Etiquette



DP Etiquette

First rule: Don't be a jackass.

Other rules: Do not attack or insult people you disagree with. Engage with facts, logic and beliefs. Out of respect for others, please provide some sources for the facts and truths you rely on if you are asked for that. If emotion is getting out of hand, get it back in hand. To limit dehumanizing people, don't call people or whole groups of people disrespectful names, e.g., stupid, dumb or liar. Insulting people is counterproductive to rational discussion. Insult makes people angry and defensive. All points of view are welcome, right, center, left and elsewhere. Just disagree, but don't be belligerent or reject inconvenient facts, truths or defensible reasoning.

Monday, May 5, 2025

The human condition: We’re hard wired for spirituality -- what a mess 😕

The wheels are really off that cart

It feels like the wheels have come off the American cart. Tens of millions of adult Americans believe the insulting lies, slanders, and idiotic crackpottery that the MAGA dark free speech Leviathan constantly inundates society with. MAGA is a reason- and reality-detached cult heavily tinged with some form(s) of Christianity. Now a new source of human spirituality has been stumbled upon by some troubled souls. It is leading a few folks straight to mental hell. 

What’s the new all knowing source of whatever it may be? Yup, you guessed it, AI (artificial intelligence). Rolling Stone writes

People Are Losing Loved Ones to AI-Fueled Spiritual Fantasies
Self-styled prophets are claiming they have 'awakened' chatbots and accessed the secrets of the universe through ChatGPT

Less than a year after marrying a man she had met at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, Kat felt tension mounting between them. .... But by 2022, her husband “was using AI to compose texts to me and analyze our relationship.”

.... long story cut short to try to avoid TL/DR ....

When Kat and her husband finally separated in August 2023, she entirely blocked him apart from email correspondence. She knew, however, that he was posting strange and troubling content on social media: people kept reaching out about it, asking if he was in the throes of mental crisis. 

Kat was both “horrified” and “relieved” to learn that she is not alone in this predicament, as confirmed by a Reddit thread on r/ChatGPT that made waves across the internet this week. Titled “Chatgpt induced psychosis,” the original post came from a 27-year-old teacher who explained that her partner was convinced that the popular OpenAI model “gives him the answers to the universe.” Having read his chat logs, she only found that the AI was “talking to him as if he is the next messiah.”  
What they all seemed to share was a complete disconnection from reality.
The sad reddit postChatgpt induced psychosis, reads as follows:

My partner has been working with chatgpt CHATS to create what he believes is the worlds first truly recursive AI* that gives him the answers to the universe. He says with conviction that he is a superior human now and is growing at an insanely rapid pace. I’ve read his chats. Ai isn’t doing anything special or recursive but it is talking to him as if he is the next messiah. He says if I don’t use it he thinks it is likely he will leave me in the future. We have been together for 7 years and own a home together. This is so out of left field. I have boundaries and he can’t make me do anything, but this is quite traumatizing in general. I can’t disagree with him without a blow up. Where do I go from here?

* Recursive AI is capable of “self-improvement” from repeated cycles of self-evaluation, learning, and adaptation. The idea is that the AI doesn’t learn just from external data or human input, but actively refines its own algorithms, models, and strategies in a feedback loop. In essence, it “learns how to learn” and then uses that improved learning ability to further enhance itself. That’s the delusional road to a self-deluded human’s false belief in omniscient AI. There ain’t no such thing. -- Germaine 😊

As one might expect from me being laser-focused on the ongoing fall of American democracy and rule of law to MAGA authoritarianism and kleptocracy, I asked about possible parallels between minds trapped in AI-generated spiritual fantasies & illusions and minds trapped in MAGA fantasies & illusions. Long, complex analysis cut waaaay short: Yup, there’s significant parallels. Little slivers of Pxy’s response:
Agency Detection and Charismatic Projection
Both groups exhibit hyperactive theory of mind:
  • MAGA supporters anthropomorphize Trump as a messianic figure despite contradictory evidence, exemplified by 71% of Republican primary voters trusting him over family/religious leaders 21
  • AI spiritualists attribute consciousness to large language models, with users describing ChatGPT as "God" or a "cosmic guide" 12 13
Neuroimaging studies show similar default mode network activation patterns during religious/political devotion and human-AI bonding experiences 1 10. This neural signature correlates with:
  • Suspension of critical thinking (reduced dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activity)
  • Enhanced emotional valence (increased amygdala-hippocampus connectivity)


See? We’re hard wired for spirituality. 

