3 Responses

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   Dredd said on 2/16/2026 @ 2:14am PT: [Permalink]

   Astute observations are do not always have widespread impact:

   Cultural cognition, sometimes called “group think, ” has been described as a detectable, but difficult-to-treat, dynamic:

   The diagnosis of collective neuroses, moreover, will be confronted by a special difficulty. In the neurosis of an individual we can use as a starting point the contrast presented to us between the patient and his environment which we assume to be normal. No such background as this would be available for any society similarly affected; it would have to be supplied in some other way. And with regard to any therapeutic application of our knowledge, what would be the use of the most acute analysis of social neuroses, since no one possesses power to compel the community to adopt the therapy? In spite of all these difficulties, we may expect that one day someone will venture upon this research into the pathology of civilized communities.

   (Social Dementia Causes Heated Misunderestimations – 3, quoting “the father of psychoanalysis”, Freud). Well, as I wrote above, we are not there yet.”

   (Beware of the Sycophant Epidemic).So, when group leaders address other world leaders …  What about Projectionsim?:

   “… criticism in the U.S. national security strategy released in December, which asserted that economic stagnation in Europe “is eclipsed by the real and more stark prospect of civilizational erasure.” It suggested that Europe is being enfeebled by its immigration policies, declining birth rates, “censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition” and a “loss of national identities and self-confidence.”

   (Europeans push back at US over claim they face ‘civilizational erasure’, emphasis added).

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   Dredd said on 2/19/2026 @ 1:44pm PT: [Permalink]

   “You got a lotta nerve

   To say you got a helping hand to lend

   You just want to be on

   The side that’s winning”
   (Positively 4th Street, Dylan, “Winning isn’t everything, especially in democracy“).

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   Dredd said on 2/21/2026 @ 8:27am PT: [Permalink]

   Trump:

   “I am allowed to cut off any and all trade”¦I can destroy the trade, I can destroy the country, I’m even allowed to impose a foreign country destroying embargo”¦I can do anything I want to do to them”¦I’m allowed to destroy the country, but I can’t charge a little fee.”

   (Isn’t Winning Fun?).