In a previous text, I said that the most important aspect of linguistic intelligence is not what has been most socially considered as such: vocabulary size and sophistication and proficiency in learning languages, but what is most essential to language, not just human language: the capacity for communication and factual understanding (of lived reality). Therefore, it seems logical to understand that the essence of language, or linguistic intelligence, is also a very important aspect of rational capacity, if we can only understand, as well as misunderstand, reality through language. Therefore, it is the precision and objectivity of language, coupled with greater factual understanding, that massively contribute to greater rationality. This is in addition to the ability to perceive true or feasible patterns, which I had already identified as a cognitive aspect of rational capacity.
Minha lista de blogs
quarta-feira, 30 de julho de 2025
A essência da inteligência linguística também é um dos aspectos cognitivos mais importantes da racionalidade
Em um texto anterior, eu disse que o mais importante da inteligência linguística não é aquilo que mais tem sido socialmente considerado como tal: tamanho e sofisticação do vocabulário e proficiência em aprender línguas, mas o que é mais essencial à linguagem, não apenas à humana: capacidade de comunicação e de compreensão factual (da realidade vivida). Então, parece lógico de perceber que a essência da linguagem, ou da inteligência linguística, também é um aspecto muito importante da capacidade racional, se só podemos compreender, bem como de confundir, sobre a realidade pela linguagem. Portanto, é a precisão e a objetividade da linguagem, associadas a uma maior compreensão factual que, em muito, contribuem para uma maior racionalidade. Além da capacidade de percepção de padrões verdadeiros ou factíveis, que eu já havia determinado como um aspecto cognitivo da capacidade racional.
sábado, 26 de julho de 2025
More random slurs
"Zero tolerance for criminals"
Typical conservative talk
I agree!!
But... What about criminals in suits and ties with lots of money?
The premature death of a "celebrity" may be regrettable, but it's also regrettable that there are people so socially and economically privileged, especially if they have the audacity to speak publicly about the supposed privileges of those far less privileged than themselves and how much they supposedly suffered while alive...
Even though prejudice based on identity or nature can be very painful, not having enough to eat or living in financial insecurity is an even more visceral suffering that hinders the fullness of life. Furthermore, a wealthy person who suffers negative discrimination can still compensate with their privileges...
The problem with mourning the death of a famous person is that, for most, it consists of mourning the loss of a person they never knew, who often left no objectively good social contributions, and who is also associated with offering condolences as a matter of privilege, making it clear that certain lives are supposedly more worthy of collective commotion than others...
The politically correct "left" confuses compassion with pity.
The "leftists" loves to justify his great intolerance of differing opinions with the rule of "not being tolerant of the intolerant..." but intolerance is much more justifiable when it comes to a fool, which is precisely what they tend to be...
An unmistakable trait of stupidity is the chronic inability to avoid generalizing groups. Precisely what "left-wing" (and also "right-wing") identitarians do most...
Regulated and restricted immigration is like drinking in moderation, and mass immigration is like alcoholism...
Many of those who most believe in and desire the application of eugenics, usually conservatives, if they truly understood what it would entail, especially if eugenics' main goal were to elevate human rationality, would fight to keep humanity as stupid as possible...
Besides the "pathological altruists" and those ignorant on the topic, among those who position themselves as completely opposed to any practice of eugenics, there are also those who have a personal interest in it, such as those with antisocial personality disorders... if they tend to prefer dysfunctional societies in which they disguise themselves better and consider them a perfect environment for adaptation, also in the sense of being successful...
Being in a problematic situation does not necessarily make an individual problematic. If there are problematic individuals who are in stable and peaceful life situations...
There are those who many consider "dead weight," primarily because they are supported or "carried" by others, or who present a more apparent relationship of unilateral dependence. But there's also the "living weight," the one who, even if they contribute financially or are not more dependent in a relationship, also contributes negatively, in other ways and/or not enough...
"It's important to respect the president because he's an authority"
Or
"It's important to respect an authority because he's an authority"
Redundant arguments like this are never sufficient for a truly philosophical analysis...
It's possible to hate groups without necessarily generalizing all the individuals who associate with them.
There are only three ways to develop sympathy for more objectively problematic groups (with a disproportionate number of problematic individuals):
Self-identification
Distance
Or a fanciful idealism
Sometimes, the best way to understand people's beliefs is
by seeking to know who they are.
