You write “. . . a mind is a difficult thing to change . . . .”

Agreed. IMO the fundamental problem is that it requires the changer to admit that in some respect their previous position–opinion–paradigm was not correct. To admit to one’s self that one was wrong is probably the single most profoundly difficult recognition we all, as human beings, face. IMO it requires an unommon sort of self-effacing humility. Thus, it is far less emotionally painful to be inured to the status quo even if we know it might be improper or incorrect.

This puts your own political change in a different light. As much as it may be about recognizing a “right” or a “wrong” position it is moreso (again IMO) about having the courage to take a very difficult and decisive step. Perhaps this is one reason that your intelligent liberal friends do not “convert.” Conversion requires a profound internal courage and as I age it becomes increasingly clearer that this is a phenomenally rare human commodity.

I’ve always thought that the purpose of participating in comment threads like those Neo provides is to engage in dialog…which presupposes a willingness to consider the opinions of others, not dominate the discussion, and not talk down to the rest of the participants as though they were lower life forms.

And just because one doesn’t intend to do it, or has some psychological/biological condition that makes behaving like a pontificating intellectual unavoidable, doesn’t mean one isn’t responsible for that behavior.

No, artfldgr, you never try to address short. You are grandiose and condescending. In your mind everyone is ignorant and ill informed. In your mind you are all knowing and everyone else is a dupe simply because they do not know ever factoid and reference that you know. You fail to realize others walk a different path to the top of the mountain. You think your path is the only path. That is where you are wrong.

Your knowledge is vast and you have a keen mind, but your assumptions about the other blinking and breathing members of your species are often inaccurate when it is directed at those who follow this blog. We all read the clouds, the direction of the wind, watch the barometer, and usually, but not always, have an accurate idea of what the weather will be like during the next 24 hours.

http://tinyurl.com/d5gnagq

“The phone is tapped anyway.”

(1)I changed my mind about my political affiliation

(2) I changed my mind about my interpretation of history

(3) I changed my mind about the veracity of the media sources I had previously trusted

(4) I fought against the evidence before me that showed me these things (i.e., for example, that I’m not really a Democrat, and actually never have been, even though I voted that way for years, back when I was relatively apolitical), because yes, a mind is a difficult thing to change. It’s difficult to admit one was wrong about something, even if it’s something like trusting the MSM when they actually aren’t trustworthy. Most people would go to great lengths to avoid such a readjustment.

(5) Tying in with #4 above, I’ve found that, when I try to tell people what I’ve learned, they resist changing their minds about these things.

And so yes, a mind is a difficult thing to change, about lots of things. When I use the word “mind” (and when most people use it), I do not mean an entire mind—beliefs, values, everything. “To change one’s mind” has a common meaning—it does not mean to completely change every single value or belief one ever had. It can be about something small (whether you like a certain food, for example) or something big (a political affiliation, and one’s trust in the media, for example, like what I went through).

So no, not the wrong words at all—except in the sense of Popper’s quote: “Always remember that it is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood: there will always be some who misunderstand you.” You are misunderstanding me, and it is not the first time.

if so, wouldnt the title
How long does it take to change from left to right?

be more correct
How long does it take to change sides from left to right?

and what about this title you wrote:
A mind is a difficult thing to change: my change story

wrong words if your point above is valid, no?

if your above was valid and you didn’t change, wouldn’t your title be different?

why change your mind, if your mind is not changing and your chaning sides?

makes no sense to me
but i always catch people revisioning their words, the same way rainman would catch someone saying a wrong stat (and for the same reason!)

let me know. and i will go through it and show you where what you just said above is not what you said then…

by the way, if it was, then i would not have had to write those long pieces saying that.
and quote those other books, and ask you to read things that would show you that.

too bad we speak too loose..

by the way, i remember you told us your exact age within a year… do you?

🙂

I’m picking up a very heavy vibe that our American empire is closing down.

It’s not the vibe I want, but it’s the vibe that’s there.

I’m not just getting this now. I “got it” from the start of my change. I realized I hadn’t really changed my beliefs, I was reacting to a change in information.

what was the BIGGEST DUPE?

that women could oppose their mates and exist apart from them ignoring their biology and still think that they would be a meaningful anything in a future they were not immortal in.

not only did i tell you the fulcrum and pivot

but i also told you how to change the election

do you think women would be too stupid to not get that? i don’t. i think they are not as smart as men when it comes to the outer world inner world thing. and everyone is stupid enough to be duped!!!

but are they stupid enough to rid the trick over the cliff and join thelma and louise?

yes…

and why are they so stupid?
because they think they are so smart
and who told them they are so smart?
the people duping them

but you tell me, how can a person with no children or fewer children than the other groups that wish them exterminated, think that they are meaningful to the future?

women are not meaningful to the future unless they are women and have babies.

and look how big the focus is by feminists to NOT accept that everything important about being a woman is in babies… as everything that is important about being a man is providing AND protecting (they leave that out, no? but how can you resolve a oppressor and protector? a ha! another facet of the game)

the women who opposed their mates negated their mates AND themselves. their greater numbers through lower mortality in every category means that there are enough extra to cover others.

