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Conservative vs. Liberal Brains

This article on the brain differences between liberals and conservatives contains some damning research.  

To sum it up, liberals have a more highly-developed region that assesses reality vs. habitual thinking.  Conservatives have more highly developed emotional areas that focus on fear.

If you are a liberal debating a conservative, you will tend to weigh statements in light of whether they are true or are simply old beliefs.  You will face an opponent whose fears control decisions. 

Conclusion: because new ideas are always risky, Democrats will tend to evaluate the risk in light of it’s probability for working, and eliminate old thinking that is based on habit or belief.  Conservatives will tend to be afraid. They will choose inaction over fearful action. 

The bad news: people seldom change how they use their brains, so debate will only harden positions. 

See the full article here: https://braindecoder.com/post/politics-neuroscience-1282982492#

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What the Brexit Vote Means for Hillary

The Brexit vote shows that hordes of under-educated people will vote to ruin their country economically in order to keep brown strangers out.

The demographics show that lower education level meant voting to leave the EU.  Trump, who supported the economically disastrous move for Britain, has risen to prominence largely on the backs of under-educated, isolationist bigots who fear brown people are taking over.

For Hillary, this means she can’t fight this kind of irrational behavior with rational words. The low information voters behind Trump don’t care about economic consequences, moral considerations or equality. Like the majority in Britain, they are willing to destroy the country to stop immigrants, Muslims and minorities from participating in freedom.

Hillary’s strategy cannot be to simply hope there are more sane people than willful idiots.  The Britain vote show that hope may be ill-founded.

The only workable strategy is to swell the ranks of Hillary supporters who are committed to voting. This means “get out the vote” needs to become “get off your butt.”  Taking for granted that wise people outnumber Neanderthals can prove disastrous.

Written by Kevin Johnston

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Defeating a bully is actually a science.

Howard Zinn, famed author of A People’s History of the United States specialized in insurrections and taking down regimes.

He developed a step-by-step plan for doing so, and was a consultant on the Arab Spring rebellions.

We can use his method to take out a dictator BEFORE he seizes power.  

1.       Think of a dictator as a table with supporting legs.

2.       Systematically start removing each of the supports.

3.       Let the dictator tumble under his own weight.

In the case of Donald Trump, taking him head on won’t take him down.  He has too much support. Calling him racist or fascist is like begging a Dictator to be fair.  He doesn’t want to appear fair.  He wants to appear powerful.

However, let’s look at his support, the legs of his table.  

First, he has the support of the uneducated, low-information voter.  

This support leg is very strong.  Education won’t undermine these supporters, because they don’t value education. Information won’t change their minds, because they are true believers who don’t consider facts when making their emotional choices. They cannot be shamed or ridiculed out of their positions.

Conclusion: Do NOT spend any time or resources trying to undermine this support leg.  We don’t have to crumble all the table legs, just two of them.  The table will then fall under its own weight.

Second, Trump has GOP support.

This is clearly one of the weakest supports.  The Republican Party has misgivings about Trump, and this extends all the way to some of the most powerful leaders of the party.

To help this support crumble, we can emphasize that the party is losing Latinos, blacks and women, and that this loss may become permanent.  Avoid name-calling, and focus instead on their own self-interest: they are in danger of destroying their party.  

The GOP can encourage members to vote their consciences, and that may include Hillary, as was discussed at a recent GOP summit that Mitt Romney attended. This could serve the GOP because though they would not win the White House this time, they would live to fight another day.  They can always point to their “courageous” decision to refuse to support a racist, thus lending them some credibility next time around.

Conclusion: Befriend GOP members and speak in terms of their own self-interest. Do not attack.

Third, Trump appeals to Hillary-haters.

               This support group includes disgruntled Bernie supporters, misogynists and super patriots (the same ones who still hate Jane Fonda and think Ronald Reagan was a great President).

Undermining this support group is fairly simple.  Every objection this group has about Hillary can be shown to be much worse with Trump.

Examples:

               Hillary has too many corporate ties.

