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Originally posted by AnthonyT:
Hello,

"You can't like someone, or appreciate any of their ideas, unless they agree with you 100%."

This is a sentiment I see continuously on this forum, and it is dismaying. In fact, it may be emblemic of a wide problem plaguing our nation. (I can't speak for the rest of the world, having no frame of reference.)

Tolerance itself is sometimes seen as a dirty word, as though it means dining with the devil.

How did we become addicted to absoluteness?

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Hmm, you might have a point. That sort of thing does seem to happen... Except look at what you did there: spelled it "emblemic." That's disturbing to me, that you could be so wrong. Any poster who's fool enough to misspell emblematic obviously has no place pondering weighty matters of tolerance/intolerance. I have to conclude that the entire point of your post, no matter that some parts of it seemed to be all right at first, is also absolute nonsensical hoo-y. You are a misspelling ingrate, exactly the kind of devil I won't be dining with. EVER.


What? What'd you say? That I'm addcited to something? And something else - that I'm hypocritical?

Whatever. I don't see it. You're just bitter and pissed because you know I'm right.

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hmm-burble-blah, blah-blah-blah, take a left

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Originally posted by AnthonyT:
Hello,

Thank you for pointing out the spelling error.

--Anthony

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In The Robert Heinlein Interview by J. Neil Schulman, RAH mentioned that he enjoyed reading works by others with whom he did not agree since it was impossible to learn anything if you restrict yourself to reading only those with whom you do agree. This statement sums up nicely why I can disagree with some of RAH's specific opinions and yet still enjoy reading him for the abundance of life knowledge he imparts in his stories. In much the same way, I "enjoy" listening to Rush Limbaugh, as his opinions generally help me focus on my own, which are usually diametrically the opposite.

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The problem with a lot of attempts to discuss or debate anything, is the prevalence of a type of conditioning I call Loopthink.

You see, when they're "in the loop", it really is pointless to even try logic, reason and debate, because no cognitive thought is actually occuring.

Loopthink is a set of conditioned reflex responses that work in a fashion similar to a BASIC programs GOSUB routine loop, in how they bypass the actual thought process to a more or less pre-programmed subroutine.

Usually triggered by a word, phrase or thought-concept.

And therein lies the problem, any actual cognitive process is mostly bypassed by that loop you see, and it takes a real heavy spike to knock that sideways off the rails, which is one reason I tend to get explosively nasty to someone who's gone into loopthink, cause it's the only way to knock them off the rails and make them THINK, sort of like a BREAK key.

Worse, this crap is addictive cause it tends to be trained in early by the parents and reinforced by local school/community, to the point where completing the loop kicks off that good ole dopeamine reward, just like a doggy feels happy once you've trained em to do tricks and they pull one off - the constant repetition and praise cycle creates that reflex.

That's been used in more ugly ways too, the LEAP program was about conditioning that cycle for violent action, which included the stimulating rush of adrenals and suchlike on top of the repetition and reward sequencing.

Thing is, it's not a railroad so much as a path of least resistance, like a rut the thought patterns fall into, even in the face of overwhelming evidence or logic, they'll run that way cause, again, it's a conditioned reflex, and no damn accident either.

It's possible to run against it, but that's a lot like breaking a drug addiction or cult programming in that firstoff, going "off the rails" is scary and uncomfortable for them, AND will include the ridicule and probably retaliation of most of their social circle on top of it, and the lure is very powerful - especially when they will seek out reprogramming via immersion in the message of whatever conditioner they favor (talk radio, a certain talking head, church, etc) in a bizarre form of confirmation bias to avoid ever having to face a truth that is more ugly than the fear and discomfort and alienation....

That they've built their whole existence on lies.

Most folk, even fairly strong of will, hit that point and make a rapid U-turn and dive right back onto the rails as fast as they can, they can't hack it - it's been said that one of the cruelest things you can do to a person is destroy their illusions, and maybe that is so...

But when those illusions turn them into monsters, or supporters of monsters, that's a bridge too far, unacceptable, unforgiveable.

And of course, the further down THAT road they go, the harder turning back becomes because how can a person possibly live with the knowledge of such responsibility for inflicting horror on thier fellow man, and at the time ENJOYING every second of it ?

And so they cling to the illusion, no matter how tattered and broken it becomes - it's the perfect self-perpetuating trap, because not only do they cling to that conditioning, they inflict in upon their children.

And if it fails to take, or stick - yes, they will even turn on and begin to hate thier own kids, which is, at the root of it, how at least a quarter of those kids in the hellcamps wound up there.

Nor is it any one ideology, religion, political faction or what have you that uses this trickery, since children are conditioned TO accept it in grade school in order to make them easy to manipulate - John Taylor Gatto has tons of very well-referenced information on that, and that it was and has always been, completely intentional.

But it occured before that, since it was the concept and foundation of most religion, the ability to teach people to bypass rational thought with conditioned thought-loop responses, seriously, WATCH a sermon from most beliefs and you can see it in action if you have enough mental and emotional distance to see it for what it is, the military uses it, hell, even sports teams do - it's never just a byword, catch phrase or slogan, it's a goddamn trigger, you understand ?

It's also, for someone clever enough, not too hard to use those verbal cue-triggers to set off a total mental meltdown by causing diametrically opposite thoughtloops to crash into one another by provoking one, then another before the first is completed, like a psychotic engineer throwing a track switch that sends one train head-on with another.

Anyways, that's as best I can explain it at all, it takes all the very worst of cult programming, drug addiction and social conditioning and combines it into this fucking gestalt - something which our own alphabet goons were very keen on researching and applying, but never quite figured it out because they themselves were ALREADY victims of it, and therefore unable to see it from a wholly external viewpoint.

Not sure if alla that will make sense, but I tried.

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Originally posted by SpellingFairy:

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Originally posted by AnthonyT:
Hello,

Thank you for pointing out the spelling error.

--Anthony

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Anthony, you are forgiven. **pixie dust and good spelling blessings on you**

Mal4prez, however, earns only a frown.

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