Why do geniuses tend to be lonely?
For two main reasons:
1. Because, by becoming obsessed with their most interesting topics, they tend to become less interesting as social figures.
2. Because this intellectual obsession tends to shape their ways of seeing and relating to the world, constructing a unique existential perspective that is difficult for others to access or understand. While the ideal for socialization is for an individual's existential perspective to be as generic as possible, very easy to relate to and align with.
Every living being has its own beliefs, not just humans. Belief, in its most primitive sense, is an echo of confirmation based on what one feels, perceives, and experiences.
If creativity is intelligence and rationality is also intelligence, what is intelligence?
As if everything is God, what is God?
If "everything" is more of an abstraction than an absolute fact.
The problem isn't necessarily reading little, but thinking and understanding little. And, in this sense, there are many who are avid readers, but also have a deficient capacity for philosophical-scientific understanding... Just like those individuals excessively biased to one side of the political-ideological spectrum who are more ignorant than knowledgeable on a range of topics, even or especially those who appear to have specialized.
The problem, a priori, is not that the humanities are 99% ideologically biased to the left or right, but that the truths corresponding to them are not...
The same applies to the arts. It doesn't matter if they're biased to the left, center, or right, but what does that mean (bad taste, excessive politicization...)
The biggest differences between individuals with high (120 or higher) and low IQs (90 or lower): the ability to memorize and rationalize personal beliefs, even the most irrational ones
The biggest difference between the most rational and the least rational individuals: the ability to understand reality, which is the most critical to intelligence
"I am totally against discrimination and segregation."
Say those ''self righteous'' people who are always discriminating and segregating themselves in ideologically homogeneous spaces of more intimate coexistence...
Ideological fanaticism can be as serious as untreated schizophrenia, because the individual subjected to this condition begins to experience and interpret reality in a completely distorted way, always biased towards their delusional beliefs...
Genuine self-knowledge is scientific self-knowledge, which is also philosophical, which means knowing one's own potential and, therefore, one's own limits.
A classic example of ideological self-knowledge, in the worst sense of the term, means being unaware of one's own limits, believing one has infinite potential.
The safest way to self-knowledge is to begin with one's own limits, and then understand one's own potential, if these are determined by the former.
"We change all the time."
Self-knowledge requires the discipline of a trained self-observation so as not to make the kind of vague or imprecise deductions, like the one above.
No, we don't change all the time, literally. Most people don't change significantly in the long term. And the minority who exhibit more notable behavioral changes very likely already had underlying factors, inherent in their own nature. For if there is a first rule of behavior, it could well be this: no tendency emerges or expresses itself without a predisposition, just as there is no middle without a beginning. And the origin of our behaviors lies within ourselves, in our most innate mental traits, and not in the external "environment," so to speak, a collection of multiple factors given this abstract name, very similar to the idea of a whole, nothing more than a sum of factors confined to an arbitrarily determined space.
*Disregarding exceptional cases of brain injury or other mainly external factors that cause personality/mental changes
Attempts to universally extrapolate one's own experiences or life trajectories, as if they were possible examples in any other personal context, seem to tend to be based on seemingly less complex examples, especially in more challenging contexts. An example of a very common fallacy of thought...
The right to free association or self-segregation is also, especially, the right not to be forced to live with those who don't know how to live with them...
Claiming "anti-racist" these days (the 2020s) has progressively become an identification that expresses a lack of scientific and even moral (philosophical) understanding of related topics: race, behavior, society... rather than just a political-ideological inclination, much less a morally superior inclination, if the most fair judgment is never possible based on lies.
Just as, especially for a woman, who identifies as a feminist, has ceased to signify just a political position, much less a morally superior position, even by behaving like an inverted machismo, a widespread dehumanization of the male gender by many activist groups...
Still including within the fallacious term of "anti-racism" "anti-Semitism," anyone who is too biased to consider it in the way those most interested want it, as a thought crime, is as fanatical as those who passionately and uncritically declare themselves "anti-racists."
