Tag Archives: social psychology

Persuasion Beneath the Radar

I find it interesting that the below video promotes manipulation of people as ethical. At no point is one advised to reason with vulnerability and openness; to provide people with more than one side of an argument; or to rely on … Continue reading

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Global Debt Slavery Watch: Economic Anthropologist David Graeber Thinks Slavery and Debt Slavery May Be a Distinction Without Much of a Difference

At Naked Capitalism, Dublin-based journalist Philip Pilkington asks economic anthropologist David Graeber an intriguing question: We know that in many Western countries over the past few years households have been running up enormous debts, from credit card debts to mortgages … Continue reading

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Collective Guilt Watch: If Muslims are Responsible for Osama Bin Laden, Are Anti-Muslim Bloggers Responsible For Anders Behring Breivik?

Anders Behring Breivik—the Norwegian who recently went on a Christian nationalist inspired rampage, murdering over 90 of his fellow citizens in Norway—immersed himself in the rhetoric of anti-Muslim blogs where Muslims are routinely tarred with collective guilt for such things as 9/11. The question is thus … Continue reading

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Not a Flash Mob, but a Flash Rob

Demonstrating the double-edged sword that technology so frequently represents, and the human propensity to make use of it for both good and evil, this new form of theft—shown in the below video—is, apparently, coordinated using cell phones.

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The Evangelical (and Republican) Cult Explosion

Karl Giberson is an evangelical, a biologist, and an intellectual. And he’s fighting the “good fight” against that (larger) cultic part of evangelical subculture that is epistemically closed to secular scholarship. By calling the mass of evangelicalism cultic, I mean that it has created … Continue reading

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Is Atheism the New Normal?

Recently perusing a back issue of The New Yorker (from May 21, 2007), I noticed an article by Anthony Gottlieb on post-9-11 atheism titled “Atheists with Attitude” (77-80), the conclusion of which I found arresting: [O]ne can venture conservative estimates … Continue reading

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Harold Camping Rapture Fiasco Watch: A Wry Asian’s Take

A pretty good summing up of American fundamentalist inanity, and, at the end, a refreshing solution to the question of why there is so much ridiculous suffering (and stupidity) in the world:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   . The ending, in its eccentric way, echoes … Continue reading

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Max Keiser on the “Blind Cult of America”

Max Keiser’s money program is uneven in quality and alarmist catnip for gold bugs, but this recent episode is mildly entertaining (though I don’t like his anti-intellectual populist posturing against Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman). Max Keiser presents himself as a truth-teller bravely … Continue reading

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Republican Governor Rick Perry Calls on Texans to Pray For Rain

Reuters reports that the governor of Texas, Rick Perry, has called on Texans to pray to God for rain, and quotes him as saying the following: It is fitting that Texans should join together in prayer to humbly seek an … Continue reading

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End Times Hysteria Watch: Lyn Benedetto Allegedly Tried to Kill Her Daughters to Save Them from The Tribulation

The Antelope Valley Press, a northern Los Angeles County newspaper, had the following disturbing headline on Sunday, March 20, 2011: Mom feared ‘The Tribulation,’ cops say: Cut daughters’ throats, then her own. And the opening paragraph to the story was … Continue reading

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Chris Hedges the Prophet

Former New York Times war correspondent, Chris Hedges, has, over the past couple of years, taken on the mantle of a secular prophet—an emperor has no clothes truthteller—writing scathing (and I think powerful) books and essays documenting the messes that we find ourselves … Continue reading

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Ed Kilgore on the old in and out (groups)

At the New Republic today, Ed Kilgore has a new essay analyzing American attitudes toward broad Enlightenment values and civil libertarian principles. His bottom line: most Americans want to know whether you’re “in” or “out” before worrying about whether you should have liberty, justice, … Continue reading

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A Wonderful Arugula Rant

This guy’s arugula rant never went viral back in 2008, but it should have. It has only gotten about 1600 hits at YouTube, but it’s absolutely worth seeing: And here’s some arugula I found being sold at “elite” Walmart:

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Paul Krugman 101: Paul Krugman Explains America’s Catch-22 Economy

Now that the Republicans have won the House of Representatives, Paul Krugman predicts their next moves: They’ll refuse to do anything to boost the economy now, claiming to be worried about the deficit, while simultaneously increasing long-run deficits with irresponsible … Continue reading

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What’s the Right Rhythm for the Weekend, for Life?

If you think that life is worth living, are you? And what’s it worth living for, anyway? Maybe the hint is in this video. Or maybe not. What do you think?

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The Emperor Has No Clothes

But you might not say anything if nobody else is: And something curious here: variations on this experiment have found that, if just one person starts to speak the truth of his or her perceptions, then the group’s “spell” is weakened considerably … Continue reading

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Rush Limbaugh’s Cruelty on Concentrated Display

During a recently televised NFL football game in the United States, a company ran a 20 second Spanish language ad. In response, one of Rush Limbaugh’s listeners called his radio show to sound the Paul Revere patriot alarm about it (“The Mexicans … Continue reading

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Love’s Labours Scorned: Robert Wright on the Quran

A careful student of religious texts, Robert Wright, in the New York Times this week, offers his considered judgment on the what the Quran is: [I]f you’re curious as to the reason for the Koran’s seeming ambivalence toward Christians and Jews: … Continue reading

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Your WTF is not necessarily your neighbor’s WTF

A little life reminder that the messages we send, and the messages we think we send, may not be the same: There is an image circulating on the Internet (but that I can’t seem to embed here) of a megachurch promoting … Continue reading

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