[ExI] [Extropolis] trump

Fri Aug 18 17:48:37 UTC 2023

For the record, your theory about anticipation of bad times triggering
xenophobia in populations has always seemed validated and reasonable to me,
ever since you first started talking about it.

It's precisely what we've seen in the US in the last 5-10 years. The only
thing you didn't explicitly call is just /how much worse/ a corporate mass
media with both economic and political incentives to exaggerate negative
trends can make things.

On Fri, Aug 18, 2023, 10:46 AM Keith Henson via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> I tried for more than ten years to convey the worldview that humans
> have evolved psychological traits to the Extropians and utterly
> failed.
>
> Eventually, I lowered my expectations.
>
> Keith
>
> On Fri, Aug 18, 2023 at 9:27 AM William Flynn Wallace
> <foozler83 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> > I don't expect any of you (including me???) to understand this.  People
> seem to have a
> > strong bias against understanding that they have evolved psychological
> > traits at all.  Perhaps too much insight is not good for your genes.
> Keith
> >
> > Keith I think you are seriously underestimating (or should that be
> misunderestimating? -   ��) the intelligence of the group we have here.
> Anyone who doesn't believe in inherited traits, speak up!
> >
> > In any case, wasn't it true that in Germany in the 30s they had
> inflation so bad that wheelbarrows were needed to cart around the money?
> The only time I can think of where people are willing to lower expectations
> and make sacrifices is when we are in a war people support.  Will we have
> to go to war to adjust to lower levels of Medicare and Social Security?
>  bill w
> >
> > On Fri, Aug 18, 2023 at 11:14 AM Keith Henson <hkeithhenson at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> "Will it ever end?"
> >>
> >> No.  It is what happens when humans think they are faced with a bleak
> future.
> >>
> >> We have been selected to go to war when we are faced with starvation.
> >> I have a mathematical model if anyone cares.
> >>
> >> What happens is that the first stage of the run-up to wars is the
> >> circulation of xenophobic or just crazy memes.  Commonly a cult-type
> >> leader takes advantage of this or alternately, the memes take
> >> advantage of someone (think of Hitler as a victim of this process).
> >> If you don't believe the connection of a bad economic outlook to crazy
> >> memes, just consider where the main support for MAGA or Qanon comes
> >> from.
> >>
> >> 40 years ago I made the observation (without understanding) that
> >> economic downturns correlated with upsurges of neo-nazi activity in
> >> the midwest.
> >>
> >> I don't expect any of you to understand this.  People seem to have a
> >> strong bias against understanding that they have evolved psychological
> >> traits at all.  Perhaps too much insight is not good for your genes.
> >>
> >> Keith
> >>
> >> On Thu, Aug 17, 2023 at 4:59 PM William Flynn Wallace
> >> <foozler83 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> >
> >> > He's still in the lead.  We know he's a liar, a sexist, perhaps a
> rapist, surely guilty of some of the charges against him now.
> >> >
> >> > Does  that show that those supporters just don't care about the law,
> the Constitution or anything else except their own opinions?  So if it
> isn't Trump it would be someone else?
> >> >
> >> > That is really scary to me.  Is this as bad as it gets?  Have we been
> this way all along?
> >> >
> >> > In surveys people are asked about the past, and it's almost always
> better than now.  Statistics show that to be wildly wrong in every
> category, medical, technical, economic.
> >> >
> >> > So rabble rousers are basing their stances on lies.  It's the little
> boy crying wolf when there's no wolf.
> >> >
> >> > If I had a magic wand, I might include omitting credulousness from
> human characteristics in my top three.
> >> >
> >> > We know that 'the many' in society are carried by 'the few' on their
> backs.  'The many' appear not to want to acknowledge how great we are, or
> care about the people who created all the toys they so dearly love, and may
> actually be antiscience.
> >> >
> >> > 'Level of expectation' is a term in social psychology.  When yours
> are met you are satisfied, but want more, and what 'more' means is now at a
> higher level than before because of the increased expectations.   Which
> leads to dissatisfactions with the current intake.
> >> >
> >> > Will it ever end?  Or it is like a black hole which can take all you
> can throw at it?
> >> >
> >> > bill  w
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
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