Sunday, April 2, 2023

WonderCon 2023 Cosplay Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFxikNSs8IM

I don't know how I came across this video, but it makes me think that people need to reevaluate their priorites in life.  Are we going to be a nation of adult childern who dress up as their favorite fictional characters?

Costume parties go back hundreds of years, and there are times when it is appropriate for people to gather and make merry, but people tend to worship their favorite fictional franchise.  When people dress up as superheroes, then it seems a bit much.

Tuesday, January 31, 2023

The 7 Emotions that Push Civilization

This is one of the most insightful videos I have seen.  It claims to show how different societies were driven by various emotions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul2iW3mWl90

Thursday, January 12, 2023

Friday, November 18, 2022

Deconstructing Jordan Peterson on Religion

The commentator expresses frustrations with Jordan Peterson which I share.   Peterson becomes extremely evasive on the topic of religion and tends to obfuscate his answers.   If he wants to be non-committal then I would be okay with that, as it would be perfectly fine for him to say that he doesn't know, but he tends to jump all over the place.  It feels like he over-analyzes.  I am guessing that he looks at all topics from a psychological perspective, and his concept of truth seems to be based on how it affects us psychologically.  

This seems like a relativistic point of view, where truth is subjective.  To some extent, truth is going to be subjective because we can't perceive everything, but beyond our subjective viewpoint, there is an absolute truth regardless of whether we can perceive it.

Thursday, August 18, 2022

truth

It is my casual observation, not that I have done any kind of study on this, that people are more likely now to believe in things that are not true.  I could be wrong because maybe people have always believed in untrue things, but it feels like now we are in an epidemic of delusional thinking.  I have a few theories about why this is, which I will get to below.

I am not going to get much into specifics, because there is a wide range of opinions about what is true.  However, the pandemic seemed to bring out the craziness in some people. Regarding the pandemic, I hear questionable claims, if not outright lies frequently.  

If we want to know the truth, we have to try very hard to remain objective.  There is a difference between opinion and fact, and likewise a difference between anecdotal evidence and fact.  Whenever possible, I try to find the relevant scientific studies, which are often available on the Internet.  I am more likely to find articles talking about scientific studies, and sometimes these contain links to the actual studies, but if not, usually the studies can be found with a Google search.
I think that most people have a need to feel special.  A person could be a fireman and that would be something that makes that person special.  For this reason, I think that people get very emotionally tied to their belief systems because those beliefs help make people who they are.  Then we get into confirmation bias, where people have a natural tendency to accept things as true that already agree with their opinion.  Therefore, it is very hard to change someone's opinion because their belief is closely tied to their identity.

Social media may have hindered normal human social interaction, which tends to naturally correct aberrant behavior and thought.  People interact less than they did before in person, and more online.  If you have weird beliefs, you can find plenty of people on the Internet who agree with you and support your way of thinking.  

Some social media places like Twitter seem inherently toxic with many bad actors on those platforms.

Having a worldwide existential threat puts a strain on people's ability to think rationally.  There is a strong tendency to demonize other people, which is worse now than it has ever been in my lifetime.  People on all sides are calling for the imprisonment of their political enemies, if not threats of violence and murder.  This is where people need to step back and try to have some perspective.  Things may be difficult now, but we have it far better than the generations that came before us.

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Best wishes,

John Coffey

http://www.entertainmentjourney.com