Mark R. Kelly
» Founder in 1997 and site-runner for 20 years of Locus Online (Hugo Award winner in 2002). Founder in 2012 and still site-runner of sfadb.com (Science Fiction Awards Database). Retired in 2012 after 30 years as a software engineer for a certain rocket engine factory.
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» Previous Views from Medina Road (2010-2013)
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- Where We Are, Here at the End of 2025
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- Steven Pinker, ENLIGHTENMENT NOW, post 6
- Government Suppression, and Dr. Noc
- Steven Pinker, ENLIGHTENMENT NOW, post 5
- An Antebellum Constitution, Christianity, and Christmas
- Steven Pinker, ENLIGHTENMENT NOW, post 4
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Meta
Category Archives: Psychology
Notes and Quotes: Ezra Klein’s WHY WE’RE POLARIZED (2020)
Ezra Klein’s Why We’re Polarized was published a full year ago, in January 2020. Ezra Klein is a co-founder of the ‘explainer’ website Vox, and writes essays and columns for various other outlets. (And he lives somewhere here in Oakland.) The … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Politics, Psychology
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Links and Comments: Insurrectionists, the G.O.P., Evangelicals, Fantasies, and Lies
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
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Links and Comments: Yet more about conspiracy theories, since they never go away
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
Posted in Lunacy, Psychology
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Links and Comments: The Coup Attempt; Human Nature; Republican Fantasies
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
Posted in Lunacy, Politics, Psychology
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Links and Comments: The Good Old Days; Accusations of Moral Decline
Wall Street Journal (via a ‘sponsored’ post in my Fb feed!): Why We Can’t Stop Longing for the Good Old Days, subtitled, “Neurology and nostalgia help explain why people have always worried that the world is going downhill.” It’s an … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Psychology
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Links and Comments: Gift-Giving; Australia is Fake; Facebook as Doomsday Machine
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
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Links and Comments: How People Think; the Election and the Pandemic
It’s been a few days since last bunch of links and comments, and I’ve collected several since then that perhaps can be fit together into some kind of overe-arching theme. It’s about how different people think differently. I should say … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Politics, Psychology
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Links and Comments: Pandemic Responses and Routines
The Atlantic, 24 Nov: Your Individually Rational Choice Is Collectively Disastrous, subtitled “Stopping the virus from spreading requires us to override our basic intuitions.” This isn’t about haywire individual thinking (cognitive biases, the appeal of simplistic stories to explain the … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Psychology
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Links and Comments: Politics and Conspiracy Theories; Epistemology
Another batch of links and comments, again on topics of politics and conspiracy theories, not because I’m trying to dissuade anyone in particular of any such beliefs (let alone supernatural ones), but because all these examples (more and more of … Continue reading
Posted in Lunacy, Politics, Psychology
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Links and Comments: Obama; Conspiracy Theories; Big Government; Liberty
Guardian: review of Barack Obama’s new book. Obama makes clear he believes the whiplash from the 44th to 45th president is no accident. On the contrary, the mere fact that an accomplished, intelligent, scandal-free black man inhabited the White House … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Psychology, Social Progress
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