Cooperate, Be Nice, But Also Don't Be A Pushover: The Key To A Successful Society

One of the clearest divides between conservatives and progressives is how differently they view cooperation and self-interest. Click on the link below for a video debunking this binary:

What Game Theory Reveals About Life, The Universe, and Everything

Feminism & Equality: A Different Perspective

"Equality has been at the heart of civil rights movements for decades but what we have failed to see is that in striving for equality we cannot help but reinforce the unquestioned preexisting structures of society which, themselves, may be at fundamental odds with true freedom for all."

Click on the link below for an in-depth look at what the feminist movement may be overlooking in striving for equality:

Forget Equality, Embrace the Feminism of Freedom

Loneliness From Poor Urban Planning

"Loneliness is an epidemic that long-predates the COVID lockdowns that only made things worse but it's not primarily cultural or even technological in origin. The issue largely has to do with how our built environment is designed and then social and technological aspects compound the problem."

Click on the link below for a deep analysis of factors that contribute to loneliness that only better society planning can change:

A Different Look At Sociology

"Bernard Lahire has dropped a bombshell with the publication of Structures Fondamentales des Sociétés Humaines (“Fundamental Structures of Human Societies”, La Découverte, 2023). In nearly 1,000 pages, the CNRS research professor at the Centre Max-Weber in Lyon (southeastern France)1 re-examines some 150 years of sociological practice that in his view has strayed too far into hyperspecialisation and become isolated from the life sciences. In the past 30 years, his research has focused on various topics ranging from school dropout rates to political action, illiteracy, and artistic creation. But he has long felt the temptation, dating back to his doctoral dissertation, to expand his field of investigation to other disciplines like history, psychology, and linguistics, along with a need to reconsider the status of the social sciences, a subject broached in his most recent work2. His proposals to revolutionize sociology are the fruit of these years of reflection."

Click on the link below for the details of this novel view of sociology:

Sociology needs to reconnect with science

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While on the subject, there's a reason why conservatives don't like sociology (link).

The Prisoner's Dilemma: How Cooperation With Protecting One's Interest Is The Key To Survival

"The Prisoner's Dilemma is a game theory thought experiment that involves two rational agents, each of whom can cooperate for mutual benefit or betray their partner ("defect") for individual reward. This dilemma was originally framed by Merrill Flood and Melvin Dresher in 1950 while they worked at the RAND Corporation.[citation needed] Albert W. Tucker later formalized the game by structuring the rewards in terms of prison sentences and named it the "prisoner's dilemma".[1]

"The prisoner's dilemma models many real-world situations involving strategic behavior. In casual usage, the label "prisoner's dilemma" may be applied to any situation in which two entities could gain important benefits from cooperating or suffer from failing to do so, but find it difficult or expensive to coordinate their activities." (Wikipedia)

Click on the link below for a video explaining this complicated process for maximizing human well-being:

What The Prisoner's Dilemma Reveals About Life, The Universe, and Everything

Animal Studies In Psychology

I recently re-posted a commentary on Facebook supporting the value of John B Calhoun's mice studies in understanding the stresses of over-population. Unfortunately, some readers focused on the individual making the commentary (the messenger) because of some of his comments (particularly at the end), and his history of bigoted, unsupported ideology of which I was not aware. Some of the readers even challenged the validity of animal research on human behavior. In light of such, below you will find justification and validity of such:

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"Part of the justification for why nonhuman animals are studied in psychology has to do with the fact of evolution. Humans share common ancestry with the species most commonly studied in psychology: mice, rats, and monkeys. To be sure, each species has its own specializations that enable it to fit into its unique ecological niche; but common ancestry results in structural (e.g., brain) and functional (e.g., memory) processes that are remarkably similar between humans and nonhumans. In addition, we can better understand fundamental processes because of the precise control enabled by animal research (e.g., living environments, experimental conditions, etc.). We can also ask and answer certain questions that would be difficult or impossible to do with humans. For example, we know what the connections are between the amygdala and other brain regions, but how does activity in the amygdala affect brain functioning? Using a new technique, it is now possible to temporarily inactivate the amygdala in a monkey and see how other brain areas (including those that are not directly connected to the amygdala) change their activity (Grayson et al., 2016). A study such as this not only helps us better understand how the brain works but also has enormous potential for developing treatments for people who have abnormal patterns of brain activity, such as those with epilepsy or Parkinson’s disease. Ten years from now, students may very well read in their textbooks about a “new treatment” to help people with Parkinson’s disease. Will this monkey study, which enabled such a discovery to be made, be described? Probably not, in much the same way that nonhuman research that permitted a significant human study to be conducted is rarely described in today’s textbooks." 

