Culture

What is cognitive dissonance and why is it holding you back? What do you have in common with a doomsday cult? Can you learn secrets to success from an obscure book called When Prophecy Fails? Find out all of this and more in the latest podcast.

Listen here on Soundcloud or here on iTunes.

Or read the notes below:

If you want to understand the true nature of *human* reality: Read these two books as a starting point: – When Prophecy Fails. – Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds Want me to do a thread on why these are the best two books to read to understand our times?

– When Prophecy Fails is a baseline book, that is, a book you must have read in order to have a fundamental understanding of human nature. It’s also an easy read. Here’s why it matters….

When Prophecy Fails is a book about a doomsday cult. People were told the world would end on a given date. This was a falsifiable prediction. Either the world ends, or it doesn’t. When the world did not end, what do you *think* would happen?

Everyone would say, “OK we got it wrong. Let’s move on.” That’s what, 15 years ago, I would have thought. Before reading When Prophecy Fails. Instead, almost half of the members DOUBLED DOWN. They created various reasons to explain away why the prediction failed.

When Prophecy Fails is a book about cognitive dissonance . Cognitive dissonance is the human inability to hold conflicting beliefs. “I was wrong,” is almost impossible for most people to admit, because being wrong conflicts with one’s identity about being smarter than average.

Kahneman’s research has shown we all consider ourselves above average. If you consider yourself above an average thinker, then how do you admit you were wrong about a deeply held belief? Hence, as When Prophecy Fails shows, people double down on those false beliefs.

When Prophecy Fails thus has two messages: 1. Why it’s pointless to use logic to argue with people with the goal of changing their minds on deeply held positions. 2. How your own self-image holds YOU back from saying, “Yep. I blew it. Damn. That sucks. Learn and move on.”

When Prophecy Fails also shows you how even “logical” people in some areas are not rational at all. Trump was GOING TO LOSE. It was 100%. Yet the day after he won, what *didn’t* happen? No one said, “I got this wrong. How can I learn from this mistake?”

What happened the day after Trump won was EXACTLY what you’d predict to happen, if you’ve read When Prophecy Fails. Pundits and others who are “informed” would not accept that they were wrong (ego damage), and instead doubled down to show they were actually right all along!

Likewise, when the GOP got trounced in 2018, none of those people predicting a Red Wave said, “Yep, I blew it. Let me update my knowledge about the world.” Cognitive dissonance isn’t a “them” issue, it’s an “us,” and “everyone” issue.

I’m a self-development guy. Every book I read, I use to update my model on how to live a better life. For me the message of When Prophecy Fails: – If you’re coming up with reasons to explain why you are ACTUALLY right, embrace the feeling. What are you afraid of?

My understanding of the fundamentals of human nature is why, to the jealousy of many people who did this game for decades and who I surpassed quickly, I “came from out of nowhere” to blow up. – Politics is applied mass psychology.

If you’ve read and internalized When Prophecy Fails, you just shake your head at what’s happening today. – Of course people are angry and won’t admit they were wrong. But on a persona level, here’s the reason lesson – Admit error and update your own mental software.

You have to have an ego to live big, if you don’t believe you matter, why dream big? But cognitive dissonance means your mind will go into overdrive to protect you from any hurt feelings. Which will hold you back, literally like the cult members in When Prophecy Fails.

Alex Jones has filed a civil lawsuit against the Young Turks based on alleged false criminal accusations the YouTube-sponsored channel made against Jones.

The Young Turks was recently in the news after one of its members said that, “America deserved 9/11.” (Read, “The Young Turks’ Hasan Piker Says ‘America Deserved 9/11’, Mocks Dan Crenshaw’s War Injury: ‘Brave Soldier F***ed His Eye Hole’”)

TYT had also found itself in called out for a blog post that referred to 14 and 15 year old girls as “whores in training.” The post:

• described a road trip with Uygur and David Koller, now senior vice president of operations at the Young Turks. The post was written in the style of a diary entry. At one point, “Dave” described chatting up some underage teenage girls he called “whores in training.”
• “In one small Pennsylvania town we stopped for gas, and while Cenk filled up I went to talk to these three girls who were walking down the road nearby. Turns out they were three teenage girls, whores in training, literally looking for boys to pick them up,” he wrote. “They were around 14-16 and in a few more years will be pretty damn good looking.”

