There are many people on social media who, if their narratives are regularly consumed, will teach you a sort of learned pessimism - the art of despair.
There are others who will intrinsically teach you a learned optimism - the art of hope.
Learn how to tell the difference.
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Martin Seligman discusses this in his book Authentic Happiness
The book covers other things as well - like the benefit of virtues and strengths, and of pursuing gratification (long term & fulfilling), over fleeting pleasures.
But, a couple of notes on optimism and pessimism:
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There are two dimensions to optimism/pessimism:
Permanence - related to time
Pervasiveness - related to space
Do we see bad events as having permanent, pervasive causes?
Or do bad events have temporary, specific causes, while good events have permanent, pervasive causes?
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Finding permanent and universal causes for good events, along with temporary and specific causes of bad events is the practice of hope.
Finding permanent and universal causes for bad events, along with temporary and specific causes of good events is the practice of despair.
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There are habits that we can learn/develop, to break pessimistic patterns of catastrophizing negative events.
That isn’t really what this thread is about, but it’s always good to be more conscious of our own thought patterns.
(Which station is the radio in your brain tuned to?)
If you pay attention, you can identify which people are perpetually engaging in despair.
Is this person continually ascribing systemic/universal, insurmountable causes to every negative event that occurs?
Because doing so *is* a choice - conscious or not.
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And adopting that way of thinking has a couple of real consequences.
First, it will prevent us from taking action, or cause us to give up easily.
After all, if bad things are caused by problems that can’t be fixed, what’s the use in trying?
But potentially much worse...
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In its extreme, it can eventually lead to radicalization.
Believing that there are no peaceful/political solutions to the problems we face makes us vulnerable to influences who want to convince us to “tear it all down.”
I think it is being used to exploit people’s (justified) distrust of the stock market, to generate a crowd-sourced attack on our financial system while undermining faith in our economy.
Just like Facebook was used to attack our democracy.
In May 2009, Yuri Milner invested $200M in Facebook, at a time when Zuckerberg desperately needed an influx of cash.
We later learned that the money he invested came indirectly from the Russian government.
Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys extremist group, has a past as an informer for federal and local law enforcement, repeatedly working undercover for investigators after he was arrested in 2012
In the Miami hearing, a federal prosecutor, a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent and Tarrio’s own lawyer described his undercover work and said he had helped authorities prosecute more than a dozen people in various cases involving drugs, gambling and human smuggling.
“he cooperated with local and federal law enforcement, to aid in the prosecution of those running other, separate criminal enterprises, ranging from running marijuana grow houses in Miami to operating pharmaceutical fraud schemes.”
Everyone who wants a functional Senate needs to call Joe Manchin’s office.
Inform him that we did not elect a Dem Senate just to watch Mitch McConnell continue holding it hostage.
D.C. Office: 202-224-3954
Charleston Office: 304-342-5855
Joe Manchin is an “ALEC Alumni” in the Koch network (h/t @Tentoads4truth)
And here is “Koch Network Advisor” James Davis retweeting Joe Manchin right after the election, when Manchin promised not to pack the courts or end the fillibuster (h/t @alexkotch)
This is a great article that touches on Stone’s role in stop the steal, but the most important sentence is this:
“The radicalization of the Republican Party has altered the world of conservative media, which is, in turn, accelerating that radicalization.” newyorker.com/magazine/2021/…
We aren’t talking enough about the political insurgency into the Republican Party, and who is funding it.
From the article:
As Fuentes said on the “InfoWars” panel, “This is the best thing that can happen, because it’s destroying the legitimacy of the system.”
Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene are not anomalies.
They are the latest in a line of GOP candidates that have been recruited, groomed for the position, and financed to become elected.
And if you are not familiar with the “dark money” concept, or think that it isn’t as bad as it has been made out to be, please do yourself a favor and watch Sheldon Whitehouse’s presentation during the Amy Coney Barrett confirmation hearings.