A couple of months ago, @tweetmix had an interesting observation about the potential interplay between his/her dad's Parkinson's and FOXNews consumption: 4/
Lately, I've been thinking about the effect that exposure to conspiracy theories would have on someone who is already experiencing excessive levels of dopamine. 7/
If someone is already teetering on dopamine induced delusions....and then consumes Qanon-like delusional conspiracies.....it would theoretically have a compounding effect. 8/
Obviously, schizophrenia would be an extreme example, but it provides context, and could be scaled back as necessary... 9/
...but imagine exposing someone with schizophrenia to bizarre Qanon conspiracies...or telling them that a secret cabal created the vaccines to depopulate the world.
It doesn't take much imagination to conceptualize a completely paranoid, unhinged, delusional response. 10/
But what if it isn't someone with schizophrenia?
What if it's just someone who is obsessed with high-conflict political news? What if it's just a "normal" person who is "self-medicating" with their obsessive consumption of dopamine-producing political news? 11/
What if, similar to when Parkinson's medication overshoots the mark, this person experiences an "overdose" of dopamine due to self-medicating with "anticipation", and bias-confirming news? 12/
With Parkinson's/schizophrenia, or even with cocaine overdose, an individual can experience severe delusions. We often see this with the severely mentally ill homeless.
But what if the self-medicating dopamine "overdose" resulted in only minor alterations to perception? 13/
What if, while in this slightly altered state, someone was exposed to a conspiracy theory about a deep state cabal using vaccines to depopulate the world? Might this otherwise "normal"/healthy person feel compelled to show up to a school board meeting?: 14/
Rational former Republicans (@RadioFreeTom/@stuartpstevens) have struggled to understand what happened to people they thought they knew as "intelligent & reasonable".
There are several things at play. First, we often view others through our own subjective lens. Therefore,….1/
...even when agreeing on an issue, we assume we arrive at same conclusion for similar reasons.
Nichols/Stevens arrived at certain conclusions due to their belief in Conservativism’s “commitment to traditional values/ideas & opposition to change socially traditional ideas.” 2/
But the problem is that many of the “socially traditional ideas” that existed in this country's history involved racism, discrimination, misogyny, homophobia, & bigotry.
And although rational former Republicans were seduced by the pragmatism/deliberateness of the ideology....3/
Yes, Trump supporting Christian right engaged in moral compromisation (the "ends justifies the means")....to create moral authority. The moral compromisation occurred when the evangelicals adopted the "flawed leader" narrative to justify their support of Trump. 1/
An interesting study finding neuro-physiological parallels between white supremacy and addiction.
The study focuses on the dopamine “high”, but fails to recognize the potential neuro-physiological pain-avoidance “withdrawal” factor associated with group/tribal identity. 1/
"Covid is a scam, perpetuated by the Left to steal our freedom/autonomy, and to create a permanent state of governmental/physiological (microchipped vaccines) control."
Also the Right:
"Mexican/Central American immigrants are spreading a deadly virus across America"