I loved the episode, as usual. I link frequently at my own site. As a person of more conservative opinion, I still think that well-meaning liberals overlook conspiracy beliefs on their own side, as well as examples of conservative-trending beliefs in conspiracy that turn out to be partly true. Chinese contribution to western climate activism while being the world's largest polluter is just true; Covid originating in a gain-of-function lab is now the most likely explanation; there is no evidence for murders of Canadian First Nation children at residential schools. The overall impressions people have cannot help but be affected by official pronouncements and selective reporting. Believing that right-wingers are worse may be true, but the status quo among researchers and intellectuals since Hofsteder's Paranoid Style dug a very deep hole that is detectable in the abstracts and experimental design of much research.
A personal note is that I worked in emergency mental health for over forty years among liberal and even radical clinicians who could only see paranoia on one side. It was a large part of my leaving liberalism in the 1980s.
I wish someone in psychology could explain this simple dis to inaction to me. What is the tangible, quantifiable difference between so-called:
a) moral panics
b) religious beliefs
c) mental heuristics
d) mental illness
e) garden variety irrationality
f) just being $&#%ing wrong and unwilling to admit it for whatever reason
All of these things seem to be unnecessarily different names for epistemic issues. I think it’s interesting that religious studies has made greater headway (IMHO) in studying these phenomena than psychology, particularly the work of Alan Levinowitz, who studies how people’s need to imbue randomness with meaning is one of the most powerful psychological forces. Rationality is the exception, not the rule.
I was hoping to hear of the lead up to the first Gulf War. In this period there was the false testimony of fake nurse Nayirah al-Ṣabaḥ about Iraqi troops stealing incubators from a Kuwaiti mat ward leaving babies to die. These lies may have influenced the US decision to intervene directly rather than leave it to Kuwait's allies in the Arab League.
I loved the episode, as usual. I link frequently at my own site. As a person of more conservative opinion, I still think that well-meaning liberals overlook conspiracy beliefs on their own side, as well as examples of conservative-trending beliefs in conspiracy that turn out to be partly true. Chinese contribution to western climate activism while being the world's largest polluter is just true; Covid originating in a gain-of-function lab is now the most likely explanation; there is no evidence for murders of Canadian First Nation children at residential schools. The overall impressions people have cannot help but be affected by official pronouncements and selective reporting. Believing that right-wingers are worse may be true, but the status quo among researchers and intellectuals since Hofsteder's Paranoid Style dug a very deep hole that is detectable in the abstracts and experimental design of much research.
A personal note is that I worked in emergency mental health for over forty years among liberal and even radical clinicians who could only see paranoia on one side. It was a large part of my leaving liberalism in the 1980s.
What is your website? I need more good conservative podcasts to listen to, if you have those as well.
Assistant Village Idiot. There are sites and podcasts on the sidebar.
I wish someone in psychology could explain this simple dis to inaction to me. What is the tangible, quantifiable difference between so-called:
a) moral panics
b) religious beliefs
c) mental heuristics
d) mental illness
e) garden variety irrationality
f) just being $&#%ing wrong and unwilling to admit it for whatever reason
All of these things seem to be unnecessarily different names for epistemic issues. I think it’s interesting that religious studies has made greater headway (IMHO) in studying these phenomena than psychology, particularly the work of Alan Levinowitz, who studies how people’s need to imbue randomness with meaning is one of the most powerful psychological forces. Rationality is the exception, not the rule.
I was hoping to hear of the lead up to the first Gulf War. In this period there was the false testimony of fake nurse Nayirah al-Ṣabaḥ about Iraqi troops stealing incubators from a Kuwaiti mat ward leaving babies to die. These lies may have influenced the US decision to intervene directly rather than leave it to Kuwait's allies in the Arab League.