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"There is apparently some connection between dissatisfaction with oneself and a proneness to credulity. The urge to escape our real self is also an urge to escape the rational and the obvious. The refusal to see ourselves as we are develops a distaste for facts and cold logic. There is no hope for the frustrated in the actual and the possible. Salvation can come to them only from the miraculous, which seeps through a crack in the iron wall of inexorable reality. They ask to be deceived. What Stresemann said of the Germans is true of the frustrated in general: "They pray not only for their daily bread, but also for their daily illusion.” The rule seems to be that those who find no difficulty deceiving themselves are easily deceived by others. They are easily persuaded and led." - Eric Hoffer

Good advice for all "believers": Religious, racists, Trump followers and cultists, conspiracy theorists, Holocaust deniers, climate change deniers, and every other type of "believer".

nogod4me 8 Feb 28
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2 comments

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To the list of “believers”, add Big Bangers. Nothing comes from nothing, and nothing ever will.

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I'm not sure if this is what you mean, but I am surrounded by people who have fled some kind of reality where they used to live, to come start their life over, like I did, but so many of these people are imagining they are now some magic creature, like a mermaid or a fairy or a goddess of some kind. It's what I call "woo" culture.

They don't look in the mirror as much as they imagine themselves to be someone they are not, perhaps because they don't like who they used to be or really are underneath their facade.

They pretend to float above the reality and they are prime targets for mythinformation, disinformation, propaganda, easily fooled as long as the message is brightly lit or sparkles.

“The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready he is to claim all excellence for his nation, his religion, his race or his holy cause.”

― Eric Hoffer, The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass

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