Illusion of Ubiquity

 The illusion of ubiquity is the false perception that a small number of objects, persons or beliefs are in the majority. In reality, those few items, people or beliefs held, are simply getting more media coverage as a result of their novelty or controversy.

The Dark Triad Personality

Introduction

A few years ago I was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder and prescribed Fluoxetine (Prozac™) 20mg daily, a Serotonin reuptake inhibitor, which increases the quantity of serotonin in the synaptic gaps. The transformation was astounding. I saw the world completely differently than before and my interest in Psychology as part of my communication studies became an obsession.

So far I have hypothesized the following:

• Logical fallacies and cognitive biases can reveal some personality traits, states, belief systems, subcultures and personality disorders.
• Everyone perceives and reacts with the world through the filter of their hormones. ( I have seen the filters change within myself.)
• We own our feelings. Our hormone balance, determined by our genetics / epigenetics, creates our general demeanor at homeostasis (default state) which can range from a positive outlook to a negative outlook, extravert, extrovert to patient, introvert, anxious, depressed, short-tempered or angry.
• We often incorrectly attribute the cause of our feelings to external sources like relationships, and situations. This comes from our oldest instinct for survival, being always aware of potential danger.
• Certain emotions governed by our hormones, are part of what is called the “preparatory set” which remain near the surface to be more likely triggered by stimuli. This is what makes each of us a unique personality.

Narcissism

Most personality traits are on a spectrum. Not all narcissists are willfully cruel, most don't realize what they are doing and nobody around them knows enough about the issue to correct them. I have a sibling, who always has the last word, loves to Zoom video conference and does nearly all of the talking, always knows more of what you are talking about and says "yes, that's right. and...(blah, blah, blah)", often but not always changes the subject to their own experiences. For the longest time I couldn't understand why when that person came to visit, it triggered subtle feelings of hostility in me. My temper was shortened because I was in emotional defense mode for competition I did not want. This kind of narcissism is mild but no less exhausting and exasperating. Narcissism standing alone can actually be beneficial, especially because this person is a teacher.

Psychopathy

Psychopaths as defined by the field of psychiatry is technically someone with Anti-Social Personality Disorder (ASPD). Psychopathy is a colloquialism and not a formal term used in the mental health field for official diagnoses.

Anti-social behavior can be summed up as follows:

• Lack of emotional empathy but a clever sense of cognitive empathy.
• Emotional empathy provides you with the ability to understand when doing something might hurt someone else's feelings and in-turn, hurt your own feelings. Along with cognitive empathy also provides you with a sense of what is fair and reasonable.
• Uses malicious humor. (Passive Aggression)
• Humor at the expense of someone else. Directing attention to your problems, for example, at Thanksgiving Dinner with extended family, or while at a restaurant dining in public with friends or strangers within earshot.
• They try to goad you into revealing your weaknesses by making up fake weaknesses of their own.
• They try to get you to reveal secrets you have about your friends by sharing gossip with you.
• Then they use what you revealed to drive a wedge between you and whomever you spoke about.
• They alter their persona around other people, even when you are there.

Machiavellianism

Based on the writings of Niccolo Machiavelli, called by some "The father of modern political philosophy and political science."  Machiavellianism has come to be know as having these characteristics:

• Manipulative
• Callousness
• Indifferent to social norms
• Cold selfishness
• Winning at any cost
• Willing to do things other people find terrible or immoral
• Low emotional self awareness or intelligence

The Dark Triad Personality

The combination of narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism.

This malevolent personality knows how to use your weaknesses against you, and can easily achieve cult leader status. However, cult followers often try to emulate their leader by using the cult leader's tactics and phrases, but often out of context and fall short as they do not fully comprehend that they are psychologically captive.

The Dark Triad Personality can be identified by these characteristics:

• They lie nearly all the time and continue to lie despite being called out on the lies.
• They repeat slogans loaded with logical fallacies, hyperbole and weasel words.
• Twist facts and statistics to their own benefit.
• Continuously vilify, denigrate, dehumanize, disenfranchise or alienate other people.
• Victim Blaming
• Manufacture danger to keep their followers huddled and isolated in fear.
• "They are taking your freedoms and rights away!'
• "They will take your jobs, guns, land, livelihood away!"
• "They will convert you to homosexuality!"
• "They want to kill all babies!"
• "They are Communists!"
• News media outlets that continuously cover stories of violence and disasters.
• They exploit their followers cognitive biases to maintain control over their followers and destabilize their opponents.

