Category Archives: Lunacy

Links and Comments: Space Lasers. Being Played. Bizarro.

Posted on Friday 29 January 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Nicholas Kristof’s letter to his conservative friends; Paul Krugman on the party of bizarro; CNN on the post-Trump era; The Week’s Ryan Cooper on GOP extremity; Slate’s Jeremy Stahl asks House Republicans if they believe in Jewish Space Lasers.

Posted in Lunacy, Politics | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Space Lasers. Being Played. Bizarro.

Links and Comments: Law and Order except for T***p; Capitalism except for the rich

Posted on Wednesday 27 January 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Republican motivated reasoning about the legality of the impeachment trial; Thomas L. Friedman (NYT) on “Socialism for the Rich. Capitalism for the Rest.”

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Links and Comments: Liars, Fear, Motivated Reasoning, Science Denial, Conservatives

Posted on Tuesday 26 January 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Slate’s William Saletan on Republicans vs. liars; NPR on vaccine resistance; Salon on reactions of QAnon to Biden’s inaurguration; a long NYT piece about what goes on inside QAnon chatrooms; how science denial is a form of conspiracy theory; why … Continue reading →

Posted in Lunacy, Politics, Science | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Liars, Fear, Motivated Reasoning, Science Denial, Conservatives

Links and Comments: True Believers Scorned

Posted on Thursday 21 January 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

The QAnon cult is reeling from the evaporation of the promises Q and a certain former president made about what would happen on inauguration day. It’s like those many examples over past centuries of apocalyptic cults, anticipating the end of … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: Insurrectionists, the G.O.P., Evangelicals, Fantasies, and Lies

Posted on Wednesday 13 January 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

It’s always dangerous to characterize any entire group with some common trait; that’s the first step toward prejudice and bigotry. Yet there are more and more article and essays that find common traits among Republicans, as a group, or at … Continue reading →

Posted in Lunacy, Politics, Psychology, Religion | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Insurrectionists, the G.O.P., Evangelicals, Fantasies, and Lies

Links and Comments: Election Reform; Social Change; Insurrectionist Victimhood; Republican Entitlement

Posted on Tuesday 12 January 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

NYT Sunday Review, Beverly Gage and Emily Bazelon: How to Ensure This Never Happens Again, subtitled “The election and its aftermath have revealed weaknesses in our democracy. Here’s how we can fix some of them.” The article reviews how we … Continue reading →

Posted in Lunacy, Politics | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Election Reform; Social Change; Insurrectionist Victimhood; Republican Entitlement

Links and Comments: Yet more about conspiracy theories, since they never go away

Posted on Monday 11 January 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

First at Slate, an efficient recounting of the psychological reasons behind the attraction to conspiracy theories. John Ehrenreich: Why People Believe in Conspiracy Theories, subtitled “They’re not stupid.” Long quote with links to references left intact: What does predict belief … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: It Could Have Been Worse; It Might Get Worse; Lessons

Posted on Saturday 9 January 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

I don’t pretend to have any special insight into current events, but for the sake of perspective, of checking back from the future to see where we were at on this day, I will briefly summarize. (Similarly, it would be … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Lunacy, Politics | Comments Off on Links and Comments: It Could Have Been Worse; It Might Get Worse; Lessons

Links and Comments: The Coup Attempt; Human Nature; Republican Fantasies

Posted on Friday 8 January 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

It’s hard to know where to start given events of the past few days. The general consensus among the pundits and sites that I read is that we knew this was coming all along, that this particular event (the seditious … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: Gift-Giving; Australia is Fake; Facebook as Doomsday Machine

Posted on Thursday 24 December 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

NYT: You’re Choosing a Gift. Here’s What Not to Do., subtitled “Many of our natural impulses turn out to be wrong. Psychological research can help us choose wisely.” Another essay about how intuition and “common sense” can seem appropriate for … Continue reading →

Posted in Lunacy, Psychology | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Gift-Giving; Australia is Fake; Facebook as Doomsday Machine