Scott Adams — Be Careful What You Wish For (especially if it is Hitler)

Now you have literally millions of citizens in the United States who were either right about Trump being the next Hitler, and we will see that behavior emerge from him soon, or they are complete morons. That’s a trigger for cognitive dissonance. The science says these frightened folks will start interpreting all they see as Hitler behavior no matter how ridiculous it might seem to the objective observer. And sure enough, we are seeing that…

But lately I get the feeling that Trump’s critics have evolved from expecting Trump to be Hitler to preferring it. Obviously they don’t prefer it in a conscious way. But the alternative to Trump becoming Hitler is that they have to live out the rest of their lives as confirmed morons. No one wants to be a confirmed moron.…

I can think of dozens of ways the protesters could cause the thing they are trying to prevent. In other words, they can wish it into reality even though it is the very thing they are protesting.

In the 3rd dimension of persuasion, the protesters need to be proven right, and they will do whatever it takes to make that happen. So you might see the protesters inadvertently create the police state they fear....

Scott Adams' Blog
Be Careful What You Wish For (especially if it is Hitler)

Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert®

See also

President Trump has issued temporary immigration orders that ban citizens from several Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States. This is a good opportunity to test the Persuasion Filter against what you might call the Hitler Filter....

How Trump negotiates.

The Persuasion Filter and Immigration

For new readers of this blog, my starting point is the understanding that human brains did not evolve to show us reality. We aren’t that smart. Instead, our brains create little movies in our heads, and yours can be completely different from mine.

This is very important as a verification of the relativity of human experience and knowledge based on it. Humans are programmed to survive and reproduce, not to explain reality objectively (scientifically). Science was developed as means of doing this, but the overwhelming tendency is to construct narratives that favor survival and evolution rather than furthering understanding as a goal.

There are other strong arguments for epistemological relativism also, logical, philosophical, psychological, sociological and anthropological.

Brad DeLong — Must-Read: I must say, it is becoming increasingly clear to me ....

I must say, it is becoming increasingly clear to me what it is that they are doing when a Robert Lucas says that Christina Romer is only in favor of expansionary fiscal policy because it is what her political master wants, and when a Russ Roberts says that Paul Krugman is in favor of expansionary fiscal policy because he is a big government socialist. What they are doing is looking into the mirror at themselves. What they are then doing is projecting. They are thinking that we have their morals and their thought processes, and so are as ideologically-blinded, as loyally-partisan, and as short-sighted as they are.

Brad DeLong puts his finger on it. Projecting is obvious to anyone who has done any kind of counseling. Nothing a bit of counseling can't clear up. If that doesn't do it, there's always meds.

Grasping Reality
Must-Read: I must say, it is becoming increasingly clear to me ....
Brad DeLong | Professor of Economics, UCAL Berkeley