I'm driving this morning and find myself behind a guy with a Trump/Pence bumpersticker, and the "The more I get to know Democrats, the more I like my dog" sticker, and inevitably, the bright yellow "Don't Tread On Me" bumpersticker.

And I'm thinking, what possible grievances do morons like this guy have? Don't they know how fortunate they are to live in the United States? They hit the lottery by sheer luck! Don't they realize how blessed they are to not having been born in an earlier era, before vaccines, prior to a social safety net, with indoor plumbing, climate controlled living, countless food options, clean water, democracy, endless entertainment options, and freedom! SCOTUS has insured they can possess all the firepower they could possibly need to compensate for their physiological shortcomings! What is the problem with these dolts? Ah... I know, their minds have been hijacked due to consuming countless hours of grievance-ridden sewage from their favorite far-right media outlet. Mind parasites have eaten away at what little critical thinking skills they ever had, leaving them angry, frightened, and bitter. This is who we are!

I'm currently reading Mental Immunity: Infectious ideas, mind-parasites, and the search for a better way to think by Andy Norman. Norman makes the case that just like our bodies have an immune system to fight off deadly pathogens, our minds do as well, and we best keep both systems healthy. He sees a compromised mental immune system as being susceptible to unreason, tribalism, conspiracy thinking and of course, violence.

We have survived as a species because we are social creatures and harbor strong passions and loyalties to our in-group, and can easily and sometimes cynically be manipulated to fight the out-group, whatever that may be in contemporary America. The siloing of information, in-group loyalty and the reluctance to betray the norms and beliefs of our tribe, provide powerful disincentives to push back against group-think. This can of course happen everywhere on the political spectrum, it isn't just the right. Internet connectivity supercharges this tribal information siloing and allows groups to gather quickly and all drink from the same contaminated narrative water foundation. I haven't yet reached the author's recommendation for combatting this truly frightening issue, so stay tuned.

And I'll leave you with another quote, which I think I assembled from various sources:

Dogma fully impedes being open to better ideas and arguments. Unlike science, where everything is held on a provisional basis, where the better argument and the better evidence, compels us to revise our understanding.

Here's to the death of dogma and ideology!

Peter T.