I was expecting something quite different when I started visiting these type of places. Rather than particularly reasonable and enlightened people for the most part I found people who strike me as quite ordinary, degrees notwithstanding (for shame). The same type of petty, self-centered, feeble-minded rabble that they are accustomed to ridiculing. They just happen to not believe in a religion, as if that is supposed to be a testament to their Exceptionalism.

I’m looking for a few people who, for whatever reason, would come across this thread. The brighter sort of people. Those who find cynicism and sophism to be crutches for the idiot and wannabe. Those who can reasonably balance their sense of worth and identity with external challenges to it. Those who know how to read for crying out loud. How about anyone who is so exceptional that neither a degree nor an IQ score is anything more than a feather in their cap? And yet they are as far away as one gets from actual cranks.

Tell me that out of hundreds if not thousands of members who are supposed to be “above average” there are at least a few people here who aren’t bad jokes instead.

Thank you.

Signed,
“Sock, Poe, Troll, Spammer”  [no, not from this forum]

PS
Dawkins, Dennett, Shermer, John Baez, etc. aren’t exactly the sharpest tools in the proverbial shed. For serious. Neither was Hitchens, though if you have trouble summoning big words naturally he may have taken the form of a giant.

I.e.

Megalomaniacal mental masturbator not looking for people who identify with any of the following:

1) Believing you reproduce to pass on your genes. Crude, but hopefully the gist is conveyed. There’s a treasure-trove of stuff that can be compiled with respect to evolution. Tangential, but I even read something written by PhDs that sought to explain entrenched conservative resistance to accepting anthropogenic global warming in terms of self-interest with respect to social environment. Good luck with that.
2) Quickly chalking things up to magical Asperger’s or some other mental condition. It’s a fun list.
3) Not making sense and hating one’s peers.
4) The stupid paradox.
5) Sock-puppet detectives.
6) George and Occam.
7) Seeing/hearing things and/or bad memory.
8) Being too smart.
9) You’d be proud to appear on TV in front of a library of books in the background. The thicker the better.
10) Rocket scientist who on the side has been pondering world peace for a few decades, e.g. Edward Witten (who has modestly stated that he’s been studying conflict in the Middle East with an “amateur passion”). I’m interested in professionals.

Megalomaniacal mental masturbator looking for people who identify with all of the following:

1) Disdain.
2) A lot of philosophy, present probably included, is a fallacious pile of crap.
3) Reading things you have written in the past can all too often make you ill.
4) Not averse to games.
5) You have a loose and somewhat flippant definition for conspiracy theories and thus find them quite commonplace, if not ubiquitous.
6) You have better things to be proud of than how many hours you “work” or how many hours of sleep you lose.
7) Not dumb.
8) You wish ill on speed-readers. On speed-doers too unless they know what they’re doing. No exceptions for speed-readers though.

Well, I do frequently deal in bad jokes, but I don’t know whether I qualify as a bad joke. Other than that, were you looking for me?  What can I help you with?

TimB - 18 November 2012 08:00 PM

Also, if babies naturally tend toward bigotry, it may follow that bigots are like unsocialized babies.

TimB - 19 November 2012 03:39 PM

Occam. - 19 November 2012 11:51 AM

I can fit this research into my self-interest paradigm.  Self-interest (really survival of the species) is basic to all organisms, however, each organism has different methods of achieving it.  As new-borns we focus on ourselves, then we quickly see we are dependent on those close to us.  We see some value being given to outsiders, so we see them as competing, and we view them negatively.  As we continue to grow, our awareness of our interdependency field widens, that is, we get value from many others, and they give it in return for the value we give them. 

While Karen Wynne’s research isn’t at odds with reality, I don’t see it as providing much more than verification of the fact that we are a social species.

Occam

Thanks for responding.  I think that the implications are more significant than you think. Recognizing that we are biologically and/or developmentally pre-disposed to bigotry, while you might say is obvious in retrospect, is important to know.  You seem to suggest that this phenomenon will work itself out during the course of experience, and I agree that it typically does to some extent or another.  However, as you say “as we continue to grow, our awareness of our interdependency field widens”, this is more true for some than for others. So it seems to me that armed with this knowledge, it would behoove us to promote our children’s learning experiences in this regard.

TimB - 19 November 2012 06:34 PM

Occam. - 19 November 2012 06:18 PM

Chalk up another one for George.  A recent study I read indicated that those with liberal ideologies tended to have one part of the brain activated, while conservatives had a different part of the brain activated.  And, when small chiildren were tested, they had activation patterns similar to that of their parents.  The former focused on general society while the latter focused on local or family groups.

I guess my problem, Tim, is that “bigot” has a negative connotation, a conscious dislike for some other group. 

Occam

The term “bigot” was, somewhat, hyperbole to draw attention to the post, but the fact appears to be that a large majority of babies show preference for others who have even subtle similarities to self or bias against subtle differences. It is not too big of a stretch to consider that left unchecked, this early predisposition could reach the level of what we consider bigotry in adults.

