The World Doesn’t Pay You Enough to be Nasty

There’s a reason why we like to get nasty. It’s a lot easier to start a fight than it is to take charge of your life when things seem out of control. Our desire to manipulate others often stems from the need to compensate for our own inability to feel a sense of agency in relation to our goals. We enjoy pulling other people’s strings because those are usually the only strings we know how to pull.

“Me Too” is a Branch Issue, and a Distraction

My first reaction to this campaign was a bit of umbrage on the part of lumping the many degrees of sexual harassment in with the many degrees of sexual assault. They aren’t the same. I shared that first reaction on Facebook in a couple of places and got some interesting discussion going. But as I thought about it some more, I realized what was going on here.

Statist Stockholm Syndrome

Stockholm syndrome is a psychological condition of traumatic bonding in which a victim comes to empathize with an abuser so much that they will identify with and defend them. It is evident in many who consider themselves compassionate and patriotic, as evidenced by the following statist hogwash I recently saw going around social media.

Cry Wolf

I, too, have great disdain for the MSM, but it is because of their incompetence, laziness, and disincentives toward accuracy, not that they are deliberate liars.  POTUS’s drone about “fake news” sounds like the boy who cried “wolf,” with a twang of unfounded self-righteousness.

Voluntary Law and Order

People are not all the same, and they make different choices because they have different values, circumstances, and levels of understanding. Sometimes those choices are peaceful and wise; sometimes they are not. So what are the best ways to promote good choices and cooperation while preventing and providing resolution for conflict?