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J.D. Haltigan's avatar

Nice piece. You may enjoy the third part of my Politics of the Psyche series where I cover a lot of this as well (see parts 1 & 2 as well).

https://www.jdhaltigan.com/p/the-politics-of-the-psyche-part-3

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UBERSOY's avatar

Would you be up for a stream discussing EHC in greater detail?

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East Hunter's avatar

Thank you for the invitation but I don't really do streams for privacy reasons.

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Paolo Giusti's avatar

I loved the "Eastern European Cargo Cult", but it is not a uniquely EE phenomenon: https://theamericansun.wordpress.com/2019/08/27/ideologies-of-delayed-informatization/

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East Hunter's avatar

Wow this is a great link. Is this Second City Bureaucrat ("Chicago Public Servant")? It's an old phenomenon too. Hungarian Renaissance poet Janus Pannonius was an Assaulted Intellectual way back in 1466, using the allegory of an almond tree blooming in winter to describe his educated greatness in a backwards land: https://musessquare.blogspot.com/2011/03/janus-pannonius.html

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Paolo Giusti's avatar

Yes, it is 2cb.

It can be said that every culture developes IDI: this maxim can be κτῆμα ἐς αἰεί

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MEL's avatar
8hEdited

Good article, but it should be clarified that the concept “mental illness” is itself pseudoscience. Actual physiological ailments are grouped under this label with anti-social personalities, beliefs, and behaviors, which makes no sense. There is nothing in common between someone who is practically tripping on acid and a jealous spouse who can’t get over their anxiety that they’re being cheated on, or an up and coming founder of the latest iteration of Judaism.

Sure, a random babushka may better handle these types of individuals, but this doesn’t mean they are all suffering from a brain disease or “mental illness”.

“Mental illness” may be useful as a colloquial term but it musn’t be forgotten that it is a label invented by pseudoscientists and in practice actually describes a category of crimes.

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Michael van der Riet's avatar

My difficulty with defining the Elite is that it must not include me. In my ideal world the Elite would all end up suspended from lamp poles. Note, ideal world not Utopia, which is a small intellectual cabal imposing looks-good-on-paper government on the helots. Remember that Aristotle approved of class, slavery and male superiority.

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Daniel's avatar

Journalism has value to society beyond the advancement of ideological interests.

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Michael van der Riet's avatar

Inasmuch as journalism has come to mean telling the unwashed masses what to think, I can't agree. Reportage is at least honest, but it doesn't sell journals.

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Daniel's avatar

Why? Are people expected to come up with and consider every position in detail on their own? What's wrong with trying to persuade people about something you care about?

But yes, a lot of it is about the reporting. It's not a given that people know true things about what is happening around the world - that is something that journalism makes happen.

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Michael van der Riet's avatar

Persuasion is not a dichotomy. It’s a spectrum. Journalism lies too close to the propaganda end of the spectrum.

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Daniel's avatar

A perennial complaint. Bankers are thieves, doctors are quacks, and journalists are liars.

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Paolo Giusti's avatar

So, statistically relevant.

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Paolo Giusti's avatar

Yes: they produce the best paper for fishery.

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