Category Archives: Psychology

Gaslighting Reality

Posted on Sunday 23 February 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Trump’s lying reaches new levels; and Musk’s DARVO strategy. (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender) – – – NY Times, Peter Baker, 23 Feb 2025: In Trump’s Alternate Reality, Lies and Distortions Drive Change, subtitle “Condoms for Gaza? Ukraine started … Continue reading →

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A Continual Stream of Lies and Gaslighting

Posted on Wednesday 19 February 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Trump claims Ukraine started the war; Zelensky accuses him of living in “disinformation space”; Musk, corrected about the lie that 150-year-old people are still receiving Social Security, keeps spreading that lie; Tom Nichols on Trump and Musk and Hannity, who … Continue reading →

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Mark Lilla, IGNORANCE AND BLISS

Posted on Monday 17 February 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled “On Wanting Not to Know” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Dec. 2024, 239p, including 12p notes and acknowledgments) This is a little book published just a couple months ago that appealed for a couple reasons. First, I read the author’s … Continue reading →

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Heather Cox Richardson, DEMOCRACY AWAKENING, post 3

Posted on Sunday 26 January 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Summary thoughts about this book. Richardson tells the story of the past century, of the previous four years (before the book was published in 2019), and of the nation’s first century, in a matter-of-fact style that expresses not so much … Continue reading →

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As Things Fall Apart

Posted on Thursday 23 January 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

How Trump’s war against DEI isn’t actually about merit; How despite claims of merit, those executive orders were shoddily written; How Trump prioritizes white Christian patriarchy; Comments from Heather Cox Richardson, Paul Krugman, and Robert Reich; How conservative response to … Continue reading →

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Jonathan Haidt, THE ANXIOUS GENERATION

Posted on Thursday 16 January 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled “How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness” (Penguin Press, March 2024, 385pp, including 90pp of acknowledgements, notes, references, and index.) Here’s the latest by the author of one of my favorite books, THE … Continue reading →

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The California Fires and What They Reveal

Posted on Sunday 12 January 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

The despicable Donald Trump ignorantly criticizes California politicians, rather than offering any sympathy for the victims of the recent fires; How well-intentioned policies from decades ago are partly responsible for the fires; How humans might be doomed by their own … Continue reading →

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A New Jack Smith Rule

Posted on Wednesday 8 January 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

The southern California wildfires, and Will Rogers Ranch; How conservatives blame people they don’t like for everything; Perhaps I should create a new “Jack Smith” rule to dismiss claims by conservatives, since they always seem to be wrong; Lagniappes about … Continue reading →

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Why People Believe True Things

Posted on Monday 30 December 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

A deep inspection of an essay linked by David Brooks in his essay linked yesterday, much aligned with my current themes, with a key takeaway about the idea of “misinformation”; And links to two other pieces I’ll explore later. —— … Continue reading →

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Children, Adults Who Think Like Children, and Adults Who Don’t

Posted on Saturday 21 December 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Trump doesn’t need to keep his promises because he’ll just claim that he has, and blame his enemies when it’s obvious he has not; How the threat of government shutdown reveals the Republicans as the party of “no”, recalling William … Continue reading →

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