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Frederick Roth's avatar

I'm pleasantly surprised to find you read Lorenzo - we've connected recently on S - from him I encountered the expression "emotional incontinence" to describe excessive responses. I think there is a collective dynamic to this. One of the interesting things I've noticed is a behaviour little children engage in - its really funny when you are aware of it and notice an episode taking place.

I've observed that children don't react spontaneously to a minor accident - like tripping & falling over on their butt without first taking a quick glance at the parent - if the parent shows frowny response the child responds by going to tears; when the parent starts laughing at the clumsy little one the child responds alike and starts giggling & no harm is done.

Adult political responses may well work as a parallel process (or maybe even the identical one?). That is people gauge the social norm (ie rage at anyone breaking a social commandment) then reply with the woke response. Progressives behave like this because they receive a "social license" for it. If the majority withdrew the license they would likely respond by suppressing this kidult behaviour.

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Harald Gormsson's avatar

Mental and emotional containers as an allegory for self discipline and observing behavioral norms (or a lack thereof anyway)? Sounds good to me and your discussions are quite relevant.

That lady Karen needs help and right away or something awful is going to happen to her. No one should be afraid of the truth and the truth is no one wants to hurt her, not for political or ideological reasons anyway.

I think the malign confluence of the Internet, where people can choose to anonymous and everywhere; breakdown of manners exacerbated by social media, overly partisan politics and COVID restrictions; growing emotional immaturity; as well as truly insane delusions masquerading as “truth” (that no one may question? 🤢) has put us in a bad place.

Additionally, I think a good many of these folks apparently lead unfulfilling lives and have WAY too much time on their hands. I posit that those of us busy with filling jobs or working hard to make a living do not engage in this behavior. Worse, I fear many Americans have a very poor grasp of history and do not understand how hard it really is to build and maintain a complex civilization. Anarchy, chaos and civil war would NOT be better folks!

Holly, you are so right that we desperately need to grow up as individuals and as a nation. Perhaps if those most afflicted would back away from social media, take some deep breaths, go for some long walks in the woods and reconnect with reality it might help.

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