No, it's not natural
At Persuasion, Haidt and Lukianoff see the results correctly but completely misattribute the causes.

They describe the current fake political "sides" in accurate detail, bringing out one important factor that I hadn't thought about. The D side is focusing on theories because it doesn't have a Personality right now. The R side has the Personality of Trump, so it forms a Personality Cult around Trump.

I can see the latter part every day. All the email I get from R sources is strictly about Lord Trump HIMSELF and his family. The emails want me to engage PERSONALLY with each of Trump's mistresses and misters and wives and husbands. I'm supposed to love these grotesque aristocrats in a personal and physical way. I'm supposed to lay down my life to defend them.

There's no Big Personality on the D side. Bernie could have filled the role, but Bernie surrendered to the soulless and mindless Biden. When the D side had Bill Clinton, the Personality Cult was on the D side, and the R side was making do with nonentities like Bob Dole.

The authors attribute polarization to "natural forces".

But we worked hard to take a holistic and multi-faceted view of the problem, and we devoted a full chapter—chapter 6—to situating campus events within the broader American culture war in which each side drives the other to do ever-more-outrageous and illiberal things. In fact, we opened the chapter with Newton’s third law and then we modified it for life in a polarization spiral: “for every action there is a disproportionate reaction.”

Bullshit.

Life runs on negative feedback. Natural negative feedback is perfectly proportionate. The only way to get a disproportionate reaction is through intelligent and malicious MANIPULATION.

Simple example: You're carrying a coffeecup. The reflex arcs in your arm adjust in an infinitely delicate and perfect way to keep the cup balanced. Suddenly some asshole grabs your arm and pulls it to one side, then lets go. What happens? Crash! Disproportionate reaction to an intelligent and malicious restraint.

More complex example: You're inhaling air that contains viruses. The immune cells in your nose adjust in an infinitely delicate and perfect way to keep the viruses in balance. Suddenly some asshole forces you to wear a ballgag, rebreathing the same viruses over and over and over, destroying the natural feedback. What happens when you remove the ballgag? Crash! Disproportionate reaction to an intelligent and malicious restraint.

The polarization we see in social media is driven by intelligent and malicious assholes who know exactly when to strap down and exactly when to release. THIS IS NOT NEW. Machiavelli drew up the blueprint, and it has been refined by expert assholes like Lady Edgar and Roy Cohn and Jeffrey Epstein.

Unsurprisingly, Trump and Clinton, the Big Personalities in recent times, are INTIMATELY tied to Epstein. Trump was also tied to Cohn.

Are Haidt et al really as dumb as they sound, or are they part of the malicious game? I'll go with the latter.

Labels: Equipoise, Jail mode

  ¶ 5:01 AM