A person apparently endowed with high cognitive capacities who adopts "anti-racist" narratives, as well as other "identity" strands, is either suspected of doing so, perhaps benefiting from this position, or what is suspect is their rational level, that is, their epistemic level of rationality. But because it is tacitly irrational behavior, defending or relying on distortions of facts, what is already confirmed as a low level of instrumental rationality is not suspect...
Just as shame, if not more so.It's those fanatical individuals who clearly defend and/or rely on distortions of reality are the ones who act as apparent opponents of the fanaticism and influence of the first group. In both cases, the same question arises: are they more like madmen or cynics?
In absolute terms, no racial or ethnic group is superior to another, because no group is endowed with absolute uniformity of individuals, especially in terms of intellectual and moral behavior.
But in relative and historical terms, it is perfectly sensible to conclude that, yes, this hierarchy exists...
The paradox of labeling and moral behavior
The more you distance yourself from or condemn a label, the freer you feel to act in accordance with that same label, but through non-traditional or non-explicit means.
The same insufferable authoritarians who claim to be against any type of segregation are precisely those who most want to impose their unpleasant presence everywhere...
Every abstraction is arbitrary. A city, a concept, or a word. It's the same as giving form or limits to what doesn't exist, because it doesn't exist. It's the same as giving form and structure to the imagination.
A teacher's humanistic training doesn't mean they have to take on roles that aren't their primary competency, but rather that they at least master a minimum of legitimate knowledge about the sciences they deal with in their daily professional life. Therefore, ideally, teachers shouldn't be assigned other roles, such as that of psychologist/psychiatrist, but rather that they know how to psychologically and cognitively assess their students, so they can direct their teaching strategies. Or at least have a multidisciplinary team to support them.
Mais pimentinhas aleatórias
"Tolerância zero com bandido"
quinta-feira, 24 de julho de 2025
O que muitos pensam como é uma psicoterapia ideal e como realmente é/What many people think ideal psychotherapy is and what it really is like
Como muitos pensam que é: o psicoterapeuta muito empático, mas mais no sentido de compulsoriamente simpático, sempre concordante com o seu paciente, mesmo com as suas decisões insensatas...
Why does the "left" lie as much or more than the "right"?
I was once a student at a Brazilian federal university. What's more, I studied at a humanities college between 2008 and 2014. I chose and passed the course that had been my passion, especially in my childhood: geography. I entered the course believing it would be more in line with how I learned to love geography: memorizing the names of capital cities, being curious to learn about other countries... But, from the first month of classes until the day I presented my final project, I was exposed to academic material absolutely biased to the "left" of the political-ideological spectrum. I could easily estimate around 90% bias, excluding technical and basic knowledge. The biggest problem isn't whether the bias is more to one side or the other, or even how much. But what it implies. And in the case of a "left-wing" bias, it has typically entailed the imposition of a majority of highly distorted narratives of reality, which are also dogmatic narratives, closed to intellectually honest criticism, and not fully based on evidence, facts, and/or rational consideration. Therefore, even if it isn't a priori a problem, it becomes one a posteriori, because of its meaning. I'm not against the application of critical thinking, unlike many on the "right." In fact, it's inevitable that a constantly updated human science pays the same attention to social critique as it does to its most basic knowledge. The most important thing is how well-founded this critique is. That's the big problem with the "left-wing" bias (as well as the "right-wing").