(https://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/psn/2017/01/animal-studies#:~:text=In%20addition%2C%20we%20can%20better,impossible%20to%20do%20with%20humans)

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More support for the study:

(https://web.archive.org/web/20200614090726/https://www.victorpest.com/articles/what-humans-can-learn-from-calhouns-rodent-utopia)

No, Religion Does NOT Make Society Better

Numerous studies have debunked the notion that a society must have religion to be good. Click on the link below for a particularly good science-based video presentation by Social Scientist Phil Zuckerman explaining the results of Secularization in free democratic countries:

What Happens When Societies Stop Worshipping God?

Israel: There Is No Excuse For USA Support Of Apartheid

"Israel's politics have been upended by the return of Netanyahu as Prime Minister, put in office with the help of extremely far-right factions who have now pushed through reforms to the Israeli Supreme Court that fundamentally undermine their democracy. All this while they were already a farce of a democracy due to the maintenance of an apartheid-like system of differing rules applying to different residents based on ethnicity."

Click on the link below for a podcast exposing a country that should not be allowed to hoodwink the USA with its religious bigotry (heads up, Evangelical ideologues). 

Israel's Political Upheavals (and more)

The Common Good

"All too often, America honors people who haven’t advanced the common good but have merely achieved notoriety or celebrity or amassed great wealth or power.

"All too often, America shames people for failing to conform to prevailing ideas about fashion or coolness.

"If we’re to revive the common good, we must honor behavior that strengthens the common good and condemn behavior that erodes the common good."

Click on the link below for Robert Reich's wisdom and knowledge on this subject that ideologues ignore:

Resurrecting the Common Good

Sports Betting: We Didn't Learn From Its History

"Sports gambling through smartphones has become widely available and wildly addictive but the effects are being felt beyond the individual gambler's bank account and anxiety levels. Partnerships between gambling companies and colleges, influencers, and even journalistic institutions like ESPN are changing the fundamentals of the sports themselves and how they're understood by fans - all for the worse."

Click on the link below for a blight on society from which the USA did not learn from history 100 years ago.

Bet Your Life: Sports betting is opening new and expensive ways to waste your time and destroy your mental health.

Monopolies: What Is Being Done To Control Them?

"There are bold new moves underway in the U.S. to scrutinize blockbuster business deals and ensure they are in the interest of consumers and the wider economy. Assistant attorney general Jonathan Kanter and FTC chair Lina Khan join Walter to discuss the new proposed merger and acquisition guidelines released last week, and how they are calculated to protect market competition."

Click on the link below for details:

What New Antitrust Guidelines Mean For Americans?

IQ: What Is It And How Important Is It

"An intelligence quotient (IQ) is a total score derived from a set of standardised tests or subtests designed to assess human intelligence.[1] The abbreviation "IQ" was coined by the psychologist William Stern for the German term Intelligenzquotient, his term for a scoring method for intelligence tests at University of Breslau he advocated in a 1912 book.[2]" (Wikipedia)"

Click on the link below for a science-based look at this commonly misunderstood term:

What Does IQ Actually Measure?

A Look At "Only" Children

"Indeed, most contemporary studies don't find any notable disadvantages for only children. Onlies actually tend to have higher intelligence-test scores and more ambitious educational goals—perhaps in part because they face less competition for their parents' emotional and financial resources."

"'Onlies' don’t seem to be any worse off than kids with siblings. So why do stereotypes about them persist?" (Atlantic Magazine)

Click on the link below for another opinion regarding the Only Child:

Is Only-Child Syndrome Real? 

Toxic Masculinity: A Major Negative Force In The USA

"Toxic masculinity is a set of certain male behaviors associated with harm to society and men themselves. Stereotypical aspects of traditional masculinity,^[1] such as social dominance, misogyny, and homophobia,^[2]: 716 can be considered "toxic" due in part to their promotion of violence, including sexual assault and domestic violence. Socialization of boys often normalizes violence, such as in the saying "boys will be boys" about bullying and aggression.

"Self-reliance and emotional repression are correlated with increased psychological problems in men such as depression, increased stress, and substance use disorders. Toxic masculine traits are characteristic of the unspoken code of behavior among men in prisons, where they exist in part as a response to the harsh conditions of prison life.

