THOM HARTMANN: Science Explains Why Republicans Can’t Accept Trump’s Guilt (Sept. 12, 2023)

Scientists discovered a fascinating reason why Republicans can’t accept criticism of Donald Trump. Thom explains.

In the above video, Thom Hartmann refers to a Raw Story column by cognitive neuroscientist Bobby Azarian, PhD (shown below):

Here are some excerpts from Azarian's column:

In 2009, a study published in PLOS ONE challenged our understanding of belief systems. Researchers placed participants into the confines of an fMRI scanner and presented them with a mixture of factual and abstract statements. The results were illuminating. Disbelief, it turns out, is cognitively demanding. It requires more mental effort than simply accepting a statement as true. From an evolutionary perspective, this preference for easy belief makes sense; a perpetually skeptical individual questioning every piece of information would struggle to adapt in a fast-paced world. What does all this have to do with Trump supporters? Well, it’s far less cognitively demanding for them to believe anything their leader tells them. Any challenge to what Trump tells them is true takes mental work. This means there is a psychological incentive for Trump loyalists to maintain their loyalty. (I wrote about this phenomenon in a slightly different context in the Daily Beast article "Religious Fundamentalism: A Side Effect of Lazy Brains?") Molding of belief: neuroplasticity at play Now, let's consider the unique predicament faced by individuals who staunchly support Trump and want him to again become president. From the moment Trump began his political career and his social engineering career, his supporters have been exposed to narratives — Trump doesn't lie, Democrats are communists, the media is an enemy of the people — that emphasize loyalty and trust in their political idol. These narratives often steer away from critical examination and instead encourage blind faith. When coupled with the brain's inherent tendency to accept rather than question, it creates an ideal environment for unwavering allegiance. No matter that Trump, time and again, has been revealed to be a serial liar, habitually misrepresenting matters of great consequence, from elections to economics to public health. For example, in the Psychology Today article "Why Evangelicals are Wired to Believe Trump’s Falsehoods," I explain that the children of Christian fundamentalists typically begin to suppress critical thinking at an early age. This is required if one is to accept Biblical stories as literal truth, rather than metaphors for how to live life practically and with purpose. Attributing natural occurrences to mystical causes discourages youth from seeking evidence to back their beliefs. Consequently, the brain structures that support critical thinking and logical reasoning don't fully mature. This paves the way for heightened vulnerability to deceit and manipulative narratives, especially from cunning political figures. Such increased suggestibility arises from a mix of the brain's propensity to accept unverified claims and intense indoctrination. Given the brain's neuroplastic nature, which allows it to shape according to experiences, some religious followers are more predisposed to accept improbable assertions. In other words, our brains are remarkably adaptable and continuously evolving landscapes. For ardent Trump supporters, residing in an environment that prioritizes faith over empirical evidence can reshape the neural circuits within their brains. [color emphasis added]

[edited]

Life Need Not Ever End The post Life Need Not Ever End appeared first on NOEMA. https://www.noemamag.com/life-need-not-ever-end

"Like our nervous system, the Universe has a highly interconnected, hierarchical organization. The estimated 200 billion detectable galaxies aren’t distributed randomly, but lumped together by gravity into clusters that form even larger clusters, which are connected to one another by “galactic filaments,” or long thin threads of galaxies. When one zooms out to envision the cosmos as a whole, the “cosmic web” formed by these clusters and filaments looks strikingly similar to the “connectome,” a term that refers to the complete wiring diagram of the brain, which is formed by neurons and their synaptic connections. Neurons in the brain also form clusters, which are grouped into larger clusters, and are connected by filaments called axons, which transmit electrical signals across the cognitive system."

what i read in july 2023 💖

(entries marked with an * indicate favourites; entries marked with an ! indicate things i didnt like; entries marked with a ? indicate articles i have issues with)

{articles in green are short reads [2-10 minutes]; articles in yellow are medium [11-25 minutes]; articles in red are long [longer than 25 minutes].}

ONLINE ARTICLES

Are You Sleepy or Just Tired? by Allie Volpe | VOX

* A Mother’s Exchange for Her Daughter’s Future by Jiayang Fan | The New Yorker

* The Case For Why Our Universe May Be a Giant Neural Network by Bobby Azarian | Big Think

? How Dreams Reveal Brain Disorders by Marie-Neige Cordonnier | Scientific American

Fans Use AI Deepfakes to Keep a Slain Indian Rapper’s Voice Alive by Yashraj Sharma | Rest of World