So, that was my experience at a university, and I don't know if I'll ever have the opportunity to be there again. But I'm not the only one who has noticed this situation, because everyone who attends or has attended knows, as I do, what's going on there. You know that, especially the faculties of the humanities and related fields, have long ago become a den of profound ideological indoctrination. But not everyone is honest about this. In fact, many lie, even blatantly, even denying that there is a scheme in place where those who demonstrate compatible ideological affinities are promoted within the academic hierarchy, and those who don't are persecuted or even eliminated from internal competition. This is without the criteria for compatibility being exclusively technical competence and full adherence to philosophical-scientific values. Of course, it is those on the "left" who lie the most about this, since they are the ones most interested in maintaining this state of affairs, whether to personally benefit themselves or, at least, in ensuring that academia continues to reiterate its ideological beliefs without the slightest self-criticism. The frequency and depth of this very problematic habit seems to be greater among them than among those on the other side of the polarization trenches. This must be because "left-wing" lies require greater elaboration than "right-wing" ones, given their comparatively more abstract nature, if this also requires a greater psychological effort to believe. But also because, despite the conservative "right" having a long history of embracing obscurantism and denialism, at least regarding some very basic facts about human nature, it has never denied them as profoundly as the "left" has. It has never denied differences between sexes, races, or other human groups, even if it has not developed these facts or has merely exaggerated them through generalization. So, this difference, which seems minor at first glance, is much more significant when we look more closely, precisely because it involves very basic facts that are primarily perceived instinctively and that are disproportionately influential in our lives. So much so that, with the cultural and political hegemony of the bourgeois-identitarian "left," entire nations under its yoke have begun to experience chronic social problems that threaten their very existence, not only as distinct cultures or ethnicities, but also in terms of civility. But there are also other likely factors that lead the "left" to lie, and more profoundly than the "right." Another factor is the great attraction that their ideas exert on individuals who exhibit deviations or disorders from the norm most consistent with the natural cycle of an organism's existence: procreation, survival... Moral, psychiatric, sexual disorders or deviations... Especially the identitarian "left" has embraced these congenital misfits, instead of doing as the traditional right has long done, condemning them for what they are. However, this "embrace" has occurred in a, let's say, excessively positive and, of course, with ulterior motives... In truth, the "left" would be more literally represented by this same mass of "mutants," as a reflection of its own nonconformist nature toward the "more natural" order. While it cannot be said that everything it defends is mistaken or untrue, it seeks to transcend this order, which is a kind of replica of a food chain embedded within human contexts, combating the social and moral problems it causes, without naturalizing them as much as the "right," itself, its greatest promoter, has done. But by treating it as intrinsically fallacious, which it is not, if it reflects innate and more general aspects of the behavior and relationships of living beings, it ends up causing more problems than it solves. For example, when it claims that the only reason for social differences between men and women is the historical and structural oppression of patriarchy over the latter group, completely disregarding their biological differences, including the mental differences between the sexes. Therefore, beyond the effort required for greater theoretical elaboration, it must constantly reinforce irrational or non-factual beliefs about these very basic facts, forcing it to delve deeper into the habit of lying than the "right." If the "left" accepted them for what they are and began to build its defense of social justice based on them, a significant portion of its denial of legitimate science would be eliminated, and then it would even be better for universities to have a significant bias on their side. But our reality is practically the opposite of this ideal...
Por que a "esquerda" mente tanto ou mais que a "direita"??
Eu já fui um estudante de universidade federal brasileira. E mais, estudei em uma faculdade das ciências humanas, entre 2008 e 2014. Escolhi e passei para cursar a disciplina que foi a minha paixão, especialmente na minha segunda infância: geografia. Entrei no curso acreditando que seria mais de acordo com que aprendi a amar a geografia: memorizando nomes de capitais, tendo curiosidade em conhecer sobre outros países... Mas, desde o primeiro mês de aula até o dia em que apresentei o TCC (trabalho de conclusão de curso), eu fui exposto a um material acadêmico absolutamente enviesado à "esquerda" no espectro político-ideológico. Eu poderia facilmente estimar em torno de 90% de viés, excluindo conhecimentos técnicos e básicos. Pois o maior problema ainda não é se o viés é mais para um lado ou outro, ou mesmo o "quanto". Mas no que isso implica. E no caso de um viés à "esquerda", tipicamente, tem implicado em uma imposição de uma maioria de narrativas altamente distorcidas da realidade, que também são narrativas dogmáticas, fechadas para críticas intelectualmente honestas, que não estão integralmente baseadas em evidências, fatos e/ou ponderação racional... Portanto, mesmo que não seja, a priori, um problema, se torna, a posteriori, pelo que tem significado. Nem sou contra a aplicação do pensamento crítico, diferente de muitos à "direita". Aliás, é inevitável que uma ciência humana sempre atualizada dê a mesma atenção à crítica social tal como dá aos seus conhecimentos mais básicos. O mais importante é o quão embasada essa crítica está... Eis aí o grande problema do viés à "esquerda" (tanto quanto para a "direita")...
O que uma adesão à lavagem cerebral revela?/What does adherence to brainwashing reveal?
