Redstate.org Censorship
"The main hypothesis concerning group-think is this: The more amiability and esprit de corps among the members of the in-group of policy makers the greater the danger that independent thinking will be...
View ArticleDangerous Decision Making and Republicans
DANGEROUS DECISION MAKING was the title of an article in the Feb 2004 issue of FLYING magazine that referenced an article in the 2003 issue of USAA magazine. The original USAA article was titled "The...
View ArticleThe NPR Thought Police issue new citations
I still listen -- there must be some underlying masochisim involved. In the 4PM news break a reporter talked about the uproar in Britain over Blair's interview in which he said something about praying...
View ArticleKarl Rove: Mindguard
What role does Karl Rove play in the mindlessness of the Bush administration? Rove is Bush's mudguard to protect his boss from information and thought.
View ArticleGroupthink (in honor of the Republican meltdown)
There have been many diaries today about the Republican collapse. Notably, here and here. These diaries (and the sources they link to) suggest that the causes of the Republican meltdown are scandals,...
View ArticleFrom Freedom to Fascism in Just One Week, or, Why We Can't Depend on...
(Crossposted to My Left Wing and my personal blog.) "I can see the looks on some of your faces, saying, 'Oh, I would have walked differently.' Then ask yourselves why you were clapping." - John Keating...
View ArticleThe People's Republic of Me: Novelist Nick Mamatas declares his independence
"The book deals with the foundation of microstates that ultimately recapitulate the problems of the US, shows that the political question isn't just a matter of individual lifestyle, or of choosing one...
View ArticlerEpUbLiCaNhOtTiE VII
This one looks a little different. I made the charecters more human, but you tell me, which ones do you like better? Should I stick with the sticks or not?
View ArticleAre you Kidding Me, Kossacks?
Tom Collins' Nevada Democrats have gotten some criticism from Kos for signing up with Fox News to broadcast a Democratic Presidential debate. Kos cited concerns about Fox disrespecting the candidates...
View ArticleOn Dissent and Groupthink w/Poll
The unexamined life is not worth living – Socrates via Plato. One of the really cool things about Daily Kos, and political blogging communities in general, is that there is a diversity of opinion...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Bush Administration: A Perfect Case-Study for Groupthink
The following entry is based off a milestone article by Irving Janis in the Psychology Today magazine, published in Nov. 1971 on Groupthink. "How could we have been so stupid?" President JFK asked...
View ArticleThe Lie of Self Reflection
I have previously posted about what I believe is problem that has begun to present itself on the blogosphere which is a top-down, editor/front pager driven discussion. Yet there are other issues that...
View ArticleDeconstructing Hillary's Groupthink
On this fine pre-summer day I thought I'd cruise through the symptoms of groupthink as outlined by Irving Janis in 1977. I've added the symptom and the correlating reaction from Hillary's forces. Enjoy.
View ArticleRepublican versus Democratic Groupthink (with poll)
Political opinions, election decisions, and other decisions, are often made by groupthink. Obama and McCain both rely on groupthink to haul in large portions of their bases. However, for Republicans,...
View ArticleGroupthink in the Bush administration
Of the many criticisms that can be leveled at two terms of the Bush administration, a comparatively mild one is that its major actors were guilty, as a group, of poor decision making. Nevertheless, I...
View ArticleThis is my farthest out-there limb yet, but it is our problem
Maybe PastorDan will have some words with me, I confess I have not been to the SP for a while, but I have to air this out. What I saw last night in Minneapolis scares me to my core. There is a reason...
View ArticleAfghanistan
[Cross-posted at The Left Coaster.] Welcome to the lovely American experience of winning an election and receiving no power with it—not yet. A completely necessary interlude, yes, but in the meantime...
View ArticleWho We Are
[Cross-posted at The Left Coaster.] Glennzilla described the soon-to-be horrifying capitulation to one of the most obnoxious and sinister political forces of the Senate—Joe Lieberman—as a "silver...
View ArticleOf Power and Neckties
We have been lied to. The problem is not just that we have been lied to, but that even the well-intentioned people lied to us about how well they understood what was going on. They may not have...
View ArticleGroupthink -- n, group + think (as in doublethink)
Byrdes of a kynde and color flok and flye allwayes together..." as one William Turner wrote in his papal satire in the year 1545. One of the defining qualities of homo sapiens is that we do tend to...
View ArticleA Primer for New Users
When you see users using group specific terms like "d0ughnut", "hydrate", troll, etc. see if they are also exhibiting any of these classic warnings signs of unsafe groups and cults. Potentially unsafe...
View ArticleGhosts
We are the 300. You do not think of us often, if at all. How do we know this? Because you are glib; you describe your rivals as people who have "drunk the Kool-Aid." If you knew what we knew, you would...
View ArticleMedia Quarantine of Single-Payer Continues- But Americans Don't Realize It!
Its been 15 long years since the Clinton Administration's plan to give all Americans healthcare coverage was foiled by their own stupidity in not pushing for a single payer plan, and the rights foil,...
View ArticleMore than a Mob Mentality
Having listened with much chagrin at the uncivil discourse at these Town Hall forums, I'd like to ask a few questions, rather than return fire with my own incredulous anger. Rather than ripping into...
View ArticleObama's Bait and Switch
Obama has gone back on many of his major campaign promises, and yet people claim it's not his fault. He has continued much of the worst Bush-era policies regarding civil liberties and while it was...