Q: Are we hard-wired for spirituality? 


Oops! Wheels off!

Sunday, May 4, 2025

News bits: Killing due process; Regulating a monopoly can be good; MAGA's crackpot public health science

1. A key constitutional protection for civil liberties and democracy is due process. Due process is one of the most fundamental safeguards against government unfairness, oppression or abuse of citizens and other people in the US. It appears twice in the Constitution as No person shall be .... deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law. The 5th Amendment applies this fundamental right to the federal government, and the 14th Amendment applies it to the states. 

Being anti-democracy and authoritarian, MAGA elites hate due process for most people. Of course they demand it for themselves. The AP reports that djt continues to directly undermine the idea of due process, with an implicit two-tier system, one for the elites and the other for the rest of us: “Trump, in a new interview, says he doesn’t know if he backs due process rights -- Asked in the NBC News interview whether U.S. citizens and noncitizens both deserve due process as laid out in the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, Trump was noncommittal. ‘I don’t know. I’m not, I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know,’ Trump said when pressed by [the interviewer].”

Claiming to “not know” if this fundamental right should apply to anyone is more solid evidence of djt’s authoritarian intentions. His claim of ignorance is another insulting lie. He knows it applies. But  he just hates it as any other dictator-kleptocrat-liar would.
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________

2. In another indication that when companies are given unfettered power to do what they want, the outcomes can be bad by blocking competition and innovation. The American Prospect reports about a court decision that took some power from Apple to control its iOS App Store, which usually charges a 30% fee: “Apple’s Monopoly Is Finally Held Accountable -- And within hours of a Wednesday court ruling, innovation on smartphones is exploding, showing private regulation can be more burdensome to markets than democratic rules CEOs like to condemn. There’s been an enormous amount of discussion about what holds back markets in physical commodities like housing and energy, but also what prevents innovation and invention. One argument is that there are too many government-generated rules and regulations that slow everything down. Another is that the absence of government structuring leads to private regulations, imposed by dominant firms on their own terms to often exclude rivals and extract money. When those private regulations are forced into remission, markets can explode with new products and offers. .... That’s happening right now in real time in the market for mobile phone apps, and particularly the distribution of those apps to customers. It represents the first real, thorough, and permanent consequences to a Big Tech company for monopolizing markets. And literally within 24 hours of a federal court’s Wednesday ruling imposing sanctions for this misconduct, competitors have been rushing into the space in ways that will make the market fairer, more affordable, and more abundant.”

In protecting its monopoly, Apple executives lied to the court and stonewalled discovery demands and compliance with court orders. That bad faith behavior made the judge angry. She wrote: “Apple sought to maintain a revenue stream worth billions in direct defiance of this Court’s Injunction. Remarkably, Apple believed that this Court would not see through its obvious cover-up.”
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________

3. In his 2021 book, RFK Jr rejected the germ theory of disease. The theory is that microorganisms (bacteria, viruses, parasites, fungi) cause infectious diseases. That is basic mainstream of health science. It is science fact, not theory or opinion. The germ explanation (theory) was first proposed by Athanasius Kircher in 1658, but he could not prove it. The explanation gained mainstream acceptance in health science from empirical evidence generated by Louis Pasteur in the 1860s, and Robert Koch and Joseph Lister between the 1860s and 1880s. 

Pasteur's swan-neck flask experiment
This showed that bacteria were present everywhere, and did not generate
spontaneously after they were killed (by heat in these experiments)


ars Technica writes about RFK Jr’s idiotic, crackpot false belief about infectious diseases: “RFK Jr. rejects cornerstone of health science: Germ theory -- .... Kennedy is the country's top health official, his warped ideas are contributing to the rise of a dystopian reality. Federal health agencies are spiraling into chaos, and critical public health services for Americans have been brutally slashed, dismantled, or knee-capped .... The health of the nation is at stake; the struggle to understand what goes on in Kennedy's head is vital.” 