A própria natureza do indivíduo, se intelectual ou de outro tipo. Por exemplo, a sexualização intensa de homens gays e bissexuais, promovida pela hegemonia ideológica do ativismo LGBT dentro de suas "comunidades", que exacerba, mas também e, apenas, destaca uma característica mais pronunciada de muitos homens gays e bissexuais. Pois o verdadeiro impacto de uma doutrinação não é necessariamente a introdução emergente de um fenótipo de comportamento, como se pudesse "aparecer do nada", mas uma indução de exacerbação fenotípica, mais especificamente de canalização para uma predisposição subjacente.
The very nature of the individual, whether intellectual or otherwise. For example, the intense sexualization of gay and bisexual men, promoted by the ideological hegemony of LGBT activism within their "communities," which exacerbates, but also, and only highlights, a more pronounced characteristic of many gay and bisexual men. For the true impact of indoctrination is not necessarily the emergent introduction of a behavioral phenotype, as if it could "appear out of nowhere," but an induction of phenotypic exacerbation, more specifically, the channeling of an underlying predisposition.
sexta-feira, 18 de julho de 2025
Who is really the smartest with words?
Linguistic intelligence isn't expressed solely by an extensive and conventionally impeccable vocabulary, if that's a matter of conventional aesthetics. Nor is it expressed solely by the ease of learning new languages, which, despite its many advantages, isn't the most important (it's worth noting that an extensive vocabulary in one's native language tends to be related to this same ease). Because the most important aspects of human language, as with any other communication system developed and used by any other species, are the ability to communicate (both in the sense of transmitting information and understanding what is being transmitted when one is in the position of listener or receiver), and to maximize one's understanding of lived and achievable reality, only possible through this process of association between symbol and information. Therefore, the most intelligent person, in essential linguistic terms, is the one who best uses a communication system, in a more objective sense (a priori, independent of the ability of others to understand it), since even individuals endowed with a broader and more sophisticated vocabulary can still use language in a non-ideal way and, in fact, it seems that they are more likely to do so, not as a means for objective or effective communication and factual understanding, but to prioritize aesthetic or artistic purposes, more personal or social, including believing the opposite of what they are doing, when they are, in fact, using their verbal capacities for these same purposes mentioned, neglecting the two most important functions of language. This may help explain the possible or apparent correlation between having a more extensive vocabulary and being more likely to believe in and delve into pseudosciences, especially those linked to the humanities, perhaps as a side effect of placing too much emphasis on aesthetics rather than the essence of language. These pseudosciences are often constructed precisely based on the aesthetic illusion of a superficial and excessive refinement of the use of words, masking their intrinsic nature as a falsification of legitimate knowledge. But it's also important to emphasize that a deficiency in rational capacity isn't just a cognitive deficiency, since non-cognitive aspects, such as personality, also influence how we think and interpret the world. However, this contradiction, which seems common among those who master the use of words but not their most important application, remains interesting. It must be because they are, on average or disproportionately, more skilled in the aesthetic use of the word, and not in its more functional or direct sense, commented on here, of communication and factual (or philosophical-scientific) understanding, mediated by self-knowledge (true/possible and specific capacity for understanding).
Quem realmente é o mais inteligente com as palavras??