A Story of Pepper, the World’s Most Important and Underappreciated Spice by Anthony Elghossain | News Line

‘Translation is an Art’: Why Translators are Battling for Recognition by Nadia Khomami | The Guardian

BOOKS

* The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate (The Mysteries of Nature Series #1) by Peter Wohlleben (2015) ★★★★★ (5/5)

Moshi Moshi by Banana Yoshimoto (2010) ★★★★⋆ (4.5/5)

MISCELLANEOUS

* We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2014) ★★★★★ (5/5)


 Azarian shows evidence that suggests the universe is a self-organizing system - moving toward increasing complexity and awareness. The Romance of Reality: How the Universe Organizes Itself to Create Life, Consciousness, and Cosmic Complexity by Bobby Azarian. A 12-hour #Audible science book narrated by Kaleo Griffith. 8 books = Jan 2023 = eight ytd (at Kingston, Washington) https://www.instagram.com/p/CoGWXmuvKCf/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Scientists establish link between religious fundamentalism and brain damage

Published by AlterNetBy Bobby Azarian A study published in the journal Neuropsychologia has shown that religious fundamentalism is, in part, the result of a functional impairment in a brain region known as the prefrontal cortex. The findings suggest that damage to particular areas of the prefrontal cortex indirectly promotes religious fundamentalism by diminishing cognitive flexibility and openness—a psychology term that describes a personality trait which involves dimensions like curiosity, creativity, and open-mindedness. Religious beliefs can be thought of as socially transmitted mental representations that con...Read More Read the full article

“To test this, participants were asked whether or not they believed in a series of statements while their brain activity was being imaged by an fMRI scanner.

Some sentences were simple and fact-based (California is larger than Rhode Island), while others were more abstract and subjective (God probably does not exist).

The results showed the activation of distinct but often overlapping brain areas in the belief and disbelief conditions...Overall, there was greater brain activation that persisted for longer during states of disbelief. Greater brain activation requires more cognitive resources, of which there is a limited supply. What these findings show is that the mental process of believing is simply less work for the brain, and therefore often favored. The default state of the human brain is to accept what we are told, because doubt takes effort. Belief, on the other hand, comes easily.

This troubling finding makes sense from an evolutionary standpoint. If children questioned every single fact they were being taught, learning would occur at a rate so slow that it would be a hindrance.

But this fact could be just as easily applied to both the political left and right. So how does it explain why conservatives, specifically evangelicals, are so easily duped by Donald Trump?

For Christian fundamentalists, being taught to suppress critical thinking begins at a very early age. It is the combination of the brain’s vulnerability to believing unsupported facts and aggressive indoctrination that create the perfect storm for gullibility. Due to the brain’s neuroplasticity, or ability to be sculpted by lived experiences, evangelicals literally become hardwired to believe far-fetched statements.

This wiring begins when they are first taught to accept Biblical stories not as metaphors for living life practically and purposefully, but as objective truth.

Mystical explanations for natural events train young minds to not demand evidence for beliefs.

As a result, the neural pathways that promote healthy skepticism and rational thought are not properly developed. This inevitably leads to a greater susceptibility to lying and gaslighting by manipulative politicians (and religions!), and greater suggestibility in general.

If we want to combat the brain’s habit of taking the path of least resistance, which has destructive downstream consequences for critical thinking, as a society we must place more value on empirical evidence, and this must be reflected in how we educate our youth.

Additionally, we must create an awareness of the fact that for the human mind, believing is more of a reflex than a careful and methodical action.”

Bobby Azarian is a neuroscientist affiliated with George Mason University and a freelance journalist. His research has been published in journals such as Cognition & Emotion and Human Brain Mapping, and he has written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, Psychology Today, and Scientific American.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/12/a-neuroscientist-explains-why-christian-evangelicals-are-wired-to-believe-donald-trumps-gaslighting-lies/

Also, https://www.rawstory.com/2019/12/this-psychological-analysis-of-trump-supporters-has-exposed-5-alarming-traits-about-them/

And, https://www.rawstory.com/2016/08/a-neuroscientist-explains-what-may-be-wrong-with-trump-supporters-brains/

Watch... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_svYhKcmlc and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfEUjoRsNYw

* “Religion abuses their followers by "systematically withholding factual information from, and/or providing false information to, the(ir) victim(s) - having the gradual effect of making them anxious, confused, and less able to trust their own memory and perception (of reality)...” https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Gaslighting

Also, https://www.psychologytoday.com/nz/blog/here-there-and-everywhere/201701/11-warning-signs-gaslighting