Some characteristics of people vulnerable to the Dark Triad Personality:

• Very limited vocabulary due to lack of cultural diversity.
• Dogmatic, intransigent belief system
• Low self awareness and situational awareness.
• Prone to psychological projection.
• Vulnerable to logical fallacies, cognitive biases and weasel words.
• Defer decisions to leaders without question.
• Intimidated by intellectuals, high fear of humiliation.
• Obsesses with affiliation, being validated and praised.
• Xenophobia, or simply fear of the unknown.
• Fear of people they don't know can create physical discomfort, which they then attribute to the people they fear, leading them to express anger, hatred and rationalizations for the way they feel in the form of conspiracy theories.

UPDATE: 

Sadism is now considered to be such a major part of this personality that it's sometimes referred to the "Dark Tetrad."

Dark Triad - Wikipedia

Common signs of psychopathy - Healthline

You Might Be a Conversational Narcissist and Not Even Know It. (Here's How to Tell) - Linkage

Intellectual Arrogance - Conservapedia

5 Things Psychopaths and Narcissists Will Do in Conversation - Psychology Today

Conversational Narcissism

There are certain characteristics in a personality that are so subtle they cannot be clearly categorized. The other night I was complimented about a pasta side-dish I created earlier that day, and another person changed the subject to about how she makes pasta from scratch.

There is another individual who will absolutely always have to have the last say in EVERY EXCHANGE that happens in a group. There is nothing he doesn't know at least something about, and he will change the context of the discussion to something completely different in order to get eyes on himself.

At first I dismissed it, criticizing myself for making a big deal about it, but this kind of toxicity is insidious and I'm often left exhausted at the end of the day. It's so subtle I didn't know what to call it until I typed in the Google search box "taking over a conversation and making it about themselves". What popped up was "Conversational Narcissism."

• Art of Manliness: How to Avoid Conversational Narcissism (01/24/2020)
• Hack Spirit: Conversational narcissism: 5 signs and what you can do about it (09/11/2019)
• NBC News: How to tell if you're a 'conversational narcissist' (12/04/2017)
• term: "Shift Response" 
• Insider: Narcissists use a subtle conversation tactic to make everything about them, and you may not notice it until its driving you crazy (07/30/2019)

Who should you believe?

How do you trust what people tell you every day? It's easy. You only trust them if they believe in God because of course then it follows that they believe in Hell too, and if they lie to you they will suffer an eternity in a lake of fire. You should believe everyone who proclaims they have faith in their religion because there will always be some sort of punishment following any infraction or violation of their own rules. This is one of many things that religions around the world have in common, rules for behavior.

But what about science and academics? Those "intellectuals" who often proclaim Atheism, Agnosticism or some other form of not believing or having any faith? How would you know if they were telling you the truth about anything? Should you believe their "science?"

Science is grounded in the real world. First someone has to look at a situation and come up with a hypothesis about it. Then, to see if they can change the outcome or mitigate a problem caused by the situation, scientists will experiment with the variable factors within the situation until they come up with a solution. If the experiment fails, they document the outcome so that nobody repeats the failed experiment. (How many times have you prayed for something that still didn't go your way?)

If an experiment is a success, the scientists will publish the results for peer review. Their peers will recreate the experiment and based on the success of those experiments, the peer review will determine that the solution arrived at for the situation is the correct course of action.

If science is faked, it will be outed by the peers and exposed as a fraud and discredited.

Now back to the faithful. How many people do you know openly proclaim that they have faith, but don't really adhere to all of the rules of the faith to which they allegedly subscribe?

How many of them look like they're faking it? It's easy for people who don't really believe in God to say they do because they don't have the fear of going to Hell in their souls. How do you know who to believe?

Mass Media & Mental Health

I’m gradually drawing a hypothesis that mass media has normalized suspended cognitive development to such a degree that the media refers to sub- Concrete Operational cognitive development as a normal ideology in competition with Formal Operational cognitive development. Referring to these disparate levels of thinking as “conservative” and “progressive” and making “centrism” some kind of twisted version of common sense.

Various theories on Cognitive Development

While researching cognitive development, I began to notice that a vast number of adults seem to be operating at less than an adult cognitive capacity.
I couldn’t put my finger on it at first, but as I read, more symptoms became clear.

