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We now know, through recent research into the structure and operation of the brain, that those of conservative and authoritarian views are actually hard-wired to be fearful, distrustful people. Their brains are overly sensitive to physical and emotional threats, making them easy prey for conspiracist con artists and hucksters. They are fear-driven people at their core, disdainful of the rest of us who prefer the reality of hope and the goodwill of others. Theirs is an existence defined by its darkness.

Kind of makes one think of popular conceptions of Satan and Hell, no?

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Yup. And those self-destructive notions of the loud and insistent and "successful" bleed over onto and capture others. A recent, and approachable write-up on this is Iain McGilchrist's "The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World". Thanks for your summative here.

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We stay on the surface, nauseated by half the population being aberrational to Life, but then, for good reasons, we are hardly 100% behind a candidate who supports war policies and makes no principled stand about dealing with billionaires and other genuine threats to the survival of humanity.

There is a new tack to take. Going deeper into the pathology is in order. To see where it comes from and deal with that.

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I don't know about some people needing killing, but I do know some people need to be sequestered from society so they can get mental health treatment and stop spreading their disease. Based on the content of that "sermon" Robinson needs to be in a psych ward.

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Thanks Jared, for keeping the focus on root causes -- you may be headed down a psych/social path to responding to this catastrophe -- lord knows logic, reason, and truth aren't working . . .

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