danorrmite✡️Nov 20, 2022

I mean, wow. There's so much going on here. But the take-home is that people who create hate propaganda can manipulate anyone to try horrible things.

If this guy succeeded, it would have been an antisemitic attack, and his having had a 93 year old Holocaust surviving grandfather would not change that.

New York Post : Man who allegedly threatened NYC synagogue is Jewish, kin of a Holocaust survivor: Lawyer.
https://nypost.com/2022/11/20/matthew-mahrer-who-made-threats-against-nyc-synagogue-is-jewish-kin-of-a-holocaust-survivor-lawyer/

Man who allegedly threatened NYC synagogue is Jewish, kin of a Holocaust survivor: Lawyer

Cops searched one of the suspect’s apartments and found a loaded handgun with an extended magazine and a bulletproof vest.

New York Post
Show threadDeeGee
@danorrmite this is going to create so much confusion. "It wasn't antisemitism, he was Jewish!" "He was mentally ill!" etc.
Nov 20, 2022 at 1:02pmWeb
Show threaddanorrmite✡️Nov 22, 2022

@deegee Here's my conjecture about bigotry:

An assertion of bigotry against a group of which the person expressing bigotry is themselves a member is irrational if and only if a similar expression of bigotry made by a person who is not a member of the group is irrational.

Show threaddanorrmite✡️Nov 22, 2022

@deegee

People who deny this imply that there is a special kind of irrationality indicated when, for example, a Jew expresses antisemitism that isn't also indicated when a non-Jew expresses antisemitism.

I think those who deny the conjecture are either wrong about the nature of bigotry. I mean, imagine finding some expressions of bigotry more rational (or indicating less irrationality) than other expressions depending upon who expresses them!

Show threaddanorrmite✡️Nov 22, 2022

@deegee

the notion that the following can't all coeherently describe one person is false:

(i) he is motivated by antisemitism
(ii) he is jewish
(iii) he is mentally ill

I don't think the any of the three descriptions, on their face, make logical contact unless the operational definition of a mental ilness happens to include being motivated by bigotry.

Show threadDeeGeeNov 22, 2022
@danorrmite I agree. I do think there is a useful distinction between beliefs that are delusional and those that are merely irrational. Conspiracy theories are irrational but widespread among people who are not otherwise losing their grip on reality. Some schizophrenic people living in a deeply racist/antisemitic/transphobic society may be more inclined to adopt and act on those beliefs, but that doesn't make it a mental health issue.
Show threadDeeGeeNov 22, 2022
@danorrmite in terms of the broader MAGA movement, I suspect it is some combination of grift and cult mind control at work. It took a lot of digging by the Jan 6 commission to prove that Trump knew he lost the election and was just a habitually lying demagogue. With people like Mike Lindell, Alex Jones and Michael Flynn, it is still unclear if they believe the outrageous things they say. But some percentage of their followers certainly do.
Show threaddanorrmite✡️Nov 22, 2022

@deegee I am no longer doing phil mind, but i am definitely of a more behaviorist/functional behaviorist tilt now than I was then.

We infer what a person believes based upon what they are disposed to assert, or do. The world has developed so that the connection between beliefs, rationality, and epistemic justification seems so much looser than those things seemed to me then.

The connection was always not necessary, but is now obviously contingent.

Show threaddanorrmite✡️Nov 22, 2022
@deegee I am increasingly uninterested in forming theories about what people (apart from people I know/care about) believe or think.
Show threadDeeGeeNov 22, 2022
@danorrmite I think whether a person is telling the truth or lying and whether they can distinguish the real from the imaginary still matter in the law, mental health care, and ethics. I am very interested in whether or not Michael Flynn, a 3-star general and former NSA advisor who is now a leading insurgent, actually believes that globalists are using vaccines to alter people's DNA. This is Dr. Strangelove territory.