Category Archives: Psychology

Nostalgia Bias, and Christian Intolerance and Hypocrisy

Posted on Wednesday 13 August 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Trump’s worldview is stuck in 1989; Thinking the 1990s were better than today is nostalgia bias; D.C. is not the hellscape Trump claims it is (of course); More about that annoying busybody who opposes gay marriage and has nothing better … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics, Psychology, Religion | Leave a comment

Short-Term Thinking As the Problem, As I’ve Been Saying

Posted on Monday 11 August 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Ben Rhodes at NYT on the perils of short-term thinking; A Facebook comment about intellectual loneliness; And how Trump is lying about crime in DC in order to, what? distract from the Epstein crisis? Or show random totalitarian power? – … Continue reading →

Posted in conservatives, Human Nature, Politics, Psychology | Leave a comment

TV, Juan Crow, Facts and Nonexistent Things, Alfred Schnittke

Posted on Wednesday 30 July 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Trump trusts only TV; Heather Cox Richardson on how Republicans are digging into positions that are contradicted by facts; How the Trump administration’s “Juan Crow” echoes “John Crow”; More nonexistent things that can be banned; Short items about disabling hurricane … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, conservatives, Music, Politics, Psychology | Comments Off on TV, Juan Crow, Facts and Nonexistent Things, Alfred Schnittke

I visit you in another dream

Posted on Wednesday 23 July 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

How conspiracy theorists think most people agree with them; How Trump’s administration is purging climate data; How JD Vance thinks some Americans are more worthy citizens than others; Paul Krugman on ICE and New York City; Three items from JMG: … Continue reading →

Posted in Morality, Politics, Psychology | Comments Off on I visit you in another dream

Sciency Things, and Presidential Pettiness

Posted on Monday 21 July 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Tom Nichols on presidential pettiness; How the Trump administration is using a strength of science to discredit it; Ethan Siegel on what we’ve learned for 35 years of the Hubble Space Telescope; A breakthrough in a grand unified theory of … Continue reading →

Posted in Lunacy, Politics, Psychology, Religion, Science | Comments Off on Sciency Things, and Presidential Pettiness

Responsibility, Certainty, and Doubt

Posted on Sunday 13 July 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Defunding weather science and disaster response to save money is like cancelling all your insurance policies to manage your household budget; LAT: Robin Abcarian on the implausibilities of expecting Medicaid recipients to replace deported farmworkers; NYT: Peter Baker on how … Continue reading →

Posted in conservatives, Psychology, Science | Comments Off on Responsibility, Certainty, and Doubt

Stories, Archetypes, Morality

Posted on Monday 30 June 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Does anyone take Jung or Freud seriously any more? OnlySky’s Bruce Ledewitz on the contemporary idea of “evil”; Robert Reich on “the worst bill in history” and fact-checking claims about tax cuts; How local communities fight back against ICE; Republicans … Continue reading →

Posted in Music, Philosophy, Politics, Psychology | Comments Off on Stories, Archetypes, Morality

Morality Is Relative; Reality Is Not

Posted on Saturday 28 June 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

An undistorted map of the world; Jesse Being on “commonsense”; How morality is circumstantial, e.g. in Margaret Atwood’s THE HANDMAID’S TALE, which I just reread this week; Website matters involving drop-down menu bars, here and on sfadb.com; Short items about … Continue reading →

Posted in Morality, Politics, Psychology, reality, Website Issues | Comments Off on Morality Is Relative; Reality Is Not

Progress, and the Forces Against It

Posted on Friday 27 June 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

We have been here before: comparing 1940 to 2025; Steven Novella assesses whether skepticism has made any progress in recent decades; The irony of MAGA being outraged by a Muslim candidate for New York City’s mayor; Conservative presumption and arrogance … Continue reading →

Posted in conservatives, History, Politics, Psychology | Comments Off on Progress, and the Forces Against It

This Is What Will Be

Posted on Thursday 26 June 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

How right-wing violence has become normalized; How perhaps “totalitarianism” is better word than “authoritarianism” for what is going on; How Republicans trying to roll back same-sex marriage are fighting a losing battle, cf. that Stephen Prothero book; A psychiatrist explains … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, conservatives, Music, Psychology, Science | Comments Off on This Is What Will Be