               Trump has way more corporate ties than Hillary could dream of.  He owns major corporations and does business with giant corporations daily.

                 Benghazi.  

               Don’t argue about what she did or didn’t do.  Point out that if she made any mistakes, at least she was involved in America’s military efforts, while Trump dodged the draft several times and never served.  If the choice is between a patriotic fighter who may have erred and a deserter, any patriot will take the fighter over the dodger.

               Conclusion: Any mistakes Hillary made while defending her country pale in comparison to Trump’s refusal to defend his country.

                 Email Scandal.

               So far, a lengthy investigation has found no criminal activity on Hillary’s part, while it is a known fact that Trump deleted thousands of emails from 1996 to 2001, and could not produce those emails when a judge in a lawsuit demanded them.

Conclusion: The only PROVEN email problem is Trump’s, not Hillary’s.

                 Whitewater, etc.  

               If we are going to accept rumor and innuendo as evidence against a candidate, then the rumors of Trump’s mob ties are fair game.

Conclusion: Any accusations against Hillary are nothing compared to the accusations against Trump.

 This strategy may not convince anyone who hates Hillary to start loving her, but it could make them realize they don’t like either of their choices.  Any Trump supporter who gives up and refuses to vote helps our cause.

Go through each accusation against Hillary, and you can easily find it mirrors one against Trump.

 Fourth, Trump has white male support.

This support group is not the same as the under-educated mob.  This includes business professionals and semi-educated men who miss the good old macho days.  They want a “real” man to stand up and tell it like it is.

This is America’s shame. Knowing that white male privilege is fighting so hard against justice is truly embarrassing.  However, attacking this group will make them stauncher in their stance.

However, this support leg can be slowly rotted.  White professional males who support Trump run the danger of appearing to be against diversity in the workplace.  Today’s workplace is diverse and tolerant, and any man who is against that is going to be passed over for promotions and leadership roles.  Companies can’t afford to risk having racists and sexists in roles of authority.  Spread this message consistently, and many men will swallow their machoism to save their careers.  

Also weaken this support with the worlds’ oldest weapon: sex.  Make it clear that women consider men who support Trump to be unsexy, just like any obnoxious sexist male is.  Men hate losing their sex appeal.  Spread the message that women are offended by Trump, and supporting him is a sure way to have women ignore you.  Or worse, hate you.  Men are wimps about this.  Women need to take charge of this message and spread it.

This technique could undermine the support from white males.  

 The easiest two legs to break are the GOP support and the Hillary Hates.  Make it embarrassing for white men to support Trump, and there are three wobbly legs under the Trump table.

 Written by Kevin Johnston

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Your brain is not through growing.  In fact, it can grow new neurons by the thousands.  And guess what can trigger this growth.

Exercise.

Exercise triggers the release of called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF. And this little protein helps you grow new neurons, white matter and gray matter.

Drop the weed and the booze and go for a run.  You’ll be smarter by this time tomorrow.  Oh, by the way, your brain will actually be bigger too.

If you want the evidence, go here:

http://www.webmd.com/healthy-aging/news/20121022/exercise-protects-aging-brains-better

http://time.com/4269672/exercise-brain-aging/

https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2015/08/recent-research-on-exercise-and-aging/

http://www.sharpermindcenters.com/articles/new_neurons_grow_in_adult_brains.htm

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“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

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It takes a deep, abiding faith to massacre people.  

It is time to ask: Are beliefs really sacred?  Or is the well-being of humanity sacred?

Did the shooter have a right to his beliefs?

Do we have the “correct” belief, or is the act of believing arbitrary?  Is believing a way to give us false certainty so we don’t have to face the messiness of being human in an ever-changing world?

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Beliefs are harmless. Everyone has a right to their beliefs.  We should never tell someone what they believe is not valid. 

[End of Sarcasm]  Time to grow up about this people.  Beliefs are destroying mankind.  They always have. 

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IF YOU’VE BEEN SMOKING WEED SINCE AGE 13 OR 14, DO THIS NOW. 

Weed inhibits the growth of the prefrontal cortex and shrinks the hippocampus. That’s not an opinion, that’s medical fact.  Another fact, weed depletes white matter. 

