Thread by @jonrog1

1) A separate point about this clip. You can literally see the cognitive lock down as Moore processes
-I support Trump
-If Donald Trump is a racist, he's bad.
-but that would make ME bad
-but I am GOOD
-therefore, Trump is not a racist

Protection of self-identity is all.

https://twitter.com/mehdirhasan/status/1180103156677648384

2) How many of us, in the last few years, have seen a version of that foot stamp/"This is just how it IS stop ARGUING" fit not from our children, but from our Boomer parents?

3) This is how con artists keep people roped in, of course, The pattern, when you study the stories of marks, is:
-I believe this guy
-if this guy is a con artist, that makes me a schmuck
-I am NOT a schmuck, I CAN'T be, I am a smart person
-so this person is not a con artist.

4) This is why I'm so hard on people when they say "well *I* wouldn't have been conned" or "*I* wouldn't have believed the bank guy and taken out a subprime mortgage".

The only reason you, I, or ANYONE has not been the victim of a hustle is that we haven't met our predator. Yet.

5) Belief. Comes. First.

Belief in things which reinforce our self-identification (never mind the multi-factor chaos of how THAT was formed) comes first. Always.

Rationalization (Reason). Comes. Second.

It's a well-worn truism, but worth saying over and over again.

6) This is one of the reasons I hammer on about Greed as a sin, and the insanely rich being addicts. We need to use words of morality, and we damn well need to undermine the propaganda of "money makes you powerful/high status morally" that infects American culture.

7) When rich people, standing in their ridiculous mansions or bloated yachts, look out expecting to see envy and see instead *pity* ... it won't change everything, but it'll be another crack in the stone.