The Backfire Effect. (or, why you'll never win an internet argument)

[Moonbeam]

I've stopped arguing online. It's stupid and I don't care what people think.

I've also noticed what I go thru emotionally when I'm trying to get my point across. I start getting anxious, blood pressure goes up, etc. It's not worth it. Why ruin my emotional health because some idiot believes Sandy Hook was fake? Or the Holocaust? You aren't going to change their minds. Those people are delusional.

The question I would be asking myself, the question I always ask myself when I experience negative emotional effects, isn't whether I would be emotionally healthier avoiding those situations, but why I experience the situation negatively, what is it that I really feel. It is always some aspect of ego comfort I feel I stand to lose, something I hold onto that I really don't need. I don't feel stress in making a point I don't have some unconscious need to be heard, unconscious and therefore unconsciously assumed to be necessary that may actually not be. I am a nobody and when I am fully aware of that, well, why would my opinion be important.

 

[Moonbeam]

I'm still laughing at the irony of you guys debating this thread since the whole point is about the backfire effect and how some of you are doing exactly what it says you'll do

Probably sometime in 1999 I first posted that humanity is asleep, suffering from the unconscious disease of self-hate, that we do not know what we feel, do not want to know we do not know and do not want to know we do not want to know. There is a reason for what you term the backfire effect, the explanation I just gave and it is only in understanding our real condition that we can save ourselves. None of this was original to me. A river begins as a single drop and will wear its way through stone. The truth will always out, the truth will always win and the truth is that we were created in the image of God and He in ours. Every human being is their age minus a bit away from the Garden of Eden and here and there some can and do return to it. In the words of Mulla Nasrudin, "Oh my Beloved, everywhere I look it appears to be Thou." There is a hidden world where there is no need, only something to give. The givers are known to be insane and call themselves fools. I would be like that if I could.

 

[momeNt]

Probably sometime in 1999 I first posted that humanity is asleep, suffering from the unconscious disease of self-hate, that we do not know what we feel, do not want to know we do not know and do not want to know we do not want to know. There is a reason for what you term the backfire effect, the explanation I just gave and it is only in understanding our real condition that we can save ourselves. None of this was original to me. A river begins as a single drop and will wear its way through stone. The truth will always out, the truth will always win and the truth is that we were created in the image of God and He in ours. Every human being is their age minus a bit away from the Garden of Eden and here and there some can and do return to it. In the words of Mulla Nasrudin, "Oh my Beloved, everywhere I look it appears to be Thou." There is a hidden world where there is no need, only something to give. The givers are known to be insane and call themselves fools. I would be like that if I could.

What the hell did I just read.

 

[shortylickens]

What the hell did I just read.

Welcome to Moonbeam.
Its a fun ride.

 

[Atreus21]

I firmly believe that studies can't tell me how I think. No amount of "empirical" evidence can make me believe that. Human thoughts cannot be studied empirically and anybody who thinks they can suffers from delusions of greater understanding.

"Mens' minds are ruled not by facts and knowledge, but by general impressions."

-George Grant.

 

[Moonbeam]

What the hell did I just read.

That didn't sound like the kind of humility implied by somebody seeking clarity. It's a familiar experience for me. I have something in my signature on the topic. If you can figure out what it will probably be the best answer I can give.