January 1, 2023

The science of our idiocracy

The science of our idiocracy
By Hal Brown

Idiocracy, aside from being the title of a movie, has two dictionary definitions:

: a society governed or populated by idiots (see IDIOT sense 1)

Our nation is turning into an idiocracy.—Neil deGrasse Tyson

: government by idiots (see IDIOT sense 1)

As we lurch toward idiocracy—the real thing, not the movie—we must change course.—John Kass

This blog is about research into the cognitive ability of those constituting the part of our society which is populated by those who one could call idiots which in modern use means stupid or foolish people.

I read this in RawStory and got the idea for this blog

Scanning some of the comments I came across the link shown below:

Clicking it led to this 2018 Scientific American article by a Michigan State University psychology professor and an undergraduate student. (Coincidentally I got my BA in psychology there long before he joined the faculty.)

This is a summary of relevant research on the subject. There are no surprises in what the researchers found out about people like these:

This is the conclusion of the Scientific American authors:

These studies add to scientific understanding of the fake news problem, which is providing a foundation for an evidenced-based approach to addressing the problem. A recommendation that follows from research on the illusion of truth effect is to serve as your own fact checker. If you are convinced that some claim is true, ask yourself why. Is it because you have credible evidence that the claim is true, or is it just because you’ve encountered the claim over and over? Also ask yourself if you know of any evidence that refutes the claim. (You just might be surprised to find that you do.) This type of recommendation could be promoted through public service announcements, which have been shown to be effective for things like getting people to litter less and recycle more. For its part, research on individual differences in susceptibility to fake news, such as the study by De keersmaecker and Roets, can help to identify people who are particularly important to reach through this type of informational campaign.
At a more general level, this research underscores the threat that fake news poses to democratic society. The aim of using fake news as propaganda is to make people think and behave in ways they wouldn’t otherwise—for example, hold a view that is contradicted by overwhelming scientific consensus. When this nefarious aim is achieved, citizens no longer have the ability to act in their own self-interest. In the logic of democracy, this isn’t just bad for that citizen—it’s bad for society.

The idiom "you can't tell a book by its cover" means that when applied to people you shouldn't base your opinion of them by how they look. This is very true to an extent. However I do think that the t-shirts and outfits some of these Trump supports wear tell us a great deal about them. You would be hard pressed to see anyone wearing similar things at a Biden event.

Looking at photos of these people, daring to risk being accused of being judgmental, based on how they look I conclude that most of them wouldn't care that scientific studies have shown that they have a deficit in cognitive ability. "This is fake news by liberal snowflakes" they'd probably think.

Click above to enlarge collage of Trump supporters

Cult expert Steve Hassan has published articles about Trump supporters. Here's a recent one:

This is about how he thinks MAGA's can be deprogrammed. Here's an interview with him.

December 31, 2022

Protecting New York City on New Year's Eve

Protecting New York City on New Year's Eve
By Hal Brown
Click here to see my nonpolitical blog from a year ago🎆
Update: Thankfully there was only one violent incident on New Years Eve in Times Square. Story here.
Pictured: NYC Police flag with DOJ seal added

After reading this article in The New York Daily News ....

...it hit me that had the Capitol been protected the same way Times Square is protected on New Year's Eve I doubt the insurrectionists would have been able to invade the building.

I have no doubt that there are many people out there, some who may have been in the mob on January 6 and some who would have liked to have been there who have thoughts about doing something violent to express their outrage that the coup failed.

We know that two MAGA men planned to attack the Knoxville, TN FBI office but were arrested before they could follow through. One of the men was the fourth rioter to enter the U.S. Capitol on Jan . 6, 2021.

There is no certification of an election to try to thwart on New Year's Eve. There is only an opportunity for would-be MAGA terrorists to make a huge statement to show to the nation on a night of celebration their outrage that, as they believe, the election was stolen and that Biden is president rather than Donald Trump.

There is an enormous law enforcement challenge about how to prevent violence during the country's most watched New Year's Eve celebration.

Not only does law enforcement have to protect Times Square but I have no doubt that they are well-aware that would-be terrorists know that with the concentration of law enforcement in a several block area there are violent extremists who might think of buildings to target that they believe would be more vulnerable and have real or symbolic meaning to these people.

I am confident that for months the task force threat assessment team has been closely monitoring the activity of would-be terrorists. I am also confident that they are doing a better job than those who should have known that there would be a violent insurrection on January 6th.