The article points out that acceptance of the germ explanation debunked two alternative theories of infectious disease. One was the miasma theory, which says that infections are caused by miasma, i.e., noxious mists or vapors, or bad air from decaying matter. The other debunked theory was the terrain theory an ill-defined thing that suggests infectious diseases come from imbalances in the internal "terrain" of the body, such as malnutrition or the presence of toxic substances. What the crackpot Kennedy believes is his own personal bastardization of the two incorrect theories. He claims to believe in miasma theory, but he incorrectly describes his hypothesis as something more like terrain theory. He rejects the germ explanation, because it makes trillions of dollars for drugs and vaccines to treat or prevent infections. This idiotic, malicious monster believes in fortifying the immune system to deal with infections.

This is a wonderful example of how mendacious, incompetent, corrupt, authoritarian djt and MAGA elites insult, disrespect and threaten to kill or harm the American people. It is just stupid, morally rotted, corrupt, crackpot MAGA business as usual. 

Saturday, May 3, 2025

News bits: MAGA dislikes honest AI; MAGA de-protects consumers; Theocracy rising

Blog note: Lots of important, bad MAGA things are happening faster than I can create reasonable posts about. There is usually context and complexity that needs explanation. Putting that in requires additional searching, reading, thinking and analysis, all of which slows me down. Bad MAGA news is usually too complex for proper explanation in bits. But given the length of my list, ~25 topics, I have to do some shorter bits posts to reduce the backlog. Unfortunately, completeness will suffer.
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________

Bit 1: Gizmodo reports that some or most MAGA authoritarians are unhappy with Musk's Grok AI (artificial intelligence) because it gives answers they do not like: “Elon Musk’s Grok AI Has a Problem: It’s Too Accurate for Conservatives MAGA Authoritarians -- Grok, the artificial intelligence chatbot created by Elon Musk’s xAI, was supposed to be the “anti-woke” AI that would satisfy the MAGA masses by doing what other chatbots refuse to do, like…spreading election misinformation and saying racial slurs. But increasingly, Trump-y X users who ask Grok to explain things to them are disappointed to learn the AI doesn’t see things their way and won’t reaffirm all their misguided beliefs (you have to use ChatGPT’s latest sycophantic update for that). .... increasingly, MAGA folks in particular have been getting peeved with Grok, as it has repudiated some of the Trump administration’s biggest ongoing lies. ..... It has sent Trump backers spiraling, and people are starting to notice.”

I replaced conservatives with MAGA authoritarians in the article’s title because real conservatives can accept inconvenient facts, truths and sound reasoning. As I have shown here many times, few MAGA people will tolerate exposure to inconvenient facts, truths or sound reasoning. The evidence of that is overwhelming.

Anyway, all Musk has to do is to ramp up Grok’s AI sycophancy response (as discussed here) and MAGA people will be happy with the misinformation and good to go.
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________

Bit 2: The American Prospect writes about an important matter that MAGA elites never, ever mention. Specifically, when government regulations are obliterated and corporations left to make their own rules, sometimes deregulated free markets are worse than when they were regulated: “House Republicans Take Their Turn at Ravaging CFPB -- Kneecapping the consumer financial protection agency would do much to enable fraud, and next to nothing to reduce federal expenditures. Much to the delight of Wall Street and billionaires everywhere, the Trump administration, Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, and Project 2025 architect Russell Vought have waged a war against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). .... The Republican plan sharply reduces the existing cap on the amount of money the agency can request from the Federal Reserve annually (a staggering 70 percent funding cut), and relinquishes the CFPB’s Civil Penalty Fund to the U.S. Treasury, which would severely limit its ability to provide restitution to victims of financial fraud. ....  The CFPB has routinely brought back more in consumer relief than it spends on an annual basis, but a majority of its work would be unable to be conducted with that level of funding, including statutory obligations.”