A inteligência linguística não se expressa apenas por um vocabulário extenso e convencionalmente impecável, se se trata de uma estética de convenção. Também não se expressa apenas pela facilidade para aprender novos idiomas, se, apesar de suas muitas vantagens, ainda não é o mais importante (vale dizer que um vocabulário extenso na língua materna tende a estar relacionado com essa mesma facilidade). Porque o mais importante da linguagem humana, assim como para qualquer outro sistema de comunicação desenvolvido e usado por qualquer outra espécie, são: as capacidades de se comunicar (tanto no sentido de transmitir uma informação como de entender o que está sendo transmitido quando se encontra em uma posição de ouvinte ou receptor), e a de maximizar a compreensão que se pode ter sobre a realidade vivida e alcançável, unicamente possível por esse processo de associação entre símbolo e informação. Portanto, o mais inteligente, em termos linguístico-essenciais, é aquele que melhor usa um sistema de comunicação, em um sentido mais objetivo (a priori, independente da capacidade dos outros em compreendê-lo), pois mesmo indivíduos dotados de um vocabulário mais amplo e sofisticado ainda podem usar a linguagem de modo não-ideal e, na verdade, parece que estão mais propensos a fazê-lo, não como um meio para a comunicação objetiva ou efetiva e a compreensão factual, mas para priorizar finalidades estéticas ou artísticas, mais pessoais ou sociais, inclusive de acreditarem no oposto do que estão fazendo, quando estão, de fato, usando suas capacidades verbais com essas mesmas finalidades citadas, negligenciando as duas funções mais importantes da linguagem. Isso pode ajudar a explicar a possível ou aparente correlação entre apresentar um vocabulário mais extenso e de se estar mais propenso a acreditar e se aprofundar em pseudociências, especialmente as que se vinculam às ciências humanas, até mesmo como um efeito colateral de se dar muita ênfase na estética do que à essência da linguagem, já que essas pseudociências costumam ser construídas justamente com base na ilusão estética de um refinamento superficial e excessivo do uso da palavra, mascarando sua natureza intrínseca, de falsificação do conhecimento legítimo. Mas também é importante destacar que uma deficiência em capacidade racional não é apenas uma deficiência cognitiva, já que aspectos não-cognitivos, como a personalidade, também influenciam em como pensamos e interpretamos o mundo. No entanto, ainda é interessante esse contrassenso que parece comum entre aqueles que dominam o uso da palavra, mas não em sua aplicação mais importante. Deve ser por serem, em média ou desproporcionalmente, mais hábeis no uso estético da palavra, e não em seu sentido mais funcional ou direto, comentado aqui, de comunicação e compreensão factual (ou filosófico-científica), mediadas pelo autoconhecimento (capacidade verdadeira/possível e específica de compreensão).
quarta-feira, 16 de julho de 2025
A disconcerting habit of narcissists: doing good deeds for show
I don't know how common this habit is among the most narcissistic individuals. But it seems that there are certain types of narcissists who are more likely to do good deeds, not because they are truly altruistic, but to show others how supposedly kinder they are. And it's a disconcerting habit, considering that highly self-centered individuals are expected to only take actions that benefit themselves, also in the sense that they maximize their own physical and emotional well-being. But in the case of the narcissistic type who likes to pose as morally superior, this performance may serve precisely to stroke their gigantic ego.
Um hábito desconcertante de narcisistas: fazer boas ações para aparecer
Não sei o quão comum é esse hábito entre os indivíduos mais narcisistas. Mas parece que existem certos tipos de narcisistas que são mais propensos a fazerem boas ações, não por serem realmente altruístas, mas para mostrarem aos outros o quão supostamente mais bondosos eles são. E não deixa de ser um hábito desconcertante, se é esperado que indivíduos muito autocentrados só tomem atitudes que o favoreçam também no sentido de que maximizem seu próprio bem estar físico e emocional. Mas se tratando do tipo narcisista que gosta de posar como moralmente superior, essa performance pode servir justamente para afagar seu ego gigante.
A prime example of typically irrational female behavior
The social contagion of plastic surgery with questionable results
Why get plastic surgery that makes you ugly or strange instead of "improving" your appearance?
Ask this to many women who have already had surgery or are considering going under the knife and getting a new, weird face. But it's probably just to follow the trends of certain niches, usually more "privileged," upper-middle-class women, "celebrities" (many of them very rich...). And, of course, this is very irrational. If it seems more common for women to fall for these counterproductive trends than men, well, that started a long time ago. Ever since they began to accept that piercing their ears or wearing high heels makes them more feminine, or at least more acceptable in their exclusively female social circles. All for the vanity of the moment, for the constant and ongoing conformity of the Venusians. But what about the Martians?
Um exemplo cabal de um comportamento irracional tipicamente feminino
O contágio social de fazer cirurgias plásticas com resultados duvidosos
segunda-feira, 14 de julho de 2025
Summing up right-wingers and left-wingers
On average, there are two groups of simpletons, intellectually speaking. Individuals chronically incapable of deep reasoning, of rational thought, who become naturally dependent on ideologically biased and simplistic narratives to understand and deal with reality, differing in that "left-wing" narratives tend to be more superficially sophisticated. So, what most differentiates an average leftist from an average rightist is that the former passes themselves off as intellectual, while the latter doesn't necessarily care about it, typically lacking even the potential for pseudo-intellectualism. But the average leftist, or disproportionately speaking, passes themselves off as intellectual, often with little awareness that this is a sham...
