It’s so much fun to watch Fox News. Now they have their panties in a twist over the woman on Venice Beach who threw an egg (and missed) at Larry Elder. Since these people in their groupthink have agreed that she must be racist because Elder is black. Hasn’t anyone taken a class in psychology?
Attribution theory is one of the earliest studies in social psychology. To what do you attribute the motivation of another person? What causes a person’s behavior? The person who is trying to guess the motive is usually colored by their own thoughts an experience. There is a lot of research about intrinsic vs. extrinsic motives. So you can wonder about the Venice woman. Does she detest black people? Does she despise his silly policies? Does she think he is a blowhard? Is she tired of the deluge of lies from the Repubs?
So it would be nice to know the motives of a person before you judge her in your knee-jerk manner. Venice girl is in my neighborhood. I hope I know her personally.
Again, define yourselves when you say racist. I believe we are all prejudiced, can’t help it. We can fight against it by having an open mind. Getting back to H., he believes having an open mind is a bad thing. He will grip onto an idea he learned in 1960 and never let go.
One of the last times I spoke to him I asked if he wanted a free subscription to Time magazine. No. Was it too left wing? He didn’t really know. I asked him to do an informal survey of people in conversation: “Do you think Time is left wing?” He never did, because he would rather grip his own ideas to the death, and how dare anyone try to change them. Probably more likely is H.’s avoidance of the written word. He acts like he can’t read. But I asked him to read a couple sentences in front of me. So I still don’t get it.
Back to Larry Elder incident, Craig says these people need a mirror: so quick to accuse while afraid to look at their own selves. Hey, this works for both sides of the aisle, too. But the best way to avoid these human defense Freudian defense mechanisms (projection) is to be aware of them.
Off for now…
MethadonianX 