A great link sent by a reader:
As the clock approached midnight on Election Day, our collective bubble began bursting and my iPhone began blowing up.
Myself included, members of my two professions, journalism and academia, were shell-shocked the presidential election didn’t go as expected.
“This is so f—ked up!” a journalist texted me.
“Oh my God!” pinged a professor. “We will be the ones ostracized if he wins.”
When Donald Trump’s victory was official, another academic acquaintance observed, “It’s an indictment on all of us.”
Notice the out-grouping themes. Being right or wrong is not as important as having the group assuage their amygdala by accepting them.
There are r-strategists who are just dulled by dopamine, and who prefer conflict and angst avoidance to meeting problems head on. They are usually savable, as when the dopamine is pulled, their amygdala begins to adapt and they become more K.
However there are r-strategists who are r due to childhood experience. These are the characters who were beaten down, rightly or wrongly, by other children. Some people endure such experiences and nobly say, never again on my watch. But others decide they want to be the torturer on the next go-around.
My experience with them is if they go hard r, they usually do so because they have internalized a perception of everyone as hostile and selfish, or even outright evil. These are the characters whose childhood traumas were burned so deep into their brain that they will never be able to see the adult world around them. For the rest of their lives, either they are the children in the group humiliating another person, or that other person is in the group of children humiliating them.
It is weird to be frozen in that time, when eating alone at a cafeteria table was embarrassing, the opinions of the group were all important, and somebody else going “Neener Neener!” at you would be so horrific that it is all you would think about after a Presidential election decades later. But lay enough trauma on the brain at that age, and let it become so central to their existence that it is all they can think about for years afterward, and it will freeze their personality in that childhood mode.
Once frozen, I suppose wanting a governmental parent who can protect them from the other children is natural, as is always wanting to be part of the group that is terrorizing other children, rather than being the child that is getting terrorized.
I raise it mainly because I have found when presenting imagery to try and amygdala hijack these characters, crafting imagery that replicates those childhood scenarios is particularly effective, since it speaks most directly to their amygdala triggers.
[…] Liberals Fear Being Ostracized, As They Try To Do It To Others […]
The comments to that article are *fantastic*.
Porn is failing in San Francisco of all places. Supposed due to to much free content but I wonder if might be the turn to K.
‘“It’s been slowly feeling like the death of San Francisco,” said Raphael. “This just feels like the end of an era.”’
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/jan/25/porn-bdsm-kink-armory-closing-san-francisco
Interesting. Promiscuity is down among the younger generations.
I raise it mainly because I have found when presenting imagery to try and amygdala hijack these characters, crafting imagery that replicates those childhood scenarios is particularly effective, since it speaks most directly to their amygdala triggers
I think the imagery alone is only going to be effective as a hijack with someone that is consciously or unconsciously trying to bury that part of their lives. For example, if someone openly recognizes that aspect of their lives, they may feel some sadness when reading the oaragraph , but because they are cosntantly exposing their minds to that information and confronting the effects of it, it is going to be less of a shock as it is a reality they are constantly dealing with.
In the case of someone actively avoiding that exposure, they may be able to put off the shock by engaging in reality denying tactics, which is why the exposure would have to be consistent and relentless. Just a single paragraph wouldnt do it, yoi’d have to couple it with all the other techniques mentioned on the blog. The straight face, flat tonality, etc.
Fascinating, because the one confronting it is acclimating their amygdala to the reality of it, and strengthening it. The one blocking it out with denial, is weakening it, and setting the stage for the shock.
Yes. Also, by confronting that level of pain, and enduring it, one actually gets to the point where the pain of the situation becomes worse than the pain of taking steps to deal with it. Ie, the fear of apporaching women and being rejected. If one is emptionally at a point where stepping in front of a bus is a tempting idea, then stepping up to a girl is far less scary by comparison. However to get to that point you have to have the moral framework which prevents you from stepping in front of that bus. Or doing any of the dopamine easing behaviors, ie, ignoring reality, fantasizing, eating cake, etc. That is, on some level, one must consciously choose to increase the pain of engaging in pain relieving behaviors. That is, he must call such behaviors “immoral”
Look at Roger Elliot. Given the level of frustration and pain he was experiencing, if he had the moral command of “thou shalt not murder” burned into his brain, then the agony of involuntary celibacy would have overcome the agony of saying hi to a girl, and as we all know, eventually he would have become very good at it. Similiarly, if he had also been raised or self trained with the concept that lying is evil, then he would not have rationalized away his failure and taken the necessary steps. Ie game, lifting, martial arts, travelling the world, etc etc.
Ironically, given his situation and level of pain, he could have ended up with whatever he wanted even, or rather, especially if his family disowned him and left him penniless.
It was his moral weakness that ultimately destroyed him. Not his situation.
Excellent analysis.
Btw, in the case of someone who is trying to deal with that sort of history, you will get appreciation instead of a hijack upoj reading the descriptions given.