[FRIAM] help me understand

[Steve Smith]

glen sed:
> If so, I have to go back to one of my favorite quotes: "Stupidity 
> should be painful." I mean, yes, I do have an irrational reaction to 
> things like lotus seed pods. But OMG, it's *because* of that reaction 
> that I look at them so frequently. What kind of "fear" does Pink 
> experience? It's just baffling, ridiculous even.
>
I am not clear if what you call "ridiculous" is Pink feeling fear, or 
Pink expressing it publicly in response to Macklamore expressing what he 
did publicly?

I'm probably the wrong one to try to make sense of your feelings,  or 
Pink's feelings, though I am more able to hear Macklamore's apparent 
feelings.

Your "free the Proud Boys" example is apt for me, however...

I have not use for the likes of the Proud Boys (or virtually anyone 
"flying colors" with a violent habit) and hearing someone promote 
"freeing them" can give me a quiver of discomfort.

I'm not generally directly threatened by such in the way "Pink as a 
Jewish Mom" probably does if her focus is more on Hamas' actions on Oct 
7 than than that of the IDF/(un)armed Jewish Settlers 
executing/threatening violence.   On 9/12/2001 I was aware that "yet 
another" affiliated terrorist group might target my locale (i.e. LANL) 
for any number of reasons, I was also able to recognize some of the 
reasons they might *choose* my locale for such and what some of their 
righteous (if reactive) motives might be.

I thought Pink's statement was pretty authentic and *tried* to be 
de-escalating, stating specifically that *she* wasn't calling for or 
endorsing the implied censorship, yet honestly acknowledging the 
*potency* of the implications TO HER and HERS.  My hope would be that 
her statement could be an opening for other Jewish (American?) mothers 
with the same gut reaction to talk to one another and ask more honestly 
"what are we afraid of?" , "what conditions brought us to this point?".  
  I suspect the vilification of Jews in Nazi Germany had good German 
Mothers quivering when they heard whispers of "free the Jews?", maybe 
especially after a (relatively rare?) partisan (re)action to the Nazi's 
which spilled over onto civiilians... the propoganda material of that 
era (not unlike post Civil War South) was pretty ugly, designed to 
elicit fear and disgust.

Re: your trypophobia, I experience a mild trypophilia which may be some 
cognitive layer defense mechanism?  maybe the same mechanism as 
stockholm syndrome, or human's general fascination with dangerous 
predators?

I have a similar reaction (I think) to threatening *groups*...  a 
conflicted fascination with street gangs, biker gangs, authoritarian 
regimes, rogue/failed states...  I don't wish *more of such things* on 
the world, but do find them worthy of some kind of open-scrutiny that 
maybe transcends my instant knee-jerk reaction?   Both of these probably 
undermine *true empathy* but perhaps are a weak standin?

    /"We all got to be the way we are somehow"?/
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