I also don't take as gospel the assurance, or reassurance, coming from NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell because any so-called credible threats, if they exist, might still be under investigation. I believe that this team, as opposed to those assessing the threat of violence preceding January 6th, have a broader and more realistic definition of what constitutes a credible threat.

There may be people who want to try to do something destructive to a building that they think represents the criminal justice system in New York which they may rightfully think is Trump's enemy. Some of them may have hinted at this in ways that could have been picked up by law enforcement and then either given up or tried to "go dark" as they actually worked on a serious plan. We can only hope they didn't elude law enforcement.

The New York City Police Counterterrorism Bureau will doubtlessly be working with the federal law enforcement anti-terror team which was augmented after J6. Here's Attorney General Merrick B. Garland's Domestic Terrorism Policy Address which describes the National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism.

Making the New Year's Eve challenge even more difficult, as if it isn't arduous enough, is that routine policing has to go on with the added burden of protecting businesses from opportunistic burglars who may think stores elsewhere in the city won't be as protected as they'd be on a typical night.

Recent blog posts:

December 30, 2022

Is Elon Musk using psychedelic drugs? If not, should he?

Is Elon Musk using psychedelic drugs? If not, should he?
By Hal Brown
Follow on Mastodon
Psychedelic artwork by the New Illuminati, CC 2.0

I looked at RawStory this morning and saw this on the subscription RawStory+ which I don't subscribe to.

The article is by Bobby Azarian is a cognitive neuroscientist affiliated with George Mason University and a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, BBC Future, Scientific American, Slate, The Huffington Post, Quartz, and others. His research has been published in journals such as Cognition & Emotion and Human Brain Mapping. Visit his website at www.bobbyazarian.com.

Even though to read this article from the RawStory website you need RawStory+, you can read it without a subscription if you go the RawStory Twitter page here.

Excerpts:

Well, as the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility. The Elon I used to know and root for is not the man I see today. I see a person who is out for revenge. I also see someone who is behaving in a way that is increasing division and political polarization.
... the aim of this article is to cause a shift in how Elon sees the world, such that he is inspired to do the greatest good for the greatest number of people. If a new perspective on life and the universe can convince him that the human progress he wants to achieve requires unification, it could motivate him to use his causal power to help bring us together under a common goal and a shared worldview — one that aligns our interests.
The old saying, “United we stand, divided we fall,” tells us that doing so is not a choice, but a matter of survival. Overcoming our shared existential threats will ultimately require the full causal power of the collective human network.
But for Elon to have the sort of awakening that motivates someone to adopt a radical new perspective and approach to doing things, he must be open to undergoing such a transformation. Science has shown that psychedelics — like LSD, DMT, and psilocybin (the psychoactive ingredient in “magic mushrooms”) — have the power to prime a person’s mind for exactly this type of transformation.

Azarian references this article which shows how taking LSD and similar drugs can increase empathy and political perspectives:

I think Musk has proved himself to be in a state of empathy deficiency. How he got there at some point in his psychological development is impossible to know. Perhaps his being on the autism spectrum has something to do this this. Consider:

What makes all this more than an excuse to suggest just that Musk needs an assist to enhance his empathy and taking psychedelics might be the key to increasing his moral and prosocial behavior, thus lessening or eliminating his immoral and anti-social behavior, is that Musk himself has promoted the use of psychedelics.

Click above thread

Here's another article:

Tesla CEO Elon Musk Believes Psychedelics Are Better Than Pharmaceutical Medications

Going beyond Musk to other politicians who not only lack empathy but seem incapable of it the politician who comes to mind is Donald Trump, but clearly Ron DeSantis is also right up there. What we see in all three of these is an element of sadism and cruelty. The cruelty of Trump and DeSantis is evident in how they treated people trying to enter the United States at the Mexican border.

Trump is in my opinion and that of many other psychotherapists a malignant narcissist. I think DeSantis probably fits into this category as well. Musk is different in that while he is narcissistic he also is on the spectrum.

None of these people are about to get any kind of therapy, let alone psychedelic therapy.

Addendum: My state has just legalized the therapeutic use of psilocybin (aka Magic mushrooms).

I welcome comments to any of my blogs. Even though this page has a comment feature very few people ever use it. The best way to comment is to do so on Mastodon (but you have to join first) or on Facebook if have a page here.

Hal Brown's Substack (fomerly Hal Brown's Blog)

January 1, 2023