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March 5, 2016

All this tone-deaf sanctimonious lecturing will not actually help reduce interest in Trump, and may instead increase it.

But surely an awful lot of our establishments must be smart enough to have figured this out. Yet the tsunami of lectures continues. Why? A simple interpretation in all of these cases is that people typically care more about making sure they are seen to take a particular moral stance than they care about the net effect of their lectures on behavior. - - Overcoming Bias : Can’t Stop Lecturing

Posted by gerardvanderleun at March 5, 2016 11:09 AM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.

Your Say

Is narcissism a genetic defect and is it on the rise?

If not, but is, what is it's source and/or cause?

Posted by: ghostsniper [TypeKey Profile Page] at March 5, 2016 12:08 PM

Indeed. This election has taught me a lot, not the least of which is the intractable tribal nature of human beings. People have lined up behind their candidates, and each does two things:
1. Calls the supporters of the other candidates "idiots."
2. Cries about being called "idiots" by the supporters of the other candidates.

And these are people whom I otherwise respect, but even very smart people are capable of irrational behavior. We are slaves to our biological impulses.

Posted by: Clinton [TypeKey Profile Page] at March 5, 2016 1:45 PM

"....very smart people are capable of irrational behavior."
==============

Perhaps.
But are smart people capable of SUSTAINED irrational behavior?

Posted by: ghostsniper [TypeKey Profile Page] at March 5, 2016 6:43 PM

To me the puzzle isn’t Trump, his egomania and character as a flim-flam man explain everything about him.

What I cannot explain is the vast number of his Trumpeters, and the strength of their convictions. Trump himself said of them that he could shoot somebody in the middle of 5th Avenue and they would still support him.

I have seen their comments all over the internet whenever The Donald is criticized. It seems to me that they believe in the image that they themselves have created, of a messiah* who will smite their enemies, right the injustices that have been done to them, and lead them into the promised land. Needless to say, that image and reality coincide at precisely zero points.

I am reminded of an aphorism by Charles MacKay the author of, aptly enough, “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds”. In the Preface to the Edition of 1852 he wrote:

“Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.”

I do not what can shock the Trumpeters out of their delusions. I can only hope that it happens, and it happens soon enough, to enough of them, to avert a catastrophe.

*The parallels to Obama in 2008 are frightening.

Posted by: Fat Man [TypeKey Profile Page] at March 5, 2016 7:15 PM

Ever had to engage the machine known as gov't?
Sure you have, everybody has.

Getting your drivers license renewed.
Filing your taxes. Etc.
Remember the frustration of going through the myriad of senseless processes, and sitting and waiting forever (hurry up and wait!) and dealing with the employees that seemed to have no brain at all and even less empathy?
Sure you have, everybody has.

This frustration becomes worse everyday as gov't expands into every facet of your life, and the depth of the frustration increases exponentially as gov't layers of senseless bureaucracy deepens ever more. And there is nothing you can do about it but try to endure.

(Seems that as you age the amount of exposure to this horrific source of frustration grows with each passing day. After a lifetime of such build up people are ready to explode. You look around and see the gov't catering to every silly whim of the misfits of society and effort nothing to the people that have worked all of their lives and played by the rules.)

And endure you do, but it takes it's toll. It builds inside you. Like a neglected mold on the shower wall. It never lessens, it just grows and grows, silently. Until you finally break down and drag out the bleach bottle and scrub brush and eradicate it.

Trump is seen as a bleach bottle against the mold of gov't mold. Whether he is or not is to be seen but we know for certain the same ol same ol is not the key.

Trump may not be the solution, in fact, I am betting against it, as I am far too cynical of the american populace and even more so the political system, that he is simply the next *step* on the journey to full blown communism.

But what Trump really is is an escape valve, a way to channel the hydraulic pressure of the neglected masses to an avenue they have become convinced is the only possible solution to a problem. They are right as none of the other candidates are listening to them or even care.

So Trump it is.

This isn't rocket surgery to those that have been paying attention.

Posted by: ghostsniper [TypeKey Profile Page] at March 6, 2016 4:45 AM

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