The Popularity of Popularity
Popularity has a sneaky way of making things popular…
and is thus quite the ingenious way to transform the inane and insane into the praiseworthy and virtuous.
The process is quite simple: An ambitious charlatan primes the pump of popularity with a self-serving deceit… whether by fiat, coercion, propaganda, training, hypnosis, or expert salesmanship. From there the illusion of truth makes the deceit quite popular… and that popularity grants the deceit the illusion of truth… which makes the deceit quite popular… which grants the deceit the illusion of truth… and so on and so on.
And so the deceit takes on a life of its own… fueling a self-sustaining cycle of lies, layer upon layer, generation after generation… a psychosis so insidious that it is difficult to even recognize it, much less to escape from it.
Bullshit Existentialism Politics Religion atheism Bullshit coming out coming out atheist humanism patriotism Politics popularity religious brainwashing religious indoctrination
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Frank J Peter View All →
A uniquely burdened and blessed citizen of the world thinking and acting out loud!
Why am I thinking Trump and Brexit? Just another form of religion and equally damaging to truth.
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Thanks for sharing, Frank. I, too, make no fundamental distinction between preacher and politician and the damage done by religious zeal and political partisanship.
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I think I’ve gotten past this in life. I sure hope so. Maybe never being popular or needing to be has set me free in some ways. What I dislike most about religion is the thin thread of truth woven into the fiber of each. Kind of like me missing the forest because I see only one tree.
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I’d like to think I have gotten past most of this, too, Bill…. thanks in large part to receiving a solid education in social psychology… where the mere awareness of the many psychological biases we are all vulnerable to (https://wp.me/p2Yy0l-4V4) has the power to inoculate us from their pernicious effects. Thanks and peace.
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The scam. When I imagine cult scams like Joseph Smith the deception is so obvious. It took Joe a few tries to get it right, but when it took off, Joe became a saint. GROG
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Your point is well taken, GROG. Mormonism is an existence proof of just how easily otherwise smart people can fall for the scam. Thanks for sharing, man.
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