This is what doctors looks like.

ER docs here. We will stick with our scrubs.

“Two can play at that game” is literally the Drebin quote here when he takes an innocent woman hostage to cluelessly fight the enemy

The WAPO has gone full trickle-down. So sad.

So don't expect evidence to break the spell — it triggers more justification, not less. And don't expect condemnation to help — it just deepens the entrenchment. If you're baffled by people in your life who seem unrecognizable, this is the most useful book I've read on why.

Counterintuitively, higher intelligence often makes this worse. Smart people are better at constructing rationalizations, not better at finding truth. They use cognitive horsepower to defend conclusions already reached. Education is not a reliable antidote.

This explains the central Trump paradox: the more outrageous his behavior, the stronger the support. Each escalation required his followers to justify the last one. The bigger the accumulated investment, the harder the psychology fights to protect it. Sunk costs become identity.

Tavris & Aronson call this the Pyramid of Choice. Two people start in similar places but make slightly different initial choices. Each demands a small self-justification. Over time they end up at opposite poles — not because they were different, but because justification compounds.

And it compounds. Every small compromise to defend Trump required a self-justification. That justification made the next one easier. Over time, people drift far from where they started — with no conscious memory of the journey. They feel completely consistent.

Festinger proved this by infiltrating a doomsday cult. When their prophecy failed and the world didn't end, members didn't abandon the belief — they doubled down, became more convinced, reinterpreted the failure as proof they were right. Sound familiar?

Cognitive dissonance isn't resolved by admitting error — it's resolved by unconsciously rewriting your perceptions to match what you've already done. They're not lying. They genuinely believe it. That's what makes it so powerful and so hard to break.

The mechanism is called cognitive dissonance — the mental discomfort we feel when our actions or beliefs conflict with our self-image. Identified by psychologist Leon Festinger in the 1950s and rigorously studied ever since. What it does to people is remarkable.

Donald Trump hasn't just attracted extremists. He's turned ordinary, reasonable people — your neighbors, your relatives — into people who defend the indefensible. This book explains the psychology. It's not stupidity. It's something far more insidious. 🧵

This about sums up where we are at.

Good riddance! Such a terrible person.

The dirty secret of capitalism -- and a new way forward | Nick Hanauer YouTube video by TED

PNW Investor Nick Hanauer @nickhanauer.bsky.social did a great TED Talk on this.
youtu.be/th3KE_H27bs

Is modern philanthropy reputation laundering? My debate at the Oxford Union

nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

Billionaire @nickhanauer.bsky.social has opinions, expressed through @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social a higher minimum wage means more money in your customers pockets, and thus, a growing economy. We've done the experiment repeatedly, we get the same answer, more jobs and more employment, it's a win!

Markets Built for Humans

New materials published on market humanism!

Visit the new microsite and download Markets Built for Humans by @ericbeinhocker.bsky.social & @nickhanauer.bsky.social

Watch back their @oxmartinschool.bsky.social lecture here www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHmK...

www.marketsbuiltforhumans.org

Sociopath.

Are we measuring economic progress the right way?

INET Oxford founder @ericbeinhocker.bsky.social and entrepreneur and philanthropist @nickhanauer.bsky.social argue it's time for a new approach.

Learn more on Thursday 5 March 👇
https://tinyurl.com/23djt3m2

@inetoxford.bsky.social

Trump says Palestinians should leave Gaza permanently and US will ‘take over’ strip | CNN Politics President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the US “will take over” the Gaza Strip, after saying earlier that he doesn’t think there is a permanent future for Palestinians in Gaza.

Wondering how all those young lefty’s who didnt vote for Harris because the Biden administration was too supportive of Israel are feeling now
www.cnn.com/2025/02/04/p... Trump says Palestinians should leave Gaza permanently and US will ‘take over’ strip

The Middle-Out President (with President Joe Biden) Podcast Episode · Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer · 12/17/2024 · 35m

Wherein @goldy and I interview President Biden about Middle-out economics podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p...

The pitchforks are here: Populist rage and the rise of moral absolutism That warning seems perilously prophetic in the wake of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s murder.

thehill.com/opinion/fina...

Trump’s Pick as Mideast Adviser, Massad Boulos, Is a Truck Salesman The lore around Massad Boulos, Tiffany Trump’s father-in-law, is that he is a billionaire dealmaker. Records show otherwise.

What an absolute clown show

www.nytimes.com/2024/12/12/w...

Seattle area leads nation in economic growth The Seattle metro had the fastest economic growth among large U.S. metros last year, per federal data.

Socialist hell hole

www.axios.com/local/seattl...

Another day, another Hoover Institution retraction, the third (of which I'm aware) based on shoddy data analysis.

The Top 1% of Americans Have Taken $50 Trillion From the Bottom 90%—And That's Made the U.S. Less Secure A report shows that a $50 trillion redistribution of income to benefit the richest has made America less healthy, resilient, and secure

As you consider what went wrong-both in the USA generally-but also with the Democratic Party, I invite you to consider the data presented in this piece. It isn’t that Democrats were wrong, just completely unwilling to address the problem at the scale of the problem. time.com/5888024/50-t...

Pretty striking findings! www.parisschoolofeconomics.eu/app/uploads/...

The Pitchforks Are Coming… For Us Plutocrats A memo for my fellow filthy rich who live in our gated bubble worlds: Wake up, people. It won’t last.

Just saying “told you so” in 2014

www.politico.com/magazine/sto...

Brian Thompson, C.E.O. of UnitedHealthcare, Is Killed in Midtown Manhattan

I guess America’s fucked up health care system really pissed someone off.

www.nytimes.com/live/2024/12...