[FRIAM] truth, reality, & narrative

[thompnickson2 at gmail.com]

Glen, 

I love the grandiosity of your post and will try to slog through the links so I can fully understand it.  If I were you and had had an idea as grandiose and timely as this one, I would be trying to get it to Harpers Mag or a Times op-ed.  Mind you I wouldn't succeed and would waste a shit-load of time in the effort.  

One teensy clarification:  Can you explicate " build a logic that validates against human reasoning "  I think I am probably reading too much into "against".  

Thanks, 

Nick 

Nicholas Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology
Clark University
ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com
https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/
 


-----Original Message-----
From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> On Behalf Of u?l? ???
Sent: Tuesday, January 5, 2021 11:02 AM
To: FriAM <friam at redfish.com>
Subject: [FRIAM] truth, reality, & narrative

Yes, I know. I'm a broken record. But playing off SteveS' recent post about QAnon being gamified "social reality", the recent exchange with EricS regarding the necessity but insufficiency of merely assuming a stable reality to be converged upon, I think I may have a way to listen to the election deniers with empathy. I'm only engaged in this *because* all the credible sources refuse to address the *arc* in all their debunking. It's akin to why arguing facts won't change the minds of the religious. Their debunking addresses the parts, but not the whole. If we are ever to build a logic that validates against human reasoning, we'll have to do both, treat the parts and the composition of the whole from the parts. Anyway, my remedial rhetorical trajectory goes like this:

Coming back to Walsh & Stepney's project: 
https://www.springer.com/us/book/9783319647128

Plus stories that predispose: 
• Appel, M., & Richter, T. (2007). Persuasive effects of fictional narratives increase over time. Media Psychology, 10(1), 113–134.
  https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Persuasive-Effects-of-Fictional-Narratives-Increase-Appel-Richter/bf1c7e56694d797444a16606d46f9d0910e60d3d
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeper_effect

Plus analytical (Freudian & Jungian) vs. narrative (conspiracy theories and occult causation) persuasion:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transportation_theory_(psychology)

Plus "social reality": 
https://undark.org/2021/01/01/book-excerpt-seven-and-a-half-lessons-about-the-brain/

Finally, trying to steelman Trump's Georgia call:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/03/politics/trump-brad-raffensperger-phone-call-transcript/index.html

Basically, since he believes the down-ballot R's won on his coattails, it's paradoxical that he didn't win. To resolve the paradox, by faulty inference to the best explanation: the race between him and Biden (but not the down-ballot races) was manipulated, by hook or crook. Occam's razor might suggest that he's simply *not* as popular as the down-ballot candidates. But that's faulty reductionism. There's overwhelming evidence that Trump's "advocacy" amplified R rhetoric. So Biden-Trump race manipulation remains.

Shifting from steelmanning Trump to steelmanning his supporters: Of course, if Trump is the "discounting cue" ... that adds an interesting wrinkle. Everyone, even his ardent supporters, know he's incredible (!). But his incredibility both 1) makes the bullsh¡t he says more believable (by the sleeper effect) and 2) argues for keeping him around as the coal miners' canary. He "speaks truth" even if he's incredible and embarrassing.

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