View ArticleCompany Town
[Cross-posted at The Left Coaster.] Buried beneath the headlines of healthcare triumph this morning is equally precious news on education: college loan reform finally passed and looks likely to be...
View ArticleThe Hollow Men...
We are the hollow men We are the stuffed men Leaning together Headpiece filled with straw. Alas! Our dried voices, when We whisper together Are quiet and meaningless As wind in dry grass Or rats’ feet...
View ArticleEconomics, Save Us!
[Cross-posted at The Left Coaster.] The big three of social sciences—sociology, economics and political science—have had a negligible impact in the real-time American environment and their actors. Not...
View ArticleIf You Don't Agree, There's Something Wrong With You
There has recently been some heated discussion on dailykos whether there is more than one acceptable way to feel about the price of tea in China. This diary is an attempt to clarify this question...
View ArticleGroupthink: Annals of The Culture of Politics
Joseph Stiglitz, former chief economist of the World Bank and globalization critic, has a must-read essay in the current Vanity Fair, excerpted from his forthcoming book. He analyzes the consensus...
View ArticleLet’s Get Beyond Left “Groupspeak!”
Let’s Get Beyond Left “Groupspeak!” by Susan C. Strong, Founder & Executive Director, The Metaphor Project, http://www.metaphorproject.org As I write, the 2012 home stretch is still a few months...
View ArticleA Critique of the Faulty Congressional Rationale for Bombing
A Critique of the Faulty Congressional Rationale for Bombingby Susan C. StrongThe following item started as a comment attached to my previous 9.06/13 post, Re Syria: Say "We Can Do Better than...
View ArticleThe Dangers of Groupthink in The Age of Neoliberalism
I'll start this essay with some generalizations about some basic principles with which I think most people of good will agree. Namely, our overall understanding about the meaning of living in a...
View ArticleSuperstition: Social Justice Greatest Obstacle
This week marked the second anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement, and as I'm sure most people reading this will agree with, it's not a particularly joyful commemoration.A social justice...
View ArticleHow deaf people can teach us about effective communication
If you ever tried to work with others in a group together before, and found the communication to be lacking or that it took too long to effectively solve a problem together.... then you might want to...
View ArticleHillary & Establishment Groupthink Are Consistently WRONG
Mainstream thinking, not just Republican thinking, is consistently wrong. Justification and support for the Iraq War? WRONG. Catastrophically wrong. Multi-generational even. Centennial even. An...
View ArticleThe Two Gatekeepers
These days here in the "reality-based community", we like the idea of following the consensus opinion of scientific experts; but it could be argued that this is a form of the classical logical fallacy...
View ArticleA Passive Aggressive David Brooks Obliquely Criticizes The GOP?
David Brooks discusses the role of religion in his latest op-ed , and he does so in a wide angle view of the issue. He discusses the issue in terms familiar to many progressives. For example he notes...
View ArticleVicious
What makes people mistreat people in horrendous ways, trade their lives for a pocket full of gold or kill them because if is inculcated that you have to kill them first?Fear usually motivates the...
View ArticleIs War Inevitable?
Failure is remembered because it leaves a comma instead of period on the cite of a serious decision. That comma questions the way you handled something. It brings higher judgment into play. The mind,...
View ArticleTo the Kos community
Daily Kos’ central banner saysCommunityFeel supported and energized by our amazing members— now including you!Go there nowOver the past year or so, I’ve researched and written a book analyzing and...
View ArticleRoss Douthat is doing that "Yes, but..." Thing Today. Hillary should listen...
Douthat’s column today in the New York Times warns of the dangers of Hillary Clinton — after first making an admission about Trump.A VOTE for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump, the Clinton campaign has...
View ArticleF*ck Twitter.
Seriously.This single website of 140-character bullshit is literally the erosion of intellect. This is a reinforcement of the short-attention-span/soundbite/meme culture that is swallowing critical...
View ArticleWhat Ever Happened to Honest Discourse?
I’d like to thank the members of this community for a most interesting experience. It was not positive and it was quite scary. Member after member ignored the basic premise of my diary and deliberately...
View Article[Still] Stuck in the Liberal Elite Bubble
(I use the term “Liberal Elite” with the degree of snark you would expect from, well, a Liberal Elite.)But snark aside, that label has real power. Power to cause those less Liberal, less Elite (by...
View ArticleBooker’s Groupthink Report for GWPF Debunks Itself
There’s a new .pdf out from the UK’s GWPF that attacks the climate consensus as being a product of groupthink. Deniers are promoting this “paper” like it’s very important, cartoons and all. As Mat Hope...
View ArticleThe Coward Strikes Again
The firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was predicted nearly a century ago by H.L. Mencken. One of the more influential authors from the first half of the twentieth century, Mencken published an...
View ArticlePre-emptive Tulsi-trashing indicates centrist neolibs are gearing up for a...
The reasons given for hating and sabotaging Tulsi Gabbard’s campaign—notably in a combined ActBlue/DailyKos fund-raising appeal designed to remove Tulsi from Congress—strike me as profoundly bogus. Her...
View ArticleAnger: What It Can Accomplish, and What It Cannot
Our new President has told us to turn down the volume. Our outgoing President is guilty of turning up the speakers so loudly that they have produced significant damage to the hi-fi. This we know. The...
View ArticleThe Metamorphosis Is Nearly Complete: the GOP, Mass Psychosis & Menticide
About ten days ago, I posted a piece about Liz Cheney that I thought was topical and hopefully interesting. I worked on it with excitement, and when I read some of the feedback, I found that some...
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