George - 19 November 2012 07:11 PM

Lost another post. God, this makes me so angry…

I am inclined to go with Jonathan Heidt’s explanation on how genetic predispositions can affect if we later turn to become liberals or conservatives. Our big five psychological traits (plus IQ) are greatly determined by our genes (~50%) and these will help us choose what type of life we decide to follow. If, for example, one scores high on openness, there is a good chance that person will live in a big city and surround himself by like-minded people who are more likely than not to be liberals—although that’s kind of the simplified version of Heidt’s theory, but you get the idea.

And I imagine that’s probably how we acquire all of our behaviour. We are born with a simple “program,” which will dictate our next step where we are exposed to new experiences, affecting the following step, and on and on it goes.

You guys are too smart for me. It wouldn’t go well. Next.

Which got me thinking a little.

Exclusion Criterion #1: Believing you reproduce to pass on your genes. Crude, but hopefully the gist is conveyed. There’s a treasure-trove of stuff that can be compiled with respect to evolution. Tangential, but I even read something written by PhDs that sought to explain entrenched conservative resistance to accepting anthropogenic global warming in terms of self-interest with respect to social environment. Good luck with that.

I’m not too big a fan of some of the Asian polymaths either.

Your topic says you need help.  Your nametag suggests that you have delusions of grandeur and engage in solitary mental discourse for sexual gratification. Your posts, so far, suggest that you hold others in disdain. Your signature line says that you like sock puppets. What is your purpose in posting?

Patience. Delusions of grandeur, as commonly understood apparently, I do have. I don’t think the term ‘mental masturbation’ refers to sexual gratification but I must admit I should defer to you on the matter. I do also hold others in disdain, though it’s a lot more ambivalent and nebulous than what you’re imagining. And sock-puppets do amuse me, especially when they come up in posts like the one you just wrote.

As to my purpose in posting, that’s actually relevant. I have learned that dumping my stuff is more likely to result in my ass getting kicked than anything else. Took me a little while but I am a slow learner, which is a component of my delusions of grandeur. So what I have concluded is that I need to be more considerate. My purpose for now and the foreseeable future in this thread is to weed. It may take a while and there may be nobody but at least we’ll all be happy- you in ignoring me, and me in repelling people until I find what I’m looking for. Is that a problem?

Megalomaniacal_Mental_Masturbator - 27 November 2012 12:00 AM

Patience. Delusions of grandeur, as commonly understood apparently, I do have. I don’t think the term ‘mental masturbation’ refers to sexual gratification but I must admit I should defer to you on the matter. I do also hold others in disdain, though it’s a lot more ambivalent and nebulous than what you’re imagining. And sock-puppets do amuse me, especially when they come up in posts like the one you just wrote.

As to my purpose in posting, that’s actually relevant. I have learned that dumping my stuff is more likely to result in my ass getting kicked than anything else. Took me a little while but I am a slow learner, which is a component of my delusions of grandeur. So what I have concluded is that I need to be more considerate. My purpose for now and the foreseeable future in this thread is to weed. It may take a while and there may be nobody but at least we’ll all be happy- you in ignoring me, and me in repelling people until I find what I’m looking for. Is that a problem?

No problem. You have satisfied my curiosity. I find you sufficiently repulsive and am content to ignore you.

The joy of being understood.

Megalomaniacal_Mental_Masturbator - 27 November 2012 12:00 AM

Patience. Delusions of grandeur, as commonly understood apparently, I do have. I don’t think the term ‘mental masturbation’ refers to sexual gratification but I must admit I should defer to you on the matter. I do also hold others in disdain, though it’s a lot more ambivalent and nebulous than what you’re imagining. And sock-puppets do amuse me, especially when they come up in posts like the one you just wrote.

As to my purpose in posting, that’s actually relevant. I have learned that dumping my stuff is more likely to result in my ass getting kicked than anything else. Took me a little while but I am a slow learner, which is a component of my delusions of grandeur. So what I have concluded is that I need to be more considerate. My purpose for now and the foreseeable future in this thread is to weed. It may take a while and there may be nobody but at least we’ll all be happy- you in ignoring me, and me in repelling people until I find what I’m looking for. Is that a problem?

MMM, just to be perfectly clear, trolling is against the rules. Violating the rules will get you banned. FYI.

I’m not trolling. Just approaching things differently so that my demise is postponed.  (I don’t even get what this smiley is supposed to convey)  Tis in the spirit of philosophy and perhaps a short break from reading about philosophical zombies and rather pointless and questionable detachment of conscience from the sort of complex information processing that includes feelings. The academe needs a lighter side to calm the inflamed brain.

Megalomaniacal_Mental_Masturbator - 27 November 2012 09:04 AM

(I don’t even get what this smiley is supposed to convey)

And you like to read train schedules for fun, right?

Just a tinge of Asperger’s. (...or perhaps a little more but things start to get confusing) I like sports and commonly held fun things for fun. Though reading train schedules can also be fun depending on the person and the point, which becomes significant in its own right.

Exclusion Criterion #2: Quickly chalking things up to magical Asperger’s or some other mental condition. It’s a fun list.

Can you please shorten you name? It’s making a mess everywhere.

I think it’s apt. It’s not making a mess, just varying the look a little.

...or at least take out the underscores from your name. That way your name will be broken into two lines and allow to align all the post. Please!