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Monday, December 4, 2017

Self-Deception

Psychobabble?

50 comments:

  1. By the standards of psychology, this effect is fairly easy to measure and the experiment can be reproduced. This is about as solid as social science gets! So depending on what you mean by "babble", I'd probably disagree.

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    1. FT,
      I certainly agree.

      That said, I also believe that verifiable facts matter -- particularly with regard to marshaling an argument. Use right brain to create the topic sentences(or thesis), and use both right-brain abilities and left-brain abilities to maximize the power of the argument(s) and, thus, to maximize the size of the target audiences.

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    2. "I maintain there is more Truth in the Beauty we may find in Poetry, Art, Music, Literature, Drama, Nature and LOGIC than there is in any dry recitation of facts and figures..."

      Perhaps, but the former category of Truth is not verifiable (logic being the obvious odd-man-out in your list). The advantage of the latter category lies in the fighting chance it gives us to notice when we are wrong.

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    6. FT,
      "The philistine may be defined by persistent demonstrations of obtuseness, opacity, and smugness ."

      ALL individuals should look into the mirror so as to remedy evincing those qualities.

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    7. The problem is, it's very easy to be wrong. How does FreeThinke detect error?

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    8. Jez,
      How does FreeThinke detect error?

      Good question -- for all here at this thread.

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    9. It is! In my impudence, I shall answer it myself: wherever possible defer to measurement, the more objective the better; test assumptions (some of these are hard to identity -- expect to discover long-overlooked ones!), investigate historical trends with an open mind. eg. for how long have seemingly cast-iron laws of politics or economics really held true? Is a recent catastrophe really unprecedented? etc.
      According to the issue at hand, parts of the above approach may be unapplicable. In those cases, recognise that conclusions must remain tentative. Observed measurement, subjective experience, rigorous analysis and hunch are all different from one another: they each have their uses, but it's incredibly valuable to keep track of which is which; or to put it another way, it can be dangerous or harmful to loose track and treat one as if it were one of the others.

      That's what I aspire to, anyway. I'm sure there's a misattributed quote from Einstein on its way to shut me up, even though Einstein's life (professional, at least) was clearly lived along these lines... :)

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    10. Jez,
      put it another way, it can be dangerous or harmful to loose track and treat one as if it were one of the others

      I must agree. That's why I insist on both methods -- thereby crossing the midline of the brain.

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    13. FT,
      No one could deny these things not only exist, but also have great bearing on our lives, therefore, they are vitally important, yet all are intangible....

      Once again, I do not disagree.

      BUT

      I believe that both "sides of the coin" are needed to make "the whole coin" -- the whole coin being the healthy soul (or, as some believe, the healthy brain).

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  4. IMO, the greater the cognitive bias of the Dunning-Kruger Effect, the greater the chance of megalomania because self-esteem overrides everything else.

    Note these historical antecedents:

    Although the Dunning–Kruger effect was formulated in 1999, the cognitive bias of illusory superiority has been known throughout history and identified by intellectuals, such as:

    the philosopher Confucius (551–479 BC), who said, “Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance”;[3]

    by the philosopher Socrates (470-399 BC), who interpreted a prophecy from the Delphic oracle that he was wise despite feeling that he didn't fully understand anything, as the wisdom of being aware that he knew nothing (in contrast to most other people, who also know nothing, but assume otherwise),

    by the playwright William Shakespeare (1564–1616), who said, “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool” (As You Like It, V. i.);[15]

    by the naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882), who said, “Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge”;[1]

    by the poet W. B. Yeats (1865–1939), whose poem "The Second Coming" contained the lines “The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.”[12]

    by the philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell (1872–1970), who said, “One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision.”[12]

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  5. well I think you're amazing AOW!!! xoxoxhave a peaceful holiday season my friend! xoxox:)

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  6. Let's examine someone who thinks they are amazing, but is actually floodlight obviously incompetent.

    When Donald Trump tweets out that he fired Michael Flynn for lying to the FBI, is he tacitly admitting that he obstructed justice in trying to stop investigations into Flynn?