Resumindo direitistas e esquerdistas
Em média, são dois grupos de simplórios, intelectualmente falando. De indivíduos cronicamente incapazes de aprofundamento de raciocínio, do pensamento racional, que se tornam naturalmente dependentes de narrativas ideologicamente enviesadas e simplistas para entender e lidar com a realidade, se diferenciando pelo fato de que as narrativas à "esquerda" tendem a ser mais superficialmente sofisticadas. Então, o que mais diferencia um esquerdista médio de um direitista médio é que o primeiro se passa como um intelectual enquanto que o segundo necessariamente não faz questão disso, se tipicamente já não apresenta sequer um potencial para o pseudo intelectualismo. Mas o esquerdista médio, ou desproporcionalmente falando, se passa como um intelectual, geralmente com pouca consciência de que se trata de uma farsa...
sexta-feira, 11 de julho de 2025
De novo, sobre a complexidade do humor
Que eu já comentei em outros textos...
The only rationally acceptable limit to opinion censorship: absolute dehumanization
This isn't much different from what I've discussed in other texts on the same topic. But here, I'll reinforce this thought more specifically. While I'm not in favor of further institutionalizing opinion censorship, this doesn't mean I'm in favor of no limits or controls at all, but rather that they be established based on a clearer definition of what constitutes an opinion that truly surpass all rationally acceptable limits. And, at least when it comes to opinions about groups, the element that distinguishes and highlights a completely execrable opinion, both intellectually and morally, is absolute dehumanization, as if all individuals belonging to a given group, especially if it's a vaguely defined group, were all the same in a completely negative, defamatory, and condemnatory sense...
For example: when a church pastor says that "all gays will go to hell for being gay," that's not the same as if any individual, who could also be an evangelical pastor, expresses a more critical opinion about this or that group without making such absolute and dehumanizing generalizations. Because, an objectively execrable opinion, not only simply being what it is, but can also easily extrapolate the abstract and manifest itself as an action or behavior.
O único limite racionalmente aceitável da censura de opinião: a desumanização absoluta
Não é muito diferente do que já comentei em outros textos sobre o mesmo tópico. Mas, aqui, reforço de maneira mais específica esse pensamento. De que, ainda que não seja a favor de um aprofundamento da institucionalização da censura de opinião, isso não significa que eu seja a favor de que não haja qualquer limite ou controle, mas que se faça a partir de uma definição mais nítida sobre o que seria uma opinião que realmente saia de todos os limites racionalmente aceitáveis. E, pelo menos em relação a opiniões sobre grupos, o elemento que distingue e destaca uma opinião totalmente execrável, tanto em um sentido intelectual, quanto em um sentido moral, é o de desumanização absoluta, como se todos os indivíduos que pertencem a determinado grupo, ainda mais se for um grupo vagamente definido, fossem todos iguais em um sentido totalmente negativo, ou difamatório e condenatório...
quinta-feira, 3 de julho de 2025
An example that explains more precisely the hierarchy of influences on human behavior
Why does crime tend to be lower in small towns?
The bigger the city, the greater the tendency for high crime rates. And the same pattern coincides, only in the opposite direction, for small towns. Even in more violent countries, such as Brazil.
So, what are the factors behind this phenomenon?
