🚀 go-pugleaf

geoffm@u1.netgate.net (Geoff Miller) writes:
><noone@nowhere.com> writes:
>[Ann Coulter]
>> Shame on you for using a quote from that rabid dog media whore as your
>> sig. If you believe anything she says, it's time to get deprogrammed.
>That's funny; I feel much the same way about people like you.

There is an interesting one page article published in the July
Scientific American, titled "The Political Brain" I think.
You might humor me just for three minutes and go read it.

It describes how a couple of years ago, about the time of the
elections, a research project took two equal sized groups of people
from opposite ends of the political spectrum.  They showed all these
people short statements made by both candidates "that were clearly
contradictory to that candidate's position."

What they found was that all these individuals would minimize or
overlook or dismiss or deny contradictions made by individuals that
they supported, and they would pounce on contradictions made by
individuals that they opposed as obvious evidence to justify their
own position.

Even more interesting, they had these people sitting inside an MRI
machine at the time they were doing this.  They found that the
regions of the brain that were glowing brightly, indicating vigorous
activity, were not the regions that have been identified as having
anything to do with reason, they were entirely the regions associated
with emotions.

So, to paraphrase in my own terms, you know those insane people who
you cannot understand how they can possibly be so stupid to believe
something so obviously wrong, they really do believe it, in fact
pretty much everything they see makes them think there is obvious
evidence to support that their position is the correct position and
that you are the one who can't see the evididence and is the idiot!

And the worst part of it, they are probably doing just what you are
doing, we are all "them", Pogo once said, "We have met the enemy..."

The author of this carefully points out that he is not taking sides
in this political arena.  His only position is that most people
seem not to be using reason when it comes to evaluating the world.

He goes on to make some specific suggestions about how this research
might be used to improve the legal and governmental and business
decision making process in the world.

I'm skeptical that his advice will implemented.