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    1. TC,
      Donald Trump speaks one of the New York-ese dialects: constant hyperbole.

      is he tacitly admitting that he obstructed justice in trying to stop investigations into Flynn?

      Good question. I suppose so in the legal sense.

      I must have missed something....I thought that DJT stated that he fired Flynn for lying to Pence.

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    2. You got That Right!
      And, the President is the Chief Law enforcement Officer. Therefore can't be charged with obstruction-without obstruction motive (action);
      Nixon tried to burn the tapes.
      What has Trump done to obstruct?
      Nothing.
      Has collusion been defined a crime?
      Nope.
      Hilrod lied to FBI. No-thing has been done about her wild dreams.
      Hilrod and Debbi Whatsername Shultz conspired to oust Trump with the Russian Dosser.
      Is conspiracy a crime?
      Yes.

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    3. Good luck trying to keep track of where President Trump is at on any issue and forget trying to reconcile all his statements.

      Despite all the sturm und drang, he's managed to accomplish some conservative things. If the GOP knew how to legislate, they could have gotten a pretty big conservative punch list this year.

      "Talking to the Russians isn't against the law."

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    4. SF,
      DJT is not ideologically driven. Instead, he is a pragmatist, IMO.

      We had 8 years of the kumbaya-singing Leftista BHO. On November 8, 2016, the electorate screamed, "NO MORE!"

      And, SF, I love the second paragraph of your comment:

      Despite all the sturm und drang, he's managed to accomplish some conservative things. If the GOP knew how to legislate, they could have gotten a pretty big conservative punch list this year. !

      Link: President Donald Trump's Accomplishment List.

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  7. AOW... he amended his statement this weekend to include the FBI. His lawyer has since said he, the lawyer, wrote the tweet, not Trump. This same lawyer today said a president cannot obstruct justice at all on the basis that he is the President.

    Loved the video... it's summed up in what I heard a pastor share once... never assume you're the smartest guy in the room.

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  8. LOL!!!

    It's not that Donald Trump goes bankrupt, just most of his business ventures do. Trump always hires the best people, he just puts malignant failures in charge of them. Now "his lawyer" wrote the tweets that increased his legal imperilment.

    It's not that Trump is just incompetent. We don't live and never have lived in the universe where Donald Trump is not a blithering idiot. 30+ years of his investing in the political campaigns of left-wing politicians should.have clued in even the slow readers.

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  10. How many other Presidents have had their Secretaries of State and cheifs of staff publicly describe them as "f-ing imbeciles?"

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    1. Certainly Einstein wasn't speaking of my classroom. **wink**

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  22. Interesting fact on CS Lewis... he died the same day President Kennedy was killed.

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    2. Ha! No Chance... but I bet his death was never even mentioned much in the news that was all about JFK even though Lewis was a pretty consequential thinker of the 20th Century...

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    4. Maybe Dennis Prager... here's his quote...

      “The vast majority of those who are famous are not significant and the vast majority of those who are significant are not famous.”

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  25. What an incredibility for self-deception!

    From Hillary Has Most Tone-Deaf Moment Ever: Lauer’s Fall Was Karma for Mistreating Me:

    A day after Matt Lauer’s termination last Wednesday from NBC over allegations of “inappropriate sexual behavior,” failed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton appeared to suggest that his fortune was a result of bad karma.

    But not bad karma accrued from being a creep, but rather bad karma accrued because he had the audacity to hit her with tough questions during a town hall event for her and then-GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump last year, according to the Philly Voice.

    [...]

    She essentially posited that any bad fortune being suffered by men whom she blames for her election loss — to be clear, she blames practically every man on Earth — is a result of those men not being nice enough to her.

    Especially Matt Lauer....

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  26. Another element that contributes is the "I'm special" shield carried inappropriately by many today. I thought it was a joke -- until I first ran into one. Otherwise this is interesting and sensible. I'm a super achiever and noticed in myself years ago that I tended to 'compare' others to the average I knew - me. So while I didn't think some accomplishments were so outstanding, I learned from the people around me and gained perspective.

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