they did not choose obama
they did not choose romney

they negated their choice by picking blind opposition to their mates making choices in terms of healthy families, good society, responsibility, etc.

and in this game…
the only ones that can stop the women are women… just as the only ones that can stop the race hate are the Africans who don’t hate.

any action by a group that is believed to be outside not part of the larger group and common, would help vindicate the dialogue.

so… men cant negate feminism, only women can. that is reinforced in movies as the thin boned babe fights but does not get scarred, broken bones, hair out of place, etc. and beats a man many times her size.

the truth… in every case the man would blow through her as if she wasnt there. why? because that is what other women picked him for…

men are more competent in the world, and more inventive and all that. that is their nature. why do we have that nature? prior to feminisms desire to breed that out of man, your mothers, grandmothers, and great grandmothers chose men more competent in the real world.

so, men and women are equal, and the more we apply that, women are more equal, and the more we apply that, we decline and our fecundity approaches unity (0)

the target here is the large group of moral europeans that made america.

how did they remove them? they turned the women against their mates with a huge amount of pseudo science bs claiming knowledge before we ever knew.

imagine what kind of society we would have if the women didnt get played like that?

what would the crime rate be?
what would the morality level would be?
education level?
freedom from government interference?
size of welfare?
high or low taxes?
more or less leisure?
happy gulag, or wage slave?

It’s not so much that I bought the counter narrative of the MSM (as I said, there were lots of things I was supposed to approve of that I did not think were good, such as affirmative action and bilingual education, which I recognized as bad). It was more that I did not focus enough attention on thinkers who were simpatico with me, so I didn’t realize I actually was more on the right than the left, and I most definitely did not learn the lessons of history until later.

RIGHT!!!

you didnt convert. you found out that once you paid attention, your brain would figure it out and then decide they were gaming you.

the response to that is either to work hard to maintain the delusion they are not, or accept they are and find someone that does represent you more

THIS was what i have been trying to tell you with all those book references for four years, and even saying this several times.

the comment you made means you finally internalized it from facts to knowlege, and that now, you can see, that you never changed.

this is why i refer to cargo cult..
wolves in sheeps clothing

you see… FALSE FRONT

once you get that and the mechanism and the principals, then your going to start noticing things of substance and no substance.

you will then be amazed at how smart people, very smart people, can not see it or will fight hard to not see it.

but then thats the self esteem ego thing going. after all, to actually progress we have to admit our errors… then we can learn from them. an error not made is an error not learned from

so until you admit the game, put ego aside, and all that… THEN you wont get it. but once you do, you suddenly realize that there is no shame in being tricked, the ego wall was a false front, a false fear… everyone is tricked sometimes! but if you expend every effort to protect your ego from admitting that, then you never learn from it.

now you have to play catch up
you need to find many gurus
people who will tell you the same thing in many different ways, where your brain will realize the intersection of all that is the thing to learn

once this happens, then you get the anger, the energy, the idea of opposing.. the indignation of how dare they… the double indignation of how dare they start with children!

you cant get out of the crab bucket until you find someone to lift you out, as the others are ready to drag you in.

I was not a political activist at all in those days, nor was I a writer (except of poetry and fiction). My activism was limited to speaking out against these things in private discussions as well as university settings, where I sometimes found myself. Another topic, by the way, on which I always spoke out right from the start (and discussed in school settings) was education for the gifted–I was deeply against mainstreaming the gifted, always. But I never started any groups or ran for public office or did any public speaking about it; as I said, I was not an activist, except to express my opinion in a number of settings both private and public.

actually you were and didn’t know it!

you were just taught that you could bow out and pretend you were not making a political choice doing so…

your political activism was the abrogation of your part and that being given to feminism!!!!

ie. if you were not against them you were for them!!!!

and the reason is that they are monolithic, so it boils down to only that choice… a ha! they understand this, and so they construct this kind of thing… and they even discuss it, which is a lot more creepy than affirmative action!

they taught you that you could be politically inactive, when that is a condition that is not possible.

when you asked your kids what are you doing, didnt it annoy you they said “nothing”? 🙂

why?

because the left didnt teach you the rule and so you were free to be sane there and realize there was no way to do nothing. in fact, doing nothing is doing something. no?

but they also said… politically you can do nothing… you even explain things today in terms of it. but is the premise that your point is turning on valid? nope.

this is where the dissonance between their points then screams at you IF you take a look. the personal is political slams up against the false apolitical state.

in essence they said everything is political, and if some people dont want to tell what they want, we will speak for them.

and THATS how you supported the whole of feminism by not acting…

you cant bow out… but as long as your duped into thinking you can, and try, they get to vote your choice. your not present, they are, and there is a choice to be made..

clever eh?

but you will never work it out while inside it, or not being passed it, or having learned what was or isn’t.

as in the screwtape letters, they did not need you to vote for them, they only needed you not to vote against them