If there’s a core lesson to take away from the studies of psychological biases over the past two or three decades, it is this: our minds evolved for survival, not for accurate perception of the real world. We are primed for tribal conflict; we are primed to exaggerate our sense of threats; we see the world around us as full of threats and, via selective memory, think the past was somehow better than the present, by remembering the good (compared to the dangerous present) and forgetting the bad. And it is very difficult to think rationally, to draw accurate conclusions from actual evidence. Conclusions from actual evidence are, in the survival scheme of the world, almost useless. But they’re useful if you’re trying to understand the actual world.
These biases linger, instantiated over millions of years, even as the human condition has improved immeasurably in recent decades and centuries — because of science and technology (and not mysticism or religion). Yet we’re still stuck with people who think the present is worse than the past. And the only explanation they offer is: my tribe used to be dominant, and now I feel threatened that it’s not. They have no other measure of progress, or its decline.
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Yesterday President Biden gave speech before the United Nations. Here’s a report by NY Times, and a gloss by Slate, and a take by Heather Cox Richardson.
Conservatives and Republicans are crippled by their biases to see the worst in everything. Biden is not: his speech is a high road about the progress that has been made. I’ll quote bits from Richardson.
Biden’s message continued to be one of optimism as he recalled the world history he has seen. In the 1980s, he said, the racist regime of apartheid in South Africa fell; in the 1990s, Serbian president Slobodan Milošević was prosecuted for war crimes after presiding over chaos and mass murder in southeastern Europe. At home, Biden recalled, although there is more to do, he “wrote and passed the Violence Against Women Act to end the scourge of violence against women and girls not only in America but across the world.” Then, after the attacks of September 11, 2001, the U.S. brought the attack’s mastermind, Osama bin Laden, to justice.
And,
In 1919, Biden recalled, Irish poet William Butler Yeats described a world where “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.” But, Biden said, “[i]n our time, the center has held.” Leaders and people around the world have stood together to turn the page on Covid, defend the charter of the United Nations, and ensure the survival of Ukraine in the face of the 2022 Russian invasion.
“There will always be forces that pull our countries apart and the world apart: aggression, extremism, chaos, and cynicism, a desire to retreat from the world and go it alone,” Biden said. “Our task, our test, is to make sure that the forces holding us together are stronger than those that are pulling us apart, that the principles of partnership that we came here each year to uphold can withstand the challenges, that the center holds once again.”
And,
Biden did note that the U.S. worked to repair the damage of Trump’s administration by rejoining the Paris Agreement on climate change. It also passed the most ambitious climate legislation in history, is on track to cut emission in half by 2030, and has promised to quadruple climate financing to developing nations, investing $11 billion so far this year. The U.S. also rejoined the World Health Organization and donated almost 700 million doses of Covid vaccine to 117 countries. Biden vowed to address the outbreak of mpox in Africa and urged other countries to join the effort. He noted that the U.S., the Group of Seven industrialized democracies (G7), and partners have launched an initiative to finance infrastructure in the developing world.
Biden takes the big picture. Compare his vision with the incessant fear-mongering of Republicans and conservatives, and the insane fantasies of the religious zealots.
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To compare:
- Slate, Molly Olmstead: Sent by God, subtitled “They’re gathering by the thousands. They’re growing fast. They believe that Democrats are possessed by demons—and that Donald Trump must be president again at any cost.” My comments: There are no such things as demons. These people have a fragile grasp of reality.
- JMG: [Michael] Knowles: “Gay Couples Are Not Fit To Raise Children”. My comments: Who is he to say? Has he not noticed that many gay couples have in fact raised children? This strikes me as an example of the extremely conservative mindset that thinks (ironically) humans should behave only like animals. Does he have any evidence the children raised by parents are in any way abnormal, or deprived? No, he does not. He’s motivated by pure religious superstition.
- Slate, Nitish Pahwa: Why the Right-Wing Lie About Migrants Eating Pets Won’t Die, subtitled “Not everyone at the Manhattan Institute is happy about conservative activist Christopher Rufo’s crusade. But the donors probably are.” My comment: They know there are always frightened people out there easy to scare and therefore vote Republican.
- Salon, Amanda Marcotte: Donald Trump and Bernie Moreno rage at “crazy” female voters who refuse to fall in line, subtitled “MAGA candidates can’t hide their irritation that women are allowed to think for themselves” Comment: imagine, women being allowed to think for themselves! Maybe they just shouldn’t be allowed to vote; some right-wing folks have suggested this.
- Salon, Marin Scotten: A third of Americans now believe diversity is “threatening,” up from just 11% in 2019, subtitled “The number of Americans who say racial and ethnic diversity enriches U.S. culture has declined in the last 5 years” Comment: polls like this never ask *why* people feel threatened. My answer: pure tribalism, and fear of the other, exacerbated by Republican rhetoric.
