evidently I have a job!!

[mzteris]

I just found out I'm a PAID POSTER!!

Now WTF is my CHECK?!?!?

:rofl:

Isn't that the most asinine accusation someone can make on here? I think it must be a compliment, though. I mean - I must be pretty damn good at my "job" if all they can respond with is "oh you're a rw shill" or the like. :eyes:

Now if could just get PAID for this! Yeah, I spend a lot of time on DU - 'cause I DON"T have a JOB! and can't seem to get one because I'm too "old" and haven't worked in a paid position since 2001 - except for the recent ~month's "temp job".


Yeah, I'm passionate about some of the topics I post on. Yeah, I have opinions contrary to "some" DU'ers. That doesn't make me a freep. There are other DU'ers who think like I do - but they must be smarter than I am because they've stopped banging their head against impenetrable walls of "sacred cows" that some people have. I hate that mindset where you're only allowed to think THIS, or support THAT - just BECAUSE.

Don't people believe in examining a subject from all sides? Revisiting their "beliefs" and re-evaluating just exactly what it is they do believe and are supporting? Sometimes, when people aren't looking, their "thing" has changed, but they didn't notice 'cause they were too busy playing cheerleader and not paying attention to what their "thing" actually has become?

And while I'm at it - people tend to interpret facts and events through the lens of their "belief" system. Their perceptions and understanding is skewed to reflect their own bias. It's very difficult to objectively look at all the data and draw NEW conclusions when your MIND IS MADE UP! Damnit!! You have to make a conscious effort to remove yourself from the information and evaluate it for what it IS, and not what you WANT IT TO BE.

There's a good book on the subject by Roger Schank: "Tell Me A Story" that explains about this phenomena. Some short quotes:

(this is in reference to a girl telling a friend about her breakup with her boyfriend...)
"In effect, once she decided to see their situation as one of betrayal, she didn't need to see it any other way. Aspects of the relationship between the two people unrelated to betrayal, or that contradicted the notion of betrayal, were forgotten. Seeing a particular story as an instance of a more general and universally known story causes the teller of the story to forget the differences between the particular and the general. ....In other words, the concept of betrayal becomes what she knows about this situation. It controls her memory of the situation so that new evidence of betrayal is more likely to get admitted into memory than contradictory evidence."(P.148)

"...Is this relationship, however, an example of betrayal? Certainly, the teller relates the story so that betrayal is an accurate description. But betrayal was used as a skeleton story around which the actual story was constructed. In other words, by using a skeleton story for betrayal, the teller could only construct a story of betrayal. All other aspects of the story were left out. But why, for example, could the teller not have told a story of "devotion"? Only small changes would be needed to make this a story of devotion - a statement that he still loves her and hopes that she will return to her former self or one that shows he values and will support her in her role as mother. ....We want to see the situations that we encounter in terms that are describable to others. We only have a short time in which to tell these stories. So, even if the fit with those stories is not exact, seeing and describing complex stories in terms of standard stories provides an easy shorthand method for communication." (P.148-149)

"The key point here is that once we find a belief and connected story, no further processing, no search for other beliefs need be done. We rarely look to understand a story in more than one way." (p.73)

"The skeletons we use indicate our point of view. Storytelling causes us to adapt a point of view. With this adaption comes a kind of self-definition, however. We are the stories we tell. ...As we come to rely upon certain skeletons to express what has happened to us, we become incapable of seeing the world in any other way. The skeletons we use cause specific episodes to conform to one another. The more a given skeleton is used, the more stories it helps form begin to coher in memory. Consequently, we develop consistent, and rather inflexible points of view." (P.170)

"An incident is remembered in terms of how it is seen in the first place. That is, labeling is in many respects an arbitrary process. ...And, of course, even that last categorization is arbitrary since one person might characterize the victim as being blond, while the other might characterise him as being fat." (P.222)


"We would like to imagine that we learn from the stories of others, but we really only do so when the stories we hear relate to beliefs that we feel rather unsure of, ones that we are flirting with at the moment, so to speak. When we are wondering, consciously or unconsciously, about the truth, about how to act or understand some aspect of the world, then the evidence provided by others can be of some use." (P.78)


"Knowing a great deal about a subject means being able to detect differences that will reflect themselves in differences in indexing. In other words, intelligence depends on clever indexing. Our expert is intelligent about military history. He sees nuances where others would not. He analyzes new stories well enough to be able to relate them to old stories that might not obviously be the same." (P.113)

****

You have to really be aware of your own biases and work very hard to see through them. Unfortunately, most people don't even have a clue that they ARE doing this. And, I suspect, would refuse to admit that it was even POSSIBLE that they're doing it, because to do so somehow shakes their belief in their -uh - beliefs!

I do try very hard to this myself. Am I always successful? No. I AM only human. I'm not afraid to admit I was wrong, or that my opinion has changed. If you can't incorporate new experiences and ways of thinking, you become stagnant and ill-informed.

I am ALWAYS open to new information - whether it conforms to my POV or not. I try to evaluate it objectively and not just look for the things I agree with and dismiss the things I don't. You want to change my mind? Go for it. However - I need FACTS. Quantifiable and reliable. Not anecdotal, not just "a" experience or a one-off. Not someone's someone who knew someone who had "this" happen to them. . .

ok :rant:

Now where's my CHECK?!?

[dembotoz]

1. i am jealous

bet you get paid lots more than i do

[mzteris]

2. hey you!

How're you doing??