Yes, I've got to get faster.

3/ the pandemic. I was appalled - and beyond frustrating that people kept "quoting" the blogger's words at me & sending me links to her writing. She (?) was telling them just what they wanted to hear, but was often way, way off base.

I blocked that person pretty quickly, but boy, it's obnoxious.

2/ takedowns by folks who'd put some real sleuthing into it. Apparently, originally the person had labeled themselves a "doctor of erotica" (or PhD of porn, or something) & had then tried a bunch of diff. blog topics searching for a big payoff, which they eventually found in social/health psych., w/

It's a huge PIA.

On Twitter, there was a supposed PhD following me who had a *huge* (massive) blog following, using a pseudonym. A lot of what they wrote was nonsense or misunderstandings.

I went down a long rabbit hole one night trying to figure out who the person was, & found a few scathing

You're forgetting the actual body of literature I brought in as evidence.

So you're a therapist without the relevant psychology background to make the points you've argued.

6/ you're actually a Ph.D. psychologist, so I'm stepping away from this conversation now.

5/ you'd assumed, correlated with political affiliation, you shifted into discussing political violence. In rhetoric, that's called the red herring fallacy; dodging the actual issue you can't argue well by presenting one where you think you have the upper hand. At this point, I don't think...

4/ majority of both Democrats & Republicans (even MAGA Republicans) *are not domestic terrorists,* let alone ones about to shoot their cousins at dinner. So it's simply not a relevant point.

When I explained that agreeableness (as a proxy for willingness to confront friends & family) is not, as...

3/ goes on a racist rant over the pumpkin pie in their mom's dining room.

Political violence is a *completely* different topic. Yes, American domestic terrorists are predomantly politically conservative, & yes, their attacks represent the majority of domestic terrorism fatalities - but the vast

2/ before, agreeableness is not associated with party affiliation, & politeness is positively associated with Rs; I can't help it if you didn't know that.

But we aren't talking about *political violence* here at all. We're talking about people standing up, verbally, to their drunk uncle Bob when he

You brought up personality differences across party. Politeness is a researched subconstruct of agreeableness, which is the only relevant, well-researched personality factor, here. If you look at the lit., you'll see it includes factors such as the tendency to embrace or avoid conflict. As I said...

2/ pantry. There was a very, very long line of cars (all of folks who'd been previously approved for food assistance, by income) & they were all cars of the sort you'd associate with middle class folks.

20% of US kids experience food insecurity, & that number is rising. We are a selfish country.

2/ if you look at the subconstruct of "politeness," it's Republicans who score higher, in the research literature; not Dems.

You say you're a psychologist; you should know this.

I could not disagree more. Of the Big 5 personality traits (which are the only ones that are scientifically robust) "agreeableness" comes closest to the willingness to be "confrontational" you're talking about, & there's no correlation between that trait & US political party affiliation. In fact,...

2/ situational factors. Simply put: they're now in charge; they have the power, so they feel more disinhibited about speaking out.

Their own words affirm it. How many times have we heard MAGA folks say "We had to keep silent for years! We weren't allowed to say what we really thought! Now we can."

I don't agree at all that there's a political divide re: personality "traits" such as a tendency to be confrontational.

I've known plenty of confrontational & non-confronrational folks on both sides of the political divide. In terms of expression, the issue isn't one of personality, but of...

2/ ensuing rift.

In fact, in 2019 (pre-pandemic!), I wrote my own thanksgiving essay about MAGA, for a private group; it became the 1st piece there that folks convinced me to "take public." 6 yrs. later, I'd edit it down a bunch, but I still stand by what I said.

essaysyoudidntwanttoread.home.blog

IKR? Kennedy apoarently ate his b**s, deep fried in tallow and cane sugar, with a nice chianti.