Helene misinformation hindering recovery efforts

[trenchfoot]

I would not rule out any of these but I also see very smart people who believe profoundly stupid things. I think we have all been subjected to brainwashing and been affected by it. And I see a lot of hateful ignorance that is directed at hatefully ignorant people or at those not on our team, the team of the Knowers of objective reality, whatever that is.

I'd just call it Stockholm Syndrome, those whose sense of self worth was so badly damaged by torture and threat they gravitate to those who put others down but not them and join in the pleasure torturing others brought to those who tortured them.

I've had a notion about what makes people think the way they do and I ended up with a simple answer that didn't require me to take a deep dive into the philosophical/psychological aspects of it all. It's the amount of math a person has experienced in the years that person was/is being educated. What led me to this opinion is my wife who's a math major and taught that discipline until she retired some (many) years ago. We think a lot alike as far as how we approach solving problems in our everyday lives. Analytical thinking is was what I filtered it all down to and the amount of effort one puts into solving a problem from that approach.

So from a purely narrow perspective, I arrived at the conclusion that the more math you were/are involved in, the more you leave the emotional aspects of problem solving out of the "equation" and eventually arrive at a solution that's the logical choice to make. Now, as this notion of mine is applied to the probabilities of whom we ("I") should elect as our nation's leader, well, the solution becomes rather obvious, being unemotionally influenced as it were.

That this particular subforum is littered with folks who arrived here through an interest in all things data processing related that's coincidentally heavily influenced by math, and that most of us have arrived at the same conclusion as to who we think should be POTUS, I submit that as evidence that supports my claim.

edit - apologies for going off topic. I blame my wife's influence on the way I think.

 

[Moonbeam]

I've had a notion about what makes people think the way they do and I ended up with a simple answer that didn't require me to take a deep dive into the philosophical/psychological aspects of it all. It's the amount of math a person has experienced in the years that person was/is being educated. What led me to this opinion is my wife who's a math major and taught that discipline until she retired some (many) years ago. We think a lot alike as far as how we approach solving problems in our everyday lives. Analytical thinking is was what I filtered it all down to and the amount of effort one puts into solving a problem from that approach.

So from a purely narrow perspective, I arrived at the conclusion that the more math you were/are involved in, the more you leave the emotional aspects of problem solving out of the "equation" and eventually arrive at a solution that's the logical choice to make. Now, as this notion of mine is applied to the probabilities of whom we ("I") should elect as our nation's leader, well, the solution becomes rather obvious, being unemotionally influenced as it were.

That this particular subforum is littered with folks who arrived here through an interest in all things data processing related that's coincidentally heavily influenced by math, and that most of us have arrived at the same conclusion as to who we think should be POTUS, I submit that as evidence that supports my claim.

edit - apologies for going off topic. I blame my wife's influence on the way I think.

I do not wish to disrespect either you or your wife as I believe logical thinking is vital to plonked solving but I have some issues that bother me. Take Einstein and Edward Teller. Both were far more advanced in math than I will ever be, but I think Einstein was deeply human and Teller way very insane. Einstein could not only think but could feel. He had heart and Teller was emotionally dead.

Reason at the service of those who lack character that includes things like awe and wonder, gratitude and grace, the love of all living things leads to mechanicality and the ant heap.

 

[trenchfoot]

I do not wish to disrespect either you or your wife as I believe logical thinking is vital to plonked solving but I have some issues that bother me. Take Einstein and Edward Teller. Both were far more advanced in math than I will ever be, but I think Einstein was deeply human and Teller way very insane. Einstein could not only think but could feel. He had heart and Teller was emotionally dead.

Reason at the service of those who lack character that includes things like awe and wonder, gratitude and grace, the love of all living things leads to mechanicality and the ant heap.

I totally agree with you. Apologies for misleading you with my post as I should've incuded an inferrence of what you're referring to. To be clear, making logical conclusions for solving problems does have it's place in our lives, especially in the area where emotions may misdirect or somehow cloud our abilities to be logical and being able to apply common sense to the issue at hand, just as there are times when our emotions like compassion, understanding, empathy and even anger will guide us toward humanely determining what course of actions we should take to resolve whatever "problems" we are face with.

Shall we agree that's it's the ability to balance those two, shall we say...opposing forces that makes us whole?

 

[MtnMan]

Voter suppression is the name of the game. Even if it hurts their own voters? Idiots.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1844206007498702883

No one has ever accused the republicans of being smart!

I live in that blue county on that map.

 

[MtnMan]

And yet they still get the votes! Good stuff.

I wasn't singling out republicans in office or running for office. The not smart ones vote.

 

[Moonbeam]

I totally agree with you. Apologies for misleading you with my post as I should've incuded an inferrence of what you're referring to. To be clear, making logical conclusions for solving problems does have it's place in our lives, especially in the area where emotions may misdirect or somehow cloud our abilities to be logical and being able to apply common sense to the issue at hand, just as there are times when our emotions like compassion, understanding, empathy and even anger will guide us toward humanely determining what course of actions we should take to resolve whatever "problems" we are face with.

Shall we agree that's it's the ability to balance those two, shall we say...opposing forces that makes us whole?

I would say that where this idea of balance applies is in dealing with our shadow side. I think the dark side of human behavior arises out of repression, the result of having been made to feel guilty amd worthless as a child for not knowing the rules of behavior and acting out of natural childish selfishness. Children are told hey are bad if they break rules they know nothing about.

The result is that we learn to hide our selfishness and pretend, fake good behavior because you can’t fix what is natural.

So balance to me is acceptance of self, the dark self we are not supposed to be by realization it was never evil to begin with. Acceptance destroys the need to repress negative feelings because who needs to hide what is natural. It’s not hard to act generously if you feel it’s just as acceptable to act selfish. It becomes something you can consciously choose to do rationally.

So what I think I forgot to say is that it is negative feelings that make us act like monsters and positive feelings that are vital to motivate rational thinking. I’m opinion is that negative feelings are not natural, they are the result of programming and what is learned can be unlearned, which is why we have psychotherapy.

We yearn for the light but told we should stay in the dark because the light will show we are worthless. It won’t, that’s just a feeling that can be unlearned