Many will point to the environment as the main factor. They will say that, in big cities, there are more people, and this factor alone increases the risk of human conflicts that result in violent acts. They will also say that social inequalities are greater and this leads some or many people, especially the poorest, to envy those who have more money than them, increasing the risk of engaging in criminal activities. And that these first two factors also fuel the urge for competition, especially among men, increasing the risk of them becoming involved in criminal activities or violent acts. They could also cite other, more specific environmental factors, such as greater access to psychotropic drugs, to claim that what is generally lacking in small cities and exceeds in large ones is sufficient to explain why there is this predominant trend of statistical differences in crime. And what's more, because they are not wrong, if, in fact, it is entirely feasible that these environmental factors have an influence on human behavior. However, these same people enter a state of absolute denial when they conclude that only the environment explains how we behave, because, even though there is a certain logic in not concluding in advance about biological or genetic factors, if they have not yet been fully identified and understood by science, it is a rationally pragmatic matter to deduce, confidently, that these factors are as influential or more influential and that discarding them, as these "circumstantialists" do, is, at the very least, imprudent. Although we do not yet have a complete picture of direct evidence on the genetic or biological influence on human behavior, it is already possible to perceive an accumulation of indirect evidence, through the observation of patterns, which confirm it, for example, by the perception of stability and predictability, in the medium and long term, of personality traits and intelligence. So, if it is true that densely populated urban environments present an increased risk of violent behavior, it is also true that individuals with different behavioral dispositions are impacted in different ways in the same environments or when they are exposed to the same stimuli and pressures, if not the majority of human beings in these spaces become violent or prone to committing crimes, not even in the outskirts of large cities. Therefore, it is not only the environment that influences human behavior, but also our own mental characteristics, which are more innate or intrinsic, and not just reflections of the influence of the environment on us. Again, it is a deduction that can be made, precisely because they are more stable and predictable in the medium and long term, because they are, on average, less influenced by social interventions or because they express themselves in a relatively independent way to pressures and stimuli (our behaviors are not absolutely logical, in the sense of reciprocal, to what happens around us or that interacts with us), there being, most likely, a coincidence or confluence between mental traits and environmental interaction factors, when there is a reciprocal response, and not that "factor x caused a behavioral expression to emerge, out of nowhere, in a certain individual". In conclusion, the most appropriate explanation for this social phenomenon, which is also behavioral, psychological, cognitive, genetic..., is that individuals with significantly higher levels of willingness to engage in violent, selfish or impulsive behavior feel more stimulated to practice them in densely populated urban environments than in less populated environments, also due to all the factors mentioned above, which serve as triggers or catalysts for tendencies and not as primary sources from which they originate. Because if only the environment had a preponderant role of influence, there would always be a great uniformity of behavior in response to it: a certain environment, pressure or stimulus, probably because of the variation in the disposition of mental characteristics (more intrinsic).
Final additional questions
Are these differences in criminality also a question of selective migration? Of mutation? And of statistical proportion??
1-
Do small towns attract or retain more individuals with a more docile temperament, while big cities tend to attract more impulsive, greedy and selfish types?
This is a very important question, because it makes sense that different environments/tend to attract or retain different types of human beings. Not that this factor fully explains this statistical difference in crime, but it can serve as an addendum that can partially explain this social phenomenon.
2-
Larger populations are more likely to have higher values of genetic diversity, because they are more susceptible to mutations that occur more naturally among them than in small populations, including mutations related to mental disorders, personality disorders...
3-
5% of psychopaths in a city of 15 thousand inhabitants (750) is not the same as 5% of psychopaths in a city of 2 million (100 thousand), right??
Therefore, having a large population increases the absolute proportion of individuals with mental disorders of a moral nature, such as psychopathy, and therefore increases the probability that they will engage in violent or criminal acts. This, without taking into account possible statistical differences in the incidence of psychopathy between small and large cities (the selective migration factor).
Um exemplo que explica mais precisamente a hierarquia de influências do comportamento humano
The main difference between indoctrination and education
The main difference between indoctrination and education
Is the factual nature of what is being transmitted...
Especially when lies, half-truths or distortions of facts, typically organized as dogmatic narratives, predominate or are already present from the very essence of a belief system, it is safe to classify it as very likely to serve as an ideological reference for indoctrination, and not for education.
That is why, affirming that God is a very possible logical improbability and that the class struggle is an empirical reality, are not examples of ideological indoctrination (the first, in fact, lacks any evidence, and the second is visible at any time in a typical human society), while denying them, are examples (on the "right") of indoctrination.
Any denial of a fact, especially a notorious fact that can be easily observed, or affirmation of an extraordinary phenomenon or event without any true evidence to corroborate it, are raw material for indoctrination.
Two other examples of indoctrination, and not education, but which are further "to the left" on the political-ideological spectrum are: the denial of the existence of more intrinsic differences in behavior and intelligence between individuals and human groups (observable and ratified by the perception of patterns of stability, predictability and heredity of behaviors), and the extraordinary assertion (a typical complement to the first) that the environment plays a much more important role in human behavior than our own nature or biology, as if we were merely reagents totally moldable by circumstances.