YouTube continued to sponsor the Young Turks despite their celebration of 9/11 and sexualized talk about underage girls.

You can read Alex Jones’ lawsuit against the Young Turks below:

• Complaint of Alex Jones v. TYT

Also named in the lawsuit are Brianna Wu, a congressional candidate, and Andrew Kimmel formerly of Buzzfeed.

The Complaint reads:

The Defendants launched a campaign of lies and libels against their media competitor and ideological opponent, ALEX JONES. Defendants virally spread one of the worst smears that can be spread about anyone: accusing someone of one of the most infamous federal felony crimes, even though defendant knew JONES was actually the victim of that crime.

Parents of a school shooting sued JONES’ employer and JONES. After the suit was brought, hackers and cybercriminals ideologically allied with the Defendants tried to plant child porn on computers of JONES’ employer, during a time period designed to be unwittingly “discovered” by lawyers involved in the case, by using terms in the emails that had been ordered produced in court-ordered discovery. Once uncovered, the FBI cleared JONES and his employer, and JONES was the identified target victim. Defendants instead told the world it was JONES who sent child porn to the victims of school shootings. Jones, publicly, and through counsel, continually requested corrections from the offenders. These Defendants refused. This was libel. This suit follows.

Tonight The Des Moines Register and its reporter Aaron Calvin worked to destroy the life of a man who had raised over a million dollars for charity by brining up a tweet the man had made over 8 years ago, when he was 16. Cerno Media conducted a routine review of the The Des Moines Register reporter Aaron Calvin, and here’s what we turned up:

• can I be a guest instructor at your theater camp teaching the kids how to abuse substances and “turn tricks.”

Although the Tweet doesn’t mention the ages of the “kids,” Aaron Calvin was responding to Mackie Saylor. According to Saylor’s webpage, she works with children. Review of her work shows that the children she works with are between 8 and 13 years old, and in some cases are younger. I won’t link to her work to protect the privacy of the children.

In another Tweet, Calvin said it was his dream job to read sex stories to high school students.

The Des Moines Register is a sickening place, where its reporters want to read sex stories to high school students and teach young children how to use drugs and “turn tricks.”

• If you’re coming over here from Twitter, be sure to read Cernovich.com daily. My book reviews, which I don’t do enough of, are the fan favorite.

I don’t live a conventional life, and thus my social media isn’t one-dimensional. Most “political” people only tweet about politics. Or business people about business.

I write book reviews, speak openly about using drugs, break major stories, and talk a lot of shit. I’ve been a massive gym bro, have made films, and am also a licensed attorney. My first book Gorilla Mindset has sold over 100,000 copies.

You’ll thus find tweets about business, media, politics, fitness, drugs, and also random stuff that you won’t find elsewhere. This style frustrates expectations.

I run the most unfollowed account on Twitter. On average over 2,000 people a week unfollow me.

Internet person sees something they like, they follow, and then see stuff they don’t like.

It takes around 3 weeks to “get” my Twitter, as my style is unusual and unlike what you’re used to. I retweet dissenting points of view often, which leads people confused as to what I personally believe.

I curate, by this I mean bring your attention to experts you may not have ever heard of. Compare my timeline to others, and find someone who retweets people more often than I do. You won’t be able to.

I block quickly. You’ll think you’re totally owning me with a comment when the truth is that you’re unoriginal. I’ve heard it all.

Even an aggressive question or snide remark like “Really?” gets you blocked. Some will say this is because I am afraid of debate, but you must be new here. I’ve debated enough for many lifetimes and have no interest in arguing with people on the Internet.

You might not think you’ll care that I blocked you, but people ask me several times a day to unblock them. In real life at events people also mention I blocked them and asked for an unblock.

I also have a podcast, which you can listen to (and leave a review) here.