• Lack of empathy for anyone outside of one’s own family and circle of friends.
• Unable to contemplate long-term or wider degree of effect their decisions have on people around them.
• Susceptible to logical fallacies, cognitive biases, weasel words, distortions of the truth, lies and deception. Gullible.
• Low situational and emotional awareness. Unwilling or incapable of at least trying to imagine the perspectives of other cultures or ideologies.
• Susceptible to creeping normality. Incapable of recognizing subtle warning signs that there is a growing threat to one’s way of life.
• Defers obsequiously to perceived authority without question. Extremely loyal and subservient, regardless of the consequences.
• Lives a dogmatic lifestyle. Incapable of adapting to change or to change one’s mind when presented new information, or to admit to being wrong.
• Selfish and opportunistic at the expense of other people and the environment.
• Ego-Syntonic: Despite the negative consequences, believes that one’s behavior is normal.
• Weak Self-Esteem: Narcissism, obsesses over one’s own social status compared to other people in order to feel better about one’s self. Bigotry, racism, sexism, and conspicuous consumption are factors.
• While driving, loathes other drivers merging into one’s lane in front of them despite proper signaling and distance. Sees driving on the street as some sort of competition. Tends to tailgate other drivers.

Zones of Interpersonal Interaction are often
regulated by cult leaders but mostly
conditioned internal authority managed
by your religious beliefs or Xenophobia.

• Xenophobic: Paranoid about strangers and active seekers of threats. Sees conspiracies in most situations involving people one does not know who are wealthier or more well-off or more powerful than one’s self, like the government.
• There is probably more...

The normalization of this behavior by the media can only be exposed through learning Critical Thinking Skills. Understanding the effects of weasel words, logical fallacies and cognitive biases. Spending more time out of your comfort zone getting to know people.

Examples:

• https://www.facebook.com/thehodgetwins/posts/3083998331681274
• https://twitter.com/search?q=klu%20klux%20karen&src=typeahead_click
• 
  

EGO-SYNTONIC: What is it?

There is another part of Narcissism which explains why Narcissists don't recognize that their behavior is having a negative impact on people around them: Ego-syntonicism, or ego-syntonicity.

• Wikipedia: Egosyntonic and egodystonic.
• Psychology Today: 7 Ways to Identify a Passive-Aggressive Narcissist.

Here are just a few ingredients:

• Low emotional awareness
• Lack of empathy, concern, compassion.
• Unable or unwilling to anticipate the needs of others
• Low situational awareness
• Lack of courtesy in public.
• Doesn't use the inside voice, inside.
• Ignores the turn signals of other vehicles while driving.
• Doesn't respect parking lot rules, like leaving enough space for other parked cars.
• Interrupts the activity of others
• Inability to understand abstract concepts



How This Remote Island Became Home To Millions Of Pieces Of Trash

• Sacrifices trust by talking about other people behind their backs, but doesn't realize the damage to one's own reputation as a gossiper.
• Unable to realize the long-term consequences of one's own choices, like using plastic.
• Egocentrism
• Selfish. Takes everything personally. Believes the world revolves around oneself.
• Assumes that people are being rude when they are really only having a bad day.
• External Locus of Control
• Believes that one's own situation is caused by other people. Comes to hate or resent other people.
• Unable to manage or take responsibility for one's own emotions. Believes that other people or situations makes one angry.
• Xenophobia
• Fear of strangers, different ethnicity, different races.
• Dogmatism 
• Defers decisions to the edicts of perceived authority figures.
• Does not question authority.
• Lives by a set of rules laid down in ancient times that are now of no consequence due to scientific advances and learning.

Creeping Normality

Through years of watching the spectacle of bad behavior on television and now social media, this sort of behavior, like gossiping or narcissistic behavior has become normalized, even glorified.

Regime Change and Religious Conversion Don't Work for Democracy In a Superstitious Culture.

A major Catholic school in town was shut-down due to lack of attendance. This was in May of 2018.
This isn't affecting just Catholics, but practically all religious institutions. They are undermined by academic institutions.

Logic, Reason, Critical Thinking Skills, are all tenets of an educated, fully democratized society. Leaving behind religious and tribal privileges and corruption for a balanced, sustainable distribution of resources to maintain a peaceful social order without need for the use of threats or force.

Control over people is not really about any one particular religion. It's the depth of superstition within which they lurk. It doesn't matter who the god or the leader is, as long as the acolyte is devout. This may partly explain why Pope Francis resigned evangelism to the dust bin.

Hypothesizing from Jean Piaget's stages of cognitive development, it's not difficult to see that a large portion of the planet's population has suspended development at the Concrete Operational Stage, but how does superstition play into cognitive development?

• Locus of Control
• External locus of control. belief that they are not in control of their own lives.
• They believe in fate, that God has a plan for them.
• They defer the most personal decisions in their lives to their leaders.
• Internal Locus of control is the sense that you can control your life. That you have control over the outcome of your future. Confidence, Expertise. The ability to affect changes in one's community.

It may be more complicated that Just either Internal or External Locus of Control. There may be degrees of FAITH.

Academic consulting of military intervention, regime change, etc., has proven to be a complete disaster, unless of course you work the line at a weapons manufacturing facility.