DEAR MAGA: Open Thread 20220127

Interesting article over at American Thinker that actually explains the significance of block chain in plain English.

The Rise of Blockchain Republics

For all of these reasons, the rise of blockchain technology comes at just the right moment in history to change everything.  Simply stated, blockchain is a decentralized database of transactions, and the rate of its adoption around the world is occurring twice as fast as the internet’s during its genesis.  It is transforming the world of finance by introducing the existence of digital cryptocurrencies and other financial instruments that cannot be controlled or manipulated by central banks or government spendthrifts.  It will not stop there.  It represents a revolutionary redesign in the ways information, wealth, and governance function by undercutting centralized authority and empowering everyone else.  It is the ultimate tool for slicing and dicing international authoritarianism into parts too dispersed for search engine and social media censors, corporate news propagandists, central bank thieves, or one-world government oligarchs to control.

If you have wondered why totalitarianism has come back into fashion and why Western leaders have spurned freedom for talk of wobbly notions of “democracy,” it is because the decentralizing benefits of blockchain technology have the potential to flip the hierarchy of power on its head.  Imagine a future where banks become unnecessary, central banks become obsolete, trade of goods and services no longer requires third-party lawyers or brokers, and personal wealth is secure from the snooping eyes of State agents.  Imagine if Google’s search engine, Twitter’s and Facebook’s fake “free speech” platforms, and breaking news websites could not be manipulated by corporate intermediaries working to stifle certain points of view and push others.  Imagine if services once traditionally left to the government sphere could be contracted among private towns and citizens without any space for regulators or lawmakers to intervene.  Imagine a world in which free speech and free trade are truly free, private property is secure from government taxation, Election Day votes are all easily verifiable through a public ledger, and people can choose to share information and ideas without the cultural Marxism of political correctness turning rights into liabilities.  Moving away from transactions controlled and monitored by “elites,” corporations, and governments and toward blockchain transactions that are “housed” nowhere, cannot be altered, and remain secured from bad actors means a system where censorship, coercion, and government monopoly fade away.  

In other words, blockchain technology is the mother of all nuclear warheads against the Davos crowd’s dreams of global empire and domination.  No wonder we’ve had to go into medical lockdown for two years while the super-secret 1% of the 1% figure out how to “Great Reset” the world before the world figures out how to great reset them.

Another good one today.

Dealing with Cognitive Dissonance

The human brain is like a computer in some ways and holding conflicting views can be very uncomfortable. The term “cognitive dissonance” comes up regularly in political discussions, probably because these issues are rarely cut and dried, but are considered very important. It is defined as “the mental discomfort that results from holding two conflicting beliefs, values, or attitudes. People tend to seek consistency in their attitudes and perceptions, so this conflict causes feelings of unease or discomfort.”

If you feel strongly that a candidate you support for high office should be honest and you catch him lying, you may experience cognitive dissonance.

So how would someone resolve this conflict? Stephanie A. Sarkis Ph.D. explains in a Psychology Today article:

Choose to ignore the new conflicting information;

Commit even further to our beliefs;

Avoid exposure to contradictory information…

Take the case of a pro-abortion advocate whose main argument is “it’s my body and I have the right to make my own medical decisions,” who also believes in mandatory vaccines, even against someone’s personal will. How can this be resolved?

Looking at the coping behaviors listed above, someone might feel very uncomfortable learning that the vaccines are not as effective as promised, or the side effects are more dangerous than the disease.  When we first heard of COVID we were told it was 5-10% fatal, since that was the death rate in the Washington nursing home. 

One subconscious strategy might be to simply ignore the new information that COVID is not as deadly as first thought, or conclude that the side effects are overstated.  With social media, it’s easy to only visit groups that agree with your views, while the other side is demonized.

A common reaction is to be even more adamant about your initial views that COVID is so deadly that it’s okay to force an injection on the unwilling, and believe that the side effects are just “right-wing delusions.”  You might redouble your efforts to convince others to your side.

Another example is the view that people should be required to carry a vaccine passport, while simultaneously thinking that voter ID is racist.  If people must be identified to ensure they’ve been vaccinated and boosted to protect others, why is it a bad idea for people to be properly identified in order to vote? What about people who might cheat by purchasing a fake vax passport?  Isn’t that just as bad as people who might vote using someone else’s name?