8 Lessons I Wish I Learned Sooner In Life:

| Psychology & Life Thread |

1. Yes, @FareedZakaria's new book, Ten lessons From a Post-Pandemic World argues we don't need a big or small gov- we need a GOOD one.

We don't have that now & that is bc for decades now, the GOP has intentionally hallowed it out. Stripping it of funding under the auspice that

2. the only goal should be small. And as it turns out- that was stupid. And now we have a dysfunctional, as @maddow says, "big, bad" gov. Something that has been "wasted, and rotted and ruined." And its been intentional. Its been murdered, with no thought for how people would

3. suffer for it. COVID just put that suffering in a streamlined spotlight. But as @FareedZakaria points out- its the cherry on top of a 40 year plan that Bannon termed the final "deconstruction of the administrative state." As with the decimation of the economic tools that had

4. allowed the world's 1st middle class to emerge & flourish before The Great Lie ushered in the greatest wealth transfer in history. Not only were Americans bamboozled into voting away their wage increases, their pensions, & their health care (at least till 2010)- they were also

5. tricked into pissing away their country's superiority- its claim to fame, its ability to puff its chest out & say "look over here, we have the best _____. " I had no idea when I was a kid that we were not, in fact, the greatest country on Earth- at least not if you care about

Otherness and Power: Michael Jackson and His Media Critics is a rather short book by Susan Woodword but it does a lot to expose "progressive" hypocrisy in the media and academia.

It analyzes three works:
- A 1985 book by Dave Marsh called "Trapped: Michael Jackson and the Crossover Dream"
- Maureen Orth's MJ articles in Vanity Fair
- And a 2009 book entitled The Resistible Demise of Michael Jackson, edited by British music critic Mark Fisher

I went back to the latter part today because I heard Fisher's name again in a completely different context (he was also a philosopher) and it kind of ringed a bell, so I checked back if he was really the dude who wrote some horrible book about MJ?

Well, he didn't write it alone (he personally wrote only one chapter), but he edited it. As per Woodward the book is short on actual facts and research on MJ's life, but high on opinionated and dehumanizing hatred based on tabloid information and their perception of him.

What Woodward does is making lists of the adjectives the books' authors use of Jackson. That in itself shows the out of control, irrational hatred.

I am reading and reviewing books of @SamHarrisOrg this December, with the extra time available after work. First book I read is following.

The book is written by the neo-atheist Sam Harris. I am a passionate sunni Muslim. I would like to learn and review some of his work, and judge them from my personal view based on Islamic theological perspective. It shall be interesting because as you would know, the neo-athiests

want to abolish religions altogether and suggest a world where things are based on science and logic. How is that coherent and how is it relavent? Let's see for ourselves. I would like to thank the local Muslim handles and atheist handles who actively participate in discussions.

I would advice everyone to stick to a more academic discussions and not to deviate the discussion with mockery of Islamic and atheistic beliefs.

This book talks about lying and it's ill effects on the individuals and at large on the society. In a nutshell here are some of the gists of the book. The book basically identified specific ways in which lying is detrimental and why we should avoid lying.

So I am in the middle of a document co-authored by Stephen Whittle. I took a little detour to have a look at Whittle on YouTube.
Here are a few clips. This one surprised me. Whittle recalls being heckled by Butch Lesbians and is asked about their role.

Well worth watching this to see how he understood Butch Dykes. Basically described as unable to receive sexual pleasure and this was not for Stephen. A strange position for someone in the LGBT community to take.

Whittle is well aware that there has been a spike in natal girls referred to GIDs. Also the high % who are autistic. Thinks ASD is may be just a feature of being trans. See the age range for referrals is from 3 years old.

Some of us are concerned about co-morbid mental health issues. Gender Identity Ideologues have an answer for this. “Minority Stress”. It’s the social stigma that creates the mental health issues and transition is positioned as a potential “cure”

I suspect this slide is shown to draw a comparison to sartorial choices as a social signifier. Whittle also says lots of Butch lesbians used to tell him they would have transitioned if they were younger. Hence spike in natal females, to Whittle, could be more coming out.