Neuroscientist Reveals Why Trump Supporters Fall For His Lies

“A science writer with a PhD in neuroscience named Bobby Azarian has laid out why Trump supporters (and a lot of Republicans in general) are so quick to fall in line with politicians like Trump who are clearly charlatans. He identifies five different common traits that we see in these die hard supporters, and they are each more disturbing as the list goes on.Ever since the election of Donald Trump, psychiatrist, psychologist, other mental health professionals, neuroscientists, they've been looking at Donald Trump and warning us that, Hey, something's wrong here, but guess what folks? It's not just Donald Trump where these people are saying, Hey, something's not right with his head.And now we have a neuroscientist man by the name of Bobby Azarian, dr Azarian, who is actually completed a psychological profile on Republican voters specifically though not limited to Donald Trump's supporters and dr Azarian in here identified five traits that these Trump supporting Republicans tend to have. Maybe not all of them, but most of them. So I wanted to take a minute and run through these traits that dr Azarian has identified in these Republican voters.The first is authoritarian personality syndrome. This refers to the advocacy or enforcement of strict obedience to authority at the expense of personal freedom and is commonly associated with a lack of concern for the opinions or needs of others. We see that all the time with Republicans. The very selfish mentality, I don't want to pay off your student loans. I don't want to pay for you to have healthcare. I got to get mine and besides we got to follow the rules. We all gotta do our part. We got to follow the president because he's the president. Now this as Dr Azarian points out is a syndrome. It is characterized by belief in total and complete obedience to one's authority.That is why we see these hardcore Trumpers out there always whatever the president says, I believe you best president ever hashtag CAG 2020 it's constant. Social media is disgusting because of it, but that's just one trait. The doctor continues social dominance orientation, which refers to people who have a preference for the societal hierarchy of groups, specifically with a structure in which the high status groups have dominance over the low status ones. Excuse me.So basically what this means is protecting the way things are, right? You got your upper echelon, your top 1% that people get in those tax cuts. You've got the working class who is getting absolutely nothing and that actually includes most Republicans, but they want to keep it that way because they believe that's the way it should be because they also believe one day they're going to escape that bottom rung of the ladder and make it to the top even though it's statistically unlikely to ever happen. The third trait he identified, obviously prejudice, and this is interesting because he points out in this article that he's written here that this is not all Republicans.Obviously it's unfair to say all Republicans are even all Trump supporters hate any specific group, but it's also unfair to deny that prejudice played a large role in Donald Trump's election. In his speech announcing that he was running for president, he called Mexicans rapists and murderers, that that's pretty much not just a dog whistle. That's a bull horn. We know where he stands on these issues.He said Muslims are dangerous. That's pretty straight forward, so sure, prejudice played a huge role in it. The last two here, real quick inner group contact. This is an important one in psychological studies. What this means is that Trump supporters, Republicans in general, do not spend much time outside of their social group. Meaning they don't seek out differing viewpoints.“

Cenk Uygur hosts. Neuroscientist Bobby Azarian, PH.D discusses whether or not a third party can defeat Trump. Former U.S. Congressman Joe Walsh talks about Republican silence on Trump's recent dinner with white supremacist Nick Fuentes and anti-semitic Kanye West. 221130__TC by The Young Turks

Mr. Narcissist

For 18 years I lived with a narcissist.  Lived with the ‘what about my need’ attitude.  The father who stretched across parental lines to include himself in my personal and spiritual injuries.  The man who would declare that the postman had been out to get him.  Just because the mail had not been delivered one day…during a snowstorm.  The patriarch that used verbal abuse as a tool…in which to…

View On WordPress

Defective Brains?

A Neuroscientist Explains What Could Be Wrong with Trump Supporters’ Brains By Bobby Azarian/ Alternet/ April 7, 2018 There’s no doubt that Donald Trump has said many things that would have been political suicide for any other Republican. And almost every time he made one of these shocking statements, political analysts on both the left and the right predicted that he’d lose supporters because of…

View On WordPress

"Bogus news isn’t the real problem: The problem is that we undervalue the type of critical thinking needed to spot it."

“Bogus news isn’t the real problem: The problem is that we undervalue the type of critical thinking needed to spot it.”

“Bogus news isn’t the real problem: The problem is that we undervalue the type of critical thinking needed to spot it.” Fake news is running rampant on the internet, but blaming social media sites like Facebook for not filtering it out doesn’t address the larger issue at hand. Bogus news isn’t the real problem: The problem is that we undervalue the type of critical thinking needed to spot it. We…

View On WordPress