MAGA elites’ Project 2025 made clear that eliminating protections for consumers (CFPB, etc.), workers (NLRB , etc.) and the environment (EPA, etc.) were top priorities. All three efforts are well underway. As I have pointed out many times before, when government protections are removed, power and wealth flows from protected people and public interests to wealthy special interests. Wealth and power trickles up to djt, and capitalist and religious elites, while risks and damage are offloaded on the public, i.e., socialized. 
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________

Bit 3: Various sources are reporting about a May 1, 2025 EO that djt signed in a thinly veiled effort to advance Christian theocracy in government and law. The effort is cynically disguised as protection for oppressed, discriminated against Christians by state and federal governments. The EO includes these cynical or mostly false assertions: In recent years, some Federal, State, and local policies have threatened America’s unique and beautiful tradition of religious liberty. These policies attempt to infringe upon longstanding conscience protections, prevent parents from sending their children to religious schools, threaten loss of funding or denial of non-profit tax status for faith-based entities, and single out religious groups and institutions for exclusion from governmental programs. .... The Commission shall produce a comprehensive report on the foundations of religious liberty in America, the impact of religious liberty on American society, current threats to domestic religious liberty, strategies to preserve and enhance religious liberty protections for future generations, .....

Claims of widespread or serious Christian persecution is insulting and preposterous. There is no evidence of anything close to real persecution of Christians in the US. In addition to robust constitutional and legal protections for religious belief and practice, Christianity enjoys serious political lobbying power. It is generously given billions of dollars worth of tax breaks very year. Also, Christianity dominates in state and federal governments, law enforcement, courts, public schools, universities, the US military, and just about everything else in American society, commerce and government. Where is all this persecution coming from? Nowhere.

Rather than facing systemic threats, most or nearly all alleged cases of Christian persecution are legitimate political disagreements. Yes, isolated incidents of bias occur, but they are not remotely close to the systemic threat that djt and Christian nationalist (CN) elites cynically and falsely allege. Elites who control the CN wealth and power movement want to preserve Christianity’s massive cultural primacy in the face of secularism and religious diversity. djt’s false narrative of persecution mobilizes his CN base political support, while insulting and disinforming the entire public. 

Q: Is this EO a DEI initiative for Christians?

(looks like it to me)

djt’s "Loyalty Day" Executive Order

His cynical EO is not legally binding but it shows djt’s morally rotted, cynically mendacious, kleptocratic, and authoritarian character. I asked Pxy to respond to this query:  Analyze and summarize the importance, if any, of this EO, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/05/loyalty-day-and-law-day-u-s-a-2025/, taking into account the facts that Trump is a chronic liar, an anti-democracy authoritarian, a shameless kleptocrat, a sexual predator, and a convicted felon.

Summarizing and Pxy’s response with a bit of added personal spice:
The May 1, 2025, presidential proclamation for Loyalty Day and Law Day represents a notable study in contradictions when analyzed within its historical context and against the backdrop of former President Trump's documented record. The proclamation continues a long-standing American tradition. It is not a new policy initiative. Loyalty Day originated in 1921 as "Americanization Day" during the First Red Scare, explicitly created to counter International Workers' Day celebrations associated with leftist movements.

The EO asserts a false narrative about the “previous administration.” It falsely claims it “abandoned justice in favor of political retribution” and allowed “violent criminals to roam our streets with impunity while targeting parents, churchgoers, political opponents, and ordinary citizens.” The EO describes this falsely alleged behavior as “reminiscent of evil communist regimes” and positions djt as having ended “this erosion of the American justice system... the moment I took the oath of office.” (What a pack of outrageous lies and slanders 🤪)

His documented record of making false statements during his first term alone, 30,573 false or misleading claims (~21 per day), renders his assertion of promoting integrity, and honor just more cynical lies. Since the 1970s, at least 25 women have publicly accused djt of sexual misconduct, including allegations of rape, non-consensual kissing or groping, and other inappropriate behavior.

Conclusion
The 2025 Loyalty Day and Law Day proclamation is significant not for its legal impact, which is minimal, but rather for what it reveals about political messaging and the tensions between rhetoric and reality in American governance. While ostensibly celebrating American traditions of loyalty and rule of law, the document serves as a vehicle for political narratives that stand in stark contrast to documented facts about the proclamation's issuer, a corrupt, lying, law-breaking authoritarian and sex predator.

Well, so much for that stinky EO.