Cascadia Commons

WHY WE ENGAGE IN TRIBALISM, NATIONALISM, AND SCAPEGOATING

Robert Sapolsky reveals the biological basis for our most unfortunate traits—and insists change is possible.

A couple of weeks ago, at a speech before a friendly audience, President Donald Trump likened immigrants to poisonous snakes. To biologist and behavioral scientist Robert Sapolsky, it was a revolting but revealing remark.

"That's a textbook dehumanization of 'them,' he said. "If you get to the point where citing 'thems' causes your followers to activate neurons in the insular cortex—the part of the brain that responds to viscerally disgusting things—you've finished most of your to-do list for your genocide."

That sort of sharply stated, science-based analysis has made Sapolsky a popular and influential writer and thinker. A MacArthur fellow, he is a professor of biology and neurology at Stanford University, and the author of several books, including the 2017 best-seller Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst.

Sapolsky has spent much of his career in Kenya, studying baboons (among other primates), and he uses that knowledge to put human behavior into a broader perspective. In a recent telephone interview, he discussed the biological basis of our current political fault lines.

Read Article Here: https://psmag.com/social-justice/why-we-engage-in-tribalism-nationalism-...

Special Thank You to Cherie.

To think about how you think: "This is the art of introspection, focused on being aware of such things as one's own degree of alertness, attentiveness, bias, emotional state, exploration of interpretation options, self-assurance."
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"Many people choose to remain ignorant, afraid that thinking might ruin their lives. This is particularly true for people who identify themselves with ideologies."
https://theunboundedspirit.com/think/

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"Given that each side believes the other side is illogical (liberal example, conservative example), we first tested whether liberals and conservatives had differences in logical reasoning when they evaluated arguments without ideological content. On this task, there were no differences in logical reasoning between liberals and conservatives. In fact, both liberals and conservatives tended to label even unsound arguments as sound, illustrating difficulties with logical reasoning across partisan lines."
http://www.spsp.org/news-center/blog/political-ideology-undermines-logic

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"Be aware of your thinking. Explain to students the need to think about how they think. This is the art of introspection, focused on being aware of such things as one's own degree of alertness, attentiveness, bias, emotional state, exploration of interpretation options, self-assurance."

"Unfortunately, most adults are not taught formal logic, even in college. [1] Here are some of the more serious thinking errors:"
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/memory-medic/201710/how-learn-criti...

Platforms for Post-Capitalist Transition:

Excerpt:

"...the primary level of organization of this commons-based society will be local. Cosmo-local (DGML = Design Global, Manufacture Local) production is governed by the following principles:

• Protocol cooperativism: the underlying immaterial and algorithmic protocols are shared and open source, using copyfair principles (free sharing of knowledge, but commercialization conditioned by reciprocity)
• Open cooperativism: the commons-based coops are distinguished from ‘collective capitalism’ by their commitment to creating and expanding common goods for the whole of society; in Platform coops it is the platforms themselves that are the commons, needed to enable and manage the exchanges that may be needed, while protecting it from capture by extractive netarchical platforms
• Open and contributive accounting: fair distribution mechanisms that recognize all contributions
• Open and shared supply chains for mutual coordination
• Non-dominium forms of ownership (the means of production are held in common for the benefit of all participants in the eco-system."

His Paper can be found here: https://c4ss.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/community-platforms.pdf (Also attached to this posting).

Article can be found here: https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/libertarian-municipalism-networked-cities...

This website will help you locate Native Plant resources in your area:

The Meadow Project (Native Plant Finder):

Link: https://themeadowproject.com/resources/find-native-plants/

Enjoy :)

I highly recommend this podcast in light of the censorship of late: (Thanks Cherie)

Clear and Present Danger - A history of free speech

Why have kings, emperors, and governments killed and imprisoned people to shut them up? And why have countless people risked death and imprisonment to express their beliefs? Jacob Mchangama guides you through the history of free speech from the trial of Socrates to the Great Firewall.

Website: http://www.freespeechhistory.com/

Podcast Feed URL: http://freespeechhistory.libsyn.com/rss

Only 13% of the world’s 7,4 billion people enjoy free speech. 45% live in countries where censorship is the norm. Still, more than half the world’s population across cultures and continents think free speech is very important. But why is that? Where does the principle of free speech come from? How has it been developed over time? Why have kings, emperors, and governments killed and imprisoned people to shut them up? And why have countless people risked death and imprisonment to express their beliefs? And what can people in the digital age learn from past conflicts over where to draw the line?

Enjoy

The eBook can be found here: http://localfoodrevolution.pages.ontraport.net/ebook

I've also attached it to this post.

These videos are loaded with great advice. Enjoy:

Introduction: The Narcissist's Abuse Cycle - How Narcissists & Psychopaths Behave

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jp5YHxJhj94

6 Keys to Build Immunity from Narcissistic Abuse:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfTF-usq4-c&feature=youtu.be

Responding vs. Reacting (Not falling into a narcissist's trap):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qima6k2Jnhk

5 Ways to Disarm Toxic People:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc_ZOjt0QFA

Healing After Toxic Relationships:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fys3J8jPw6Y

The Main YouTube Channel: Meredith Miller - Inner Integration

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrNg_13PdqKAZRPqyclRq1g

Lets liberate ALL of us from the boxes society puts upon us, not create 7 Billion boxes - one for each of us.

From the article:

"So if you want to call yourself a genderqueer femme presenting demigirl, you go for it. Express that identity however you like. Have fun with it. A problem emerges only when you start making political claims on the basis of that label – when you start demanding that others call themselves cisgender, because you require there to be a bunch of conventional binary cis people for you to define yourself against; and when you insist that these cis people have structural advantage and political privilege over you, because they are socially read as the conformist binary people, while nobody really understands just how complex and luminous and multifaceted and unique your gender identity is. To call yourself non-binary or genderfluid while demanding that others call themselves cisgender is to insist that the vast majority of humans must stay in their boxes, because you identify as boxless.

The solution is not to reify gender by insisting on ever more gender categories that define the complexity of human personality in rigid and essentialist ways. The solution is to abolish gender altogether. We do not need gender. We would be better off without it. Gender as a hierarchy with two positions operates to naturalise and perpetuate the subordination of female people to male people, and constrains the development of individuals of both sexes. Reconceiving of gender as an identity spectrum represents no improvement.

You do not need to have a deep, internal, essential experience of gender to be free to dress how you like, behave how you like, work how you like, love who you like. You do not need to show that your personality is feminine for it to be acceptable for you to enjoy cosmetics, cookery and crafting. You do not need to be genderqueer to queer gender. The solution to an oppressive system that puts people into pink and blue boxes is not to create more and more boxes that are any colour but blue or pink. The solution is to tear down the boxes altogether."

See Full Article Here