"Other traditionally masculine traits such as devotion to work, pride in excelling at sports, and providing for one's family, are not considered to be "toxic". The concept was originally used by authors associated with the mythopoetic men's movement, such as Shepherd Bliss. These authors contrasted stereotypical notions of masculinity with a "real" or "deep" masculinity, which they said men had lost touch with in modern society. Critics of the term toxic masculinity argue that it incorrectly implies that gender-related issues are caused by inherent male traits.^[3]

"The concept of toxic masculinity, or certain formulations of it, has been criticized by some conservatives as an undue condemnation of traditional masculinity, and by some feminists as an essentialist concept that ignores the role of choice and context in causing harmful behaviors and attitudes related to masculinity."

(Wikipedia)

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Other links:

‘Toxic masculinity’: what does it mean, where did it come from – and is the term useful or harmful?

Unlearning Toxic Masculinity

Health Among The Amish

"Health among the Amish is characterized by higher incidences of particular genetic disorders, especially among the Old Order Amish. These disorders include dwarfism,[1] Angelman syndrome,[2] and various metabolic disorders, such as Tay-Sachs disease,[3] as well as an unusual distribution of blood types.[4]" (Wikipedia)

Any cult/closed community may have a high risk of genetic disorders but also may have some positive social traits.  Click on this link for more.

The Dark History Of The Information Age

 "You’ve probably encountered phishing emails or computer viruses. Or maybe one or more of your accounts has been hacked or compromised. How and why do hackers hack and what are they generally seeking? Our guest this week points out that understanding the answers to those questions is essential for making sense of the psychological, economic, political, and social motivations for and effects of cybercrime. Scott Shapiro is a Southmayd Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy at Yale Law School. He is the author of a new book called, “Fancy Bear Goes Phishing: The Dark History of the Information Age, in Five Extraordinary Hacks.” The book dives into five historical examples, one of which involves its namesake, Fancy Bear, a Russian cyberintelligence unit responsible for hacking the Democratic National Convention. Shapiro joins WITHpod to discuss some of the biggest inflection points in the history of hacking, why the internet is so vulnerable, the role that generative AI may place in future cybercrime and his thoughts on if we should really be concerned about cyberwar."

Click on the link below for the podcast and transcript:

Decoding the Information Age

Race Is A Social Construct

"What the study of complete genomes from different parts of the world has shown is that even between Africa and Europe, for example, there is not a single absolute genetic difference, meaning no single variant where all Africans have one variant and all Europeans another one, even when recent migration is disregarded," Pääbo told Live Science. "It is all a question of differences in how frequent different variants are on different continents and in different regions."

Racial categories are weak proxies for genetic diversity and need to be phased out. (link)

Sports Betting: What Could Go Wrong?

"You’ve probably encountered an advertisement for sports betting in one form or another. In the past few years, there’s been a marked rise in the number of online sports betting ads from companies like DraftKings and FanDuel. Gambling companies now spend billions of dollars a year on advertising. At the same time, there’s growing concern over the effect betting is having on our experience with sports, the lack of comprehensive federal regulation, and its addictive potential. Eric Lipton is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and New York Times investigative reporter. He’s spent years following the sports betting boom. Lipton joins WITHpod to discuss how we got to this moment where sports gambling ads are integrated into almost every sports broadcast, the role of lobbying in the explosion of online betting, how the space is policed, and more."

Click on the link below for a podcast discussing the dangers of this "entertainment." (Hint: the USA banned it decades ago for reasons.)

The Explosion of Online Sports Betting

Children Today Have Different Issues Than Most Of Us Did

"Today, we take a look at the trials and tribulations facing the youth today as men and boys are being surpassed academically by women and girls, and girls are suffering disproportionately under the weight of the toxic forces of social media."

Click on the link below for a podcast exploring the new reality for today's youth:

The Kids Are Not Alright (Boys, Girls, Culture, And Social Media)

Sorry To Be The One To Spoil Super Bowl Sunday

"With tomorrow’s Super Bowl demanding our attention, I thought it an appropriate time to point out another way billionaires have been siphoning off our tax dollars into their bank accounts: sports stadiums. And if we don’t play ball, they’ll take our favorite teams away.

"Ever notice how there never seems to be enough money to build public infrastructure like mass transit lines and better schools? And yet, when a multi-billion-dollar sports team demands a new stadium, our local governments are happy to oblige."

Click on the link below for one reason I have lost much of my enthusiasm for Big Time sports:

The Sports Stadium Scam