The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense
Last read September 26, 2021
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Highlights
10 highlights.
A fair society ensures that its members have equality of opportunities and not equality of outcomes as mandated by DIE edicts.
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No rational intellectual should oppose such a possibility, and yet many succumb to what I refer to as the garage band effect. If you are a struggling band that plays in your parents’ garage only to be heard by them and a few annoyed neighbors, you are legit. If your band becomes a smashing success with a number one hit on Billboard and now plays in front of large stadium crowds, you’re a “sellout.”
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we do not need to construe thinking and feeling as antithetical to one another. They are both fundamental components of decision-making. Problems arise when we use the wrong sequence to make a decision.
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If an idea is veridical, it should be anti-fragile. It should be capable of withstanding ironic, satirical, and sarcastic attacks. If it is too brittle to do so, it is undoubtedly a falsehood.
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The economist Thomas Sowell, who happens to be one of the original slayers of social justice warriors back in the 1960s and 1970s, famously quipped: “The next time some academics tell you how important ‘diversity’ is, ask how many Republicans there are in their sociology department.”
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Evolutionary scientists, for example, explain that people in warmer climates tend to have spicier cuisines, because spices offer antimicrobial protection against foodborne pathogens, which are more likely to be present in warmer climates.
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In the 1970s, a more colloquially vivid term was introduced in the animal behavior literature to explain this phenomenon, the sneaky fucker strategy. Female mimicry is one manifestation of this behavior. This occurs when some males of a species either look or act like females of that species to avoid being attacked by dominant guarding males, and in doing so they can sneak mating opportunities.63
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If a dark alley offered a shortcut on your way home, would you be more or less likely to take it if you noticed four young men or four elderly women loitering there?
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In the pursuit of happiness, we should strive to establish friendships with individuals with whom we can experience the full range of cerebral engagement. This can’t happen if we are too afraid to disagree with our close friends on consequential issues. Choose your friends wisely.
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To never judge is to be an intellectual coward for it serves as an insurance policy against the possibility of being a polarizing figure. The most charismatic public intellectuals are typically those who share their judgments on a broad range of issues.
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