So a small rant (thats not so small). Ive posted this type of rant several times before, but in light of recent events here on Facebook with several people posting conversations on various events with me and even more conversations in e-mails that I was getting I just feel like getting this off my chest again on Facebook where the remaining people who are on my friends list can see it and just understand where I am coming from. Now, before I go further Im not directing this post that any one individual because this post applies to many individuals (some of whom are no longer friends of mine on Facebook and some who are). I waited a couple of days to do this on purpose. I have been known to be very tolerant and patient with people; in fact, that was one of my major strengths in my work. And when I want to be I can show amazing restraint and tolerance with stupid, ignorant, foolish people (in fact I even have a Clinical Excellence award given to me from the University of Michigan Neurology and Psychiatry department that demonstrates how tolerant and understanding that I can be, when I want to). These days I no longer have to show the restraint I am capable of showing with such people because Im no longer involved in assessing people or trying to help people in a clinical environment, even though I can exercise that option any time that I want to. However, I do not want to always be tolerant with people that express opinions that are concrete and rigid and people that just cannot see past their own noses. This has been especially true on Facebook. It’s led to an interesting perception of me by certain individuals who really don’t know me very well. Over the last couple of years one of my pet peeves has become concerned with people who expressed extremist views (politically either left or right or on social issues like child vaccinations, the medical profession, etc.) and blame the other side for all of the issues we face today without even considering the contribution of their own side or the narrow-mindedness of their approach to life. My approach when this discussing things with these people is not to pull punches or be polite to them because there is no way they can see how totally rigid and ridiculous they are when they keep expressing the same crap over and over and when they are confronted with empirical evidence that suggests that they may not be entirely correct. They simply refuse to either incorporate or to even consider disconfirming evidence. One of the things I am not or will ever be is someone that pulls punches. I realize that such an approach can be problematic in some situations, but Im just not the type to pull punches in these situations. Pulling punches in a clinical environment is a skill, but no clinician should ever treat people outside the clinical situations like they treat their patients. It always cracks me up when these people tell me on the one hand well youre a psychologist, you should treat people like you treat your patients but then will later say dont analyze me! I can choose how Ill approach my personal affairs just like you do. In addition, I have made so many changes to the way I think about things over the past several years that I have come to the conclusion that I need to check my own prior expectations and existing belief system before I consider any issue. Several years ago I started doing a lot of research on cognitive biases and the heuristics that we use in deciding and thinking about the world and found out how much of a slave I was to these cognitive biases and how I needed to do my best to override them in dealing with events that are probabilistic in nature or issues that are never black and white. That is really hard to do and I am constantly amazed at how many times I am wrong about something and how my own refusal to check my own thinking led to such a faulty decision. This happens to me on a daily basis. In fact, as many people know, I used to be very liberal in my politics, but over the past couple of years have adopted a more libertarian approach as I weighed historical events, my own thinking, and the thinking of others with the opposite view. I have become more conservative on economic issues and the power we should give to the government and remain pretty liberal on most social issues. Im far from perfect and I find myself being wrong on issues all of the time. In fact, I do a lot of research and ghostwriting for professors and academics and I am constantly amazed at how many times my prior beliefs are wrong about many of the issues that these individuals are researching, despite my so-called “expertise” in many of the areas being covered. Then I have to go through the lengthy process of re – thinking my stance in trying to resolve my own thinking with reality. What I have found here on Facebook is that many people, even people were close friends of mine, dont even attempt to do that. And this one may surprise some of you, but I actually get more satisfaction out of being wrong than I do by being right because then I can actually get closer to the truth, whereas if my beliefs are totally confirmed all it often means is that haven’t researched them deeply enough. I see no reason to be polite or considerate to a person who does not even consider both sides of an argument. On the other hand, people with this approach to life see no reason to consider alternative explanations for what they are to believe and therefore have no use to even try to change. But the worst thing for me is an ignorant person that thinks that they are knowledgeable. That just gets my goat. I have a advanced martial arts degree, a resume of being one of the best in the world at something I once did, a Ph.D., four college degrees, numerous authorships and book publications, people with M.D.’s and Ph.D’s in fields that I have no degree in constantly asking for my help or advice on their areas, and I consider myself to be a beginner at understanding all of the nuances in every single area that I am supposed to be an “expert” in. I do not, nor have I ever, considered myself to be an “expert” at anything I have done. Other people think I am an “expert” on the brain, behavior, statistics, etc. But I cringe at that. I do consider certain areas as areas of expertise that I have, but all that really means is to me is that I study them intensely and I know a lot about the current state of affairs regarding those issues, but that doesnt make me an expert on them in the sense that I know everything about them. In fact, having an area of expertise to me means that I am familiar enough with that area to continue to learn about that area and to be able to consider the potential reliability and validity of new information that is accumulated about that area. I do not consider myself an “expert” in anything, nor do I consider myself to know everything about any particular area, nor do I consider myself infallible. As a matter of fact I consider myself to be quite a bumpkin and I get quite a lot of quizzical looks from people because I am constantly muttering to myself things like what a stupid dumb ass I am, what a loser I am, or “what an idiot” I am. I say that to myself out loud at least five times every day. Anyway, if youve gotten this far in this rant I just wanted to clear the air in explaining why I have decided to no longer engage in any debate regarding any political or social issue here on Facebook. Number one, I was getting a ton of e-mails from very disturbed people who were saying some very disturbed things about politicians and others and I wanted to disconnect myself from them because some of these things that were being said were very dangerous. Number two, these FB debates and rants on political issues, social issues, etc. dont do anything for anybody. I was typically just trying to blow off some steam as I sit in front of my computer and work on the various projects I have undertaken. I don’t think, or ever have thought, that posting on FB changes or helps any of these issues, but it does blow off steam. However, its gotten so useless that I just decided to leave these issues alone. And finally, related to the prior reason, people that are rigid and concrete in their thinking are not going to change their opinions anyway because they just ignore disconfirming evidence and continue to try to confirm their own beliefs. The actual way you learn about the validity of something is to try to disconfirm rather than confirm its validity. I learned this long ago. That will continue to be my approach. So, if you tag me with any posts about political or social issues Im not going to get in a discussion about them openly on Facebook. There are several people here on FB whose opinion I highly respect and I may discuss issues with them private (most of these people have totally different viewpoints than I do on these issues) but that will be the extent of my discussions regarding social and political issues on Facebook. If you have to ask me if I respect your opinion then you should already know the answer to that question. Again some of my remaining friends here on FB will read this post and think that it is directed at them, despite my earlier statement that this is a general post not directed at any one person. That is called a delusion of reference and represents psychotic and often paranoid thinking. Again, I am not directing this post at any one person, nor am I apologizing to anyone (because there is really nothing for me to apologize about); I’m just explaining my stance and closing the door on this issue. Peace….
Posted on: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 13:52:37 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015