Reprogramming your environment

Valentines whiteboard lesson on winning versus losing frames. (This will change some lives.) https://t.co/JkNV2lsfpK

— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) February 14, 2020

The latest from Scott Adams

Hurrah for South Park! They are now banned in China. Scott Adams predicts this will be the most-watched episode of South Park ever (in China). Scott says, "in order for China to survive, they have to cut off their population from information!" North Korea? Same thing!

Scott had advised his viewers to wait a few days before opining on Trump's decision to pull our troops out of Syria. A few days have gone by, and it now looks different than when he first announced the decision. How many troops are we talking about? Fifty!

Secondly, Trump said on Twitter (so Turkey's dictator would read it) that if they harmed the Kurds he would "obliterate their economy!" He has done it before when he wanted Turkey to give up the Christian pastor they were imprisoning.

Matt Gaetz asks three good questions. Are we, the country of no-fault divorce, supposed to stay married to the Kurds forever? Then he asks, weren't the ISIS people we defeated in the Kurds own back yard? Third question from Gaetz: Now we are supposed to entangle ourselves in the Kurds' 400 plus year conflict with the Turks? Scott predicts that Matt will one day be a presidential candidate and his opponent will be AOC! Scott surely does love to make predictions! By the way, did you know that AOC is talking about abolishing prisons?

Scott talks about the latest effort by Elizabeth Warren to portray herself as a victim. She is getting a reputation as a phony. Trump, on the other hand, is nothing if not authentic. Do the Dems really want to run a phony against an authentic?

Scott laughs about a new book by Joel Stein which alleges several completely wrong things about Scott. Scott says there were about 25 factual errors written by Stein about Scott.

Take the tour!

Scott Adams shares some http://BlightAuthority.com ideas and gives a tour of his own home here.

Scott Adams shares some https://t.co/BPkpQQIdEe ideas and gives a tour of his own home. https://t.co/M0X8kR26f5

— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) August 20, 2018

Is he a Nazi collaborator, or is he performing a valuable public service?

Do you think you or someone you care about might be in a mass hysteria bubble? Scott Adams wrote a blog post to help you identify signs.

1. The trigger event for cognitive dissonance

On November 8th of 2016, half the country learned that everything they believed to be both true and obvious turned out to be wrong. The people who thought Trump had no chance of winning were under the impression they were smart people who understood their country, and politics, and how things work in general. When Trump won, they learned they were wrong. They were so very wrong that they reflexively (because this is how all brains work) rewrote the scripts they were seeing in their minds until it all made sense again. The wrong-about-everything crowd decided that the only way their world made sense, with their egos intact, is that either the Russians helped Trump win or there are far more racists in the country than they imagined, and he is their king. Those were the seeds of the two mass hysterias we witness today.

Trump supporters experienced no trigger event for cognitive dissonance when Trump won. Their worldview was confirmed by observed events.

Scott goes on. Is he a Nazi collaborator, or is he performing a valuable public service? Read more here.

"Potentially a crime could have been committed, if we find something out that we don't know now!"

Scott Adams tries some media satire.

Read more here.

"The source of your thoughts is your body, not your brain."

Scott Adams believes,

The source of your thoughts is your body, not your brain.

...I realize that the concept I’m explaining is both obvious and radical at the same time. On one hand, you know from experience that your thoughts are directly influenced by what your body is experiencing. But because you also believe your brain is the special vessel of your free will, consciousness, and soul, you might believe the brain can also make its own independent decisions. It can’t. It is a computer that responds to inputs. Give it the right inputs and you’ll get the right outputs. And your body is the user interface.

Read more here.

"If the new battleground is spousal fidelity, you have to like Trump’s chances."

Scott Adams accepts the challenge of Erick Erickson to "pen 5000 words on why this Access Hollywood thing is a brilliant thing for Trump." Adams responds,

If the LGBTQ community wants to be a bit more inclusive, I don’t see why “polyamorous alpha male serial kisser” can’t be on the list. If you want to label Trump’s sexual behavior “abnormal” you’re on shaky ground.

...I hereby change my endorsement from Trump to Gary Johnson, just to get out of the blast zone. Others will be “parking” their vote with Johnson the same way. The “shy Trump supporter” demographic just tripled.

...My prediction of a 98% chance of Trump winning stays the same. Clinton just took the fight to Trump’s home field. None of this was a case of clever strategy or persuasion on Trump’s part. But if the new battleground is spousal fidelity, you have to like Trump’s chances.

Trump wasn’t running for Pope. He never claimed moral authority. His proposition has been that he’s an asshole (essentially), but we need an asshole to fight ISIS, ignore lobbyists, and beat up Congress. Does it change anything to have confirmation that he is exactly what you thought he was?

My thoughts above have more to do with reason than persuasion. And that means you can ignore all of it because reason is not part of decision-making when it comes to politics. On the persuasion level, all that matters is whether this new development changes what you already assumed about Trump.

I hope this answers all of Erick Erick Erickson’s questions.

Read more here.

Scott Adams scores the debate

Let's check in on Scott Adams' debate analysis.

...But the most interesting question has to do with what problem both of them were trying to solve with the debate. Clinton tried to look healthy, and as I mentioned, I don’t think she completely succeeded. But Trump needed to solve exactly one problem: Look less scary. Trump needed to counter Clinton’s successful branding of him as having a bad temperament to the point of being dangerous to the country. Trump accomplished exactly that…by…losing the debate.

Trump was defensive, and debated poorly at points, but he did not look crazy. And pundits noticed that he intentionally avoided using his strongest attacks regarding Bill Clinton’s scandals. In other words, he showed control. He stayed in the presidential zone under pressure. And in so doing, he solved for his only remaining problem. He looked safer.

By tomorrow, no one will remember what either of them said during the debate. But we will remember how they made us feel.

Clinton won the debate last night. And while she was doing it, Trump won the election. He had one thing to accomplish – being less scary – and he did it.

Read more here.

Owning the identities of American voters

Michael Cavna writes in the Washington Post about comic book writer Scott Adams. Adams is a certified hypnotist, and he believes he understands why Donald Trump is doing so well among GOP voters. He knows psychology, and he knows how to appeal to our emotions. Adams says we are primarily emotional beings, not rational beings. Here are some excerpts from the piece:

Writes Adams: “Identity is always the strongest level of persuasion. The only way to beat it is with dirty tricks or a stronger identity play. … [And] Trump is well on his way to owning the identities of American, Alpha Males, and Women Who Like Alpha Males. Clinton is well on her way to owning the identities of angry women, beta males, immigrants, and disenfranchised minorities.

“If this were poker, which hand looks stronger to you for a national election?”