as someone obsessed w peoples thought processes to a stupid + pathological degree, i spent a few minutes talking to this “anti conspiracy theory” guy in the posts above and below this one. its a good example of a thought terminating cliche in the wild, one i see quite often [...] https://twitter.com/owenbroadcast/status/1296800417733652482

in my mind ive started to call this one “the goliath caricature”. the person has, in their minds, a 1000 foot tall caricature of something that casts a huge shadow that obscures all of the real manifestations of that thing, so they can only see and address the caricature.

that one is an interesting (if your brain is broken like mine) example because you have someone whose whole mission is convincing people that no “conspiracy theory” is ever valid able to admit that at least one existed, but they cant see that error because of their caricature.

so you have the situation where someone is running an organization called “no bears exist” able to admit “well yeah i saw a bear once” and then when you confront them with this discrepancy they say “no no people say bears have wings and antlers, those bears dont exist”.

i guess i enjoy getting up close with these things because i feel that these exaggerated caricatures and dealing only in them is kind of the hallmark of contemporary politics and culture. maybe its always been that way, cant say. once again we must read psychology of totalism.

im sure u have experienced this if u have talked to anyone about any issue for which one of these caricatures exist, and the person cant see u or hear what ur saying, because youre standing in its shadow (immigration, guns, any Science(tm), almost anything “controversial” really)