What is unknown is whether the brain can recover, but there are some things you can do to help it compensate for the damage.

1. Begin a major exercise program.  Studies show that weight training, endurance training and aerobics an help rebuild white matter. 

2. Start doing brain games.  Do the ones in real brain game books (not video games).  Some studies show that brain exercises help, most likely with verbal reasoning skills. 

3. Monitor your decision-making to see if you make emotional decisions.  The seat of emotion in the brain is the limbic system, which can take charge in a weed smoker’s brain. The prefrtontal cortex is the seat of judgment, where you weigh conflicting options and contemplate consequences.  It has reduced capacity if you started smoking young, while you were still developing. 

There is currently no evidence that says you can repair an under-developed prefrontal cortex, but you can begin noticing the quality of your choices and start using what capacity you do have to make level-headed decisions. 

The verdict is out on whether you can reverse the damage from smoking weed as a teen, but don’t wait for the verdict.  Start the three disciplines above and you may notice marked improvement in your ability to take charge of your thinking.  

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What Else the Media is Missing about Hillary.

Hillary represents another trend besides breaking glass ceilings.

It used to be a woman was “finished: right after childbearing age.  One doctor told me that menopause is not natural, and that’s why we must treat it with drugs.

But a new paradigm is emerging.  Around 60 or so, people are actually BEGINNING their peak years.  

Studies show the brain does not have to decline into old age, and that the body can continue to be supple and healthy.  Best of all, our greatest contributions can begin.

As Hillary illustrates, growing older can mean gathering up all your wisdom and focusing it on leaving a lasting legacy.

Hillary, unlike Sanders and Trump, seems to be growing in her capacity for new ideas, creative plans and a vision for the future.  The dwindling of mind we see in the two old men is not happening to Hillary.  

She is quietly ushering in the era of Senior Accomplishment.  With her (and others) as models, we can see that passing 60 does not have to mean finishing our race; it can mean just now coming out of the starting gate. 

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Please read the opening premise below from my forthcoming book on thinking skills. I started this book after debating Bernbots and noticing they had no training in how to think.  I hope to fill the void in our educational system with a systematic approach to teaching thinking.  Your response will be greatly appreciated.

Hypothesis vs. Belief

It is popular to equate hypothesis with belief.  This is a mistake.  When someone claims that scientists have beliefs, and they just call them hypotheses, they are completely wrong. A hypothesis is the opposite of a belief.

A hypothesis demands proof; a belief accepts none.

Some examples will clarify:

If I hypothesize that children raised with poor nutrition have different brain structures than children raised on nutritious food, the statement begs for proof. We would have to do brain scans of children with different food histories to prove our statement.

If I believe God watches over the minds of children and prevents any harm to them, then there is no scan you could show me that would change my thinking.  I would respond to any scan by saying, “God hasn’t finished His work yet.”  A belief never changes based on facts.

In short, a belief is the opposite of a hypothesis: the first ignores facts and the second seeks them.

1KOX���

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Our brain series starts today. It may be too late for Bernbots and Trumpers, but you have time to grow, improve and refresh your brain.  Follow Fighting Chance for the complete series and take charge of your brain. 

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Look, Bernie’s not going to be President. Trump is not smart. Your ship isn’t coming in if you never launched it. Santa Claus and Jesus are not going to give you goodies if you’re good. “Energy” is not attracting good things to you. The Universe is not speaking to you. Time to get a 21st Century brain.  Follow Fighting Chance to get the tools you need to fight mediocrity.

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“Men will not prosper until they stop fearing powerful women.” --Kevin Johnston

Libba Bray, A Great and Terrible Beauty

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Follow us to learn how to stop the people who are trying to stop you.  We recommend this article from Inc. Magazine. 

Read it here: http://tinyurl.com/zenfwaj

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A woman is unstoppable after she realizes she deserves better.

Anonymous  (via cwote)

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hipster blog

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”I cannot tell if you are attractive until I know your mind.”--Kevin Johnston

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