9 Comments

I had a several big laughs reading this piece, so thanks for that. The first paragraph is gonna stay with me.

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Great piece—so funny and well-written. Thank you!

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This is so good and not just because it confirms my world view and comforts me in a time of need. Recently I went through a bit of a perspective shit. It was around Summer of 2020 when th NYT was upended because of that Tom Cotton essay. It was then and only then that I understood I was inside a narrative bubble. So I deliberately cut off all left news. All of it. No more Times, or MSNBC - No more MADDOW! I opened myself up to the other side, the other narrative. I ONLY watched Fox. I listened to all of the right wing news outlets, followed many of them on social. I got absorbed completely into that world to see if it could change my own world view. Two things happened. The first, I started to really hate my side because we seemed like elitist snobs who sneered at the less educated and underclass. That hasn't gone over well. And the second, which I only just now discovered because I read it in your piece here - I became the weird basketball, or the Malala Crypto. I was that unexpected thing that made people react to harshly. I could never figure out why they were reacting so dramatically to things I would say that criticized my own side. Some said I was having a mental collapse, others said I'd been radicalized and many acted like if I left our narrative side it was a profound betrayal. One guy thought I might have a brain tumor. I never did change my politics. But I am caught in the "I need only things that agree with my world view." It just so happens that my worldview exists in the in-between. I tend to read people who are also there, but mainly, I'd say, those who criticize the left are more comfort food than those who attack the other side nonstop.

This was such a clarifying piece. I hope lots of people read it.

Also it made me laugh. Happy Thanksgiving. Watch out for those balls, swollen or any other kind.

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One of my favorite mental models ABOUT mental models is this comic strip: https://theoatmeal.com/comics/believe Just read it, I’ll wait.

As much as I have loved it for years, I always saw it as being about OTHER people stubbornly defending their mental models. It took me a almost-breakdown questioning my own bubbly views to realize I, too, was going into rabid defense mode (usually in the form of feeling offended) when someone presented data or an argument that challenged my mental model. I think this is why so many progressives who hate-watch Fox News just come away more radicalized instead of open-minded: it just confirms that the “other guys” are horrible scary people.

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If you've ever shopped at Walmart or applied for a driver's license, you might be inclined to agree with Jeff Bezos, who famously believes that humans expend the least amount of energy to get what they need. Similarly, we've evolved to achieve the highest mileage possible from our limited brain glucose. Combine our built-in cognitive efficiency with the need for feel-good spikes, and QAnon Shaman starts to look like a well-adapted organism.

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Interesting that your commentary on confirmation bias comes at a time when families around the country will gather at the dinner table to scream at each other because of their devotion to different news sources.

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