Posted on 04/08/2023 4:45:24 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Sociologist Jonathan Haidt postulates a very interesting theory as to why non-thinkers are leftists who often act out in violence.
Why do we seem so intent on destroying national kinship and in the process, destroying ourselves? Left, right, conservative, liberal, a hundred names simultaneously representing both our divisions and strident beliefs. We know how self-destructive we’ve become even as we swing the bat for our heartfelt political views for the umpteenth time. It may not surprise you that there are logical reasons as to why we do this, even to our detriment.
A friend sent me an article referencing a name that promised answers for issues unclear to me and many others. Jonathan Haidt is a social psychologist and author with a concentration on morality and emotions. He explains that rationalizing emotions is the foundational understanding of why people act emotionally, frequently against their own self-interest. Confusingly, the more they act against their interests, the more fervent they appear about it.
The “Elephant and the Rider” is a metaphor for Haidt’s observations of social intuitionism — that is, the notion that intuitions precede rational thought. In other words, the social constructs we feel compelled to follow, regardless of logic or how our actions can and will take us down paths, frequently don’t lead us to where we thought they would. The Rider is conscious thought, while the Elephant is the hair-trigger intuition we are hardwired to follow.
Previously, I discussed Trump and abortion as examples of how we tie ourselves to concepts and beliefs that aren’t logically resolved for many, even after rigorous intellectual debate. Virtually all of us have talked to someone who observes the same underlying set of facts, yet arrives at an entirely different conclusion. It is frustrating to not understand this dichotomy...
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
1. Care/harm
2. Fairness/cheating
3. Loyalty/betrayal
4. Authority/subversion
5. Sanctity/degradation
“Sociologist...social psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt” v. Voltaire.
Umm, yeah, I’ll take Voltaire!
They do not contradict each other.
It is an interesting term “The Rider and the Elephant” where the rider is logic and the elephant is emotion. I can see exactly what is meant. When riding an elephant the rider wants to go a certain direction, but at any little sound the elephant stops and turns around to point it’s ears at the sound. It is frequent enough that any sound that the rider hears probably mean that the elephant is stopping and turning toward the sound (the logic gets completely overridden by the emotion).
Great comments and insights. I love it when the adults on FR come out to play…
a) Psychologists and Psychiatrists should be sued beyond belief for indoctrinating our young folks instead of helping them. They have changed to convince a young, troubled young person to believe that the reason they are screwed up is that God made a mistake in the ‘gender’ identification, and that they will ‘feel better’ if they just cut their penis and balls off and whack their boobs off. When they feel worse, they become homicidal or suicidal, and the esteemed ‘psycho’ Drs. should be held responsible.
Transactional Analysis says pretty much the same thing. It was popullar in the 70s with children of the late 60s trying to make sense of reality
Popular were I’m OK You’re OK. Games People Play Games Alcoholics Play. My contribution was Games Community Oranizations Play which described the different personalities and games of those in Alinsky actios of the 60s ad 70s.
Then cam Games Politicians Play.
One of the concepts is that most people learn a “life script” early in life (think of “script” as a movie or TV script.
Then they spend the rest of their life confirming that script is reality for them. Some scripts (tradition) have proven useful in the past. They may or may not be useful in the future depending on the reality of changes.
Examples.
Things move much faster these days. Communication, changing jobs, migrations of people, transportation, etc.
Brith Control (and abortion when the birth control failed) has changed everything about our sex drive and family and our culture (tradition) built on that. Out tradition says Sodom and Gomorrah will go to Hell. “society” says “science has a pill for that. Trust science.”
An interesting article, especially the part about the Moral Foundations Theory which is a concept to understand why morality varies so much across cultures. This theory consists of five values:
1. Care/harm
2. Fairness/cheating
3. Loyalty/betrayal
4. Authority/subversion
5. Sanctity/degradation
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
It would be interesting to identify different subgroups along these dimensions.
For example my understanding of Islamics is that they would be high on Sanctity and Authority Betrayal Cheating and Harm when faced with an out of group person. Not sure about how in group behavior is managed.
Well said.
It’s not complicated.
Consider that marketing using fear as a motivator convinces people to buy $3,000,000,000 of tooth whitener each year to destroy the enamel on their teeth.
The number of zeros is correct.
Both hate and fear used as motivators trigger emotions. Emotions block rational thinking,
Repetition parks the “belief” or habit in the same part of the brain where addictions lie.
No matter what facts are presented after that will not be accepted, Instead anger will often result.
Maybe my few cents worth here might not be fully relevant but the article made me think about NHL games and other sporting events that feature loud music and sound effects. To be sure, going to an NHL game at Chicago Stadium or Boston Garden or elsewhere like that in a time like 1984 did not feature everyone being paragons of politeness and virtue, but at least you could simply just go to a game and enjoy it far more on it’s own compared to now. And I notice that the “Go Sens Go” ads and promos you see on TV and elsewhere locally here tend to feature young women and that really gives that idea that even just going to a hockey game is that far more emotional sort of experience or thing for those sorts of people than it was when many of us here were growing up and paid more attention to the major pro sports leagues. And that in turn is very likely why you have the loud noise that really has me no longer wanting to watch a game at the Canadian Tire Centre either in person or on TV even.
We have had many other mass shooters, and I think this author might be cherry picking this particular mass shooter because he/she was trans. The trans violence problem may be more simply explained as groupthink along the lines of the witch hunts, which we are seeing duplicated over... and over... and over again.
I think that we can probably better understand this mass shooter as a member of the group “mass shooters.” Being born female makes him/her a little different, and that may actually be a boon for understanding the rest of them, because it should rule out some factors that the rest have in common, but which are not actually relevant.
Interesting post, thank you.
It is common knowledge that most psychiatrists are liberal anyways. Ideally, they should judge their patients based on the average population, without letting their personal political beliefs cloud their judgement. But they are too stupid to know how to do that.
p
Passion always precedes intellect, a maxim well known over many years.
Why do we seem so intent on destroying national kinship and in the process, destroying ourselves?
DOTS CONNECTED
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