kelownabomberfan

The Cognitive Dissonance Cluster Bomb Posted November 12th, 2016 @ 7:55am Earlier this week CNN.com listed 24 different theories that pundits have provided for why Trump won. And the list isn’t even complete. I’ve heard other explanations as well. What does it tell you when there are 24 different explanations for a thing? It tells you that someone just dropped a cognitive dissonance cluster bomb on the public. Heads exploded. Cognitive dissonance set in. Weird theories came out. This is the cleanest and clearest example of cognitive dissonance you will ever see. Remember it. This phenomenon is why a year ago I told you I was putting so much emphasis on PREDICTING the outcome of the election using the Master Persuader Filter. I told you it would be easy to fit any theory to the facts AFTER the result. And sure enough, we can fit lots of theories to the facts. At least 24 of them by CNN’s count. Generally speaking, the greater the persuasion, the more cognitive dissonance you get. Trump is – in my opinion – the greatest persuader of my lifetime. I expected this level of cognitive dissonance. Next time you see a persuader of this magnitude, you can expect the outcome to be cognitive dissonance in that case too. This brings me to the anti-Trump protests. The protesters look as though they are protesting Trump, but they are not. They are locked in an imaginary world and battling their own hallucinations of the future. Here’s the setup that triggered them. 1. They believe they are smart and well-informed. 2. Their good judgement told them Trump is OBVIOUSLY the next Hitler, or something similarly bad. 3. Half of the voters of the United States – including a lot of smart people – voted Trump into office anyway. Those “facts” can’t be reconciled in the minds of the anti-Trumpers. Mentally, something has to give. That’s where cognitive dissonance comes in. There are two ways for an anti-Trumper to interpret that reality. One option is to accept that if half the public doesn’t see Trump as a dangerous monster, perhaps he isn’t. But that would conflict with a person’s self-image as being smart and well-informed in the first place. When you violate a person’s self-image, it triggers cognitive dissonance to explain-away the discrepancy. So how do you explain-away Trump’s election if you think you are smart and you think you are well-informed and you think Trump is OBVIOUSLY a monster? You solve for that incongruity by hallucinating – literally – that Trump supporters KNOW Trump is a monster and they PREFER the monster. In this hallucination, the KKK is not a nutty fringe group but rather a symbol of how all Trump supporters must feel. (They don’t. Not even close.) In a rational world it would be obvious that Trump supporters include lots of brilliant and well-informed people. That fact – as obvious as it would seem – is invisible to the folks who can’t even imagine a world in which their powers of perception could be so wrong. To reconcile their world, they have to imagine all Trump supporters as defective in some moral or cognitive way, or both. As I often tell you, we all live in our own movies inside our heads. Humans did not evolve with the capability to understand their reality because it was not important to survival. Any illusion that keeps us alive long enough to procreate is good enough. That’s why the protestors live in a movie in which they are fighting against a monster called Trump and you live in a movie where you got the president you wanted for the changes you prefer. Same planet, different realities.

1983 Next year 1984

I thought Hillary lost?

LOL - it's going to be a long four years for you. Political puppet for the alt-right. I don't even know what that means, but I bet you got that from one of your professors right? I am curious - who has filled you with so much hate? Why are you so angry? You claim that I am the one who won't listen to reason because I say that I want to actually see how Trump does before judging him? Now you know WHY TRUMP WON. You remind me of this mother:

I hear your Johnzo, but when I read about all of the dirty tricks that Hillary's team pulled during the election, I have to wonder why people weren't more frightened of a Clinton presidency as well. http://abcnews.com.co/donald-trump-protester-speaks-out-i-was-paid-to-protest/

And what I find sad is that you are so filled with anger, and rage (no doubt put there by someone else with political motives) that you won't even listen to what he and Michael Moore are saying. You have two choices - stay consumed with anger and rage, or calm down, and listen. Your choice.

no no no they are better off too, they are just too racist and stupid to know it.

John Podesta?

So you are going to use that to rationalize not listening to him? Really? Michael Moore said exactly the same things he did on MSNBC. He said it's time to stop insulting people that don't think like you, and start listening instead. Why is that such a difficult concept to grasp?

Michael Moore, who I normally can't stand, also has a great take on what happened. Trump supporters in certain states were also Sanders supporters. They just wanted change. I liked the part where he actually praised Trump for saying during the debate that he doesn't pay taxes because he's smart, and how that resonated with people, who actually pay taxes. And how anyone who defended him for that were attacked online viciously. The Left needs to listen to Jonathon Pie. Stop attacking, start listening.

Only if you ignore the $20 trillion of debt, of which $10 of it happened during Obama's years. I know I know I get this from every Obama apologist - it's not his fault, it's the Congress' fault. Yeah, whatever.... Anyway, fine Obama had SOME experience, though 3 years as a US senator isn't much. Now look at Trump's experience. I know I know, this is where the liberal media echo chamber starts up and starts babbling about his tax losses. Anyway. I agree with Johnzo, let's give him a chance. It's in EVERYONE's best interests. I will say this - if he does anything to mess with gay rights including marriage, or messing with Roe vs Wade, I will definitely be very disappointed and will look forward to him being ousted in 4 years.

Great post, agree 100%, though I think you just stated your case much more eloquently and without rancor, which is all anyone can really ask for. Did you see this video from this British guy? He kind of sums it up for me in a nutshell why Brexit happened and why Trump happened. Language warning.

that's not really fair. How much experience did Obama have when he was elected? Almost zero. Did he produce flaming wreckage? Well...ok I take that back...

LOL - now THAT is actually probably both true and funny. I honestly think this thread has run its course, all there is left here is one extremely angry person who wants to barf up leftist fear-mongering nonsense, and me, who is barfing up Trump defense (though all I really am saying is that I want to actually see what he does as president before judging him, which I know is CRAZY I guess).

The only one trolling here is you. You are right, this is serious. And you are just doing nothing but barfing up your media echo chamber nonsense.

and also totally true. It is very unfair that the horrible media keeps inciting this garbage. Shame on them all, and all the people who can't accept basic democracy.

Completely untrue. He isn't even president yet, so of course we don't have past actions or statements to go on. This just isn't true, and just adds to divisiveness and hatred. Really sad.

Good to see the President elect reacting with such maturity to the stupidity of the people who don't seem to be able to accept reality, and have chosen to act like complete imbeciles.

These are actually NOT things to worry about. At least until Trump does SOMETHING to indicate that indeed this is something to worry about. Right now its just manufactured fear by the liberal media echo chamber. Just pure nonsense.

CBC is reporting gleefully on the protests against Trump being elected (democratically). Here's what one protester had to say: This is the liberal media echo chamber speaking. Why would you ever think that your "grand-daughters will be excluded from jobs and politics". That is just so silly. Don't these people have real actual things to worry about?

You and I can disagree on that one all day long, but this isn't the thread for it. It will be interesting though to see the dynamic between a failed drama teacher and a blustering windbag billionaire. I really hope that they can get along. I will give JT credit for not jumping on the Donald Trump bashing bandwagon during the election, like a lot of other world leaders did, and who now have to eat crow. Well played JT. Smart politics.

Looks like all of the unique snowflakes are having a hard time going back to school now that they didn't just get their way at the ballot box: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/442083/donald-trump-school-closing-2016?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily Trending Email Reoccurring- Monday to Thursday 2016-11-10&utm_term=NR5PM Actives

All Osh needs to do is go 14-4 next year and then he'll get the recognition. I agree though this year would have helped his contract talks, somewhat. I think by now we all know what he brings to the table, and it was great watching him finally come into his own this year. That was a steep learning curve.

and Broadfoot...