own conscience. And killed an innocent man.

While most of us won’t end up killing a prophet because of our five. All of us are just as easily driven to avoid conflict with our five.

Today, take a hard look at your five. At where they’re leading you. At how they’re shaping you.

If it’s not closer to God. If it’s not into who God made you to be.

Then you need a new five.

Today’s Readings

[pisceanpharies]

The thing about taking the blackpill as a woman is that we don’t really have much of a community.

The bp is more of a mindset than a demographic. We’re all individuals and some of us are certain degrees of friendly with people we find have the same beliefs or similar beliefs and others spread negativity, while there are many various different personality types in between. We all go through different stages of difficulty and acceptance of bp truths, and we develop on a deep personal level that many people don’t as a result. This is a modern version of The Hero’s Journey come to life, which most people don’t seem interested in choosing, for reasons I don’t understand; reasons which I accept are their own to live with the results of.

Most social groups are about group-think; limiting freedom of thought and expression, which leads to limits in truth coming to light.

For women, the bp is about facing reality and each doing our best work to live our lives on our own terms; not allowing ourselves to be bullied into making certain unhealthy choices by males or male-centric females. Of course this is very difficult in this modern world designed, in so many ways, on toxic co-dependence within “romantic” partnerships. At least we’re doing our best at personal responsibility with things like not bringing more people into this world to suffer, and not participating in the physical danger and mind-fuck of sexuality.

The idea is that, I guess we’re supposed to get used to only having very few people who really, fully get who we are, because we’re such a small number of people who are willing to face, admit to, and understand the natures of women and men realistically, and actually try to find other women to talk with about it.

Quality over quantity should be the focus, within this lifestyle of openness to truths and personal development.

[Here's my short article, Who are Blackpilled Women?, for those who are curious to know more about women like me.]

[asmallorthodoxblog]