How To Know You’re In a Mass Hysteria Bubble

Guest Post by Scott Adams

History is full of examples of Mass Hysterias. They happen fairly often. The cool thing about mass hysterias is that you don’t know when you are in one. But sometimes the people who are not experiencing the mass hysteria can recognize when others are experiencing one, if they know what to look for.

I’ll teach you what to look for.

image

 

A mass hysteria happens when the public gets a wrong idea about something that has strong emotional content and it triggers cognitive dissonance that is often supported by confirmation bias. In other words, people spontaneously hallucinate a whole new (and usually crazy-sounding) reality and believe they see plenty of evidence for it. The Salem Witch Trials are the best-known example of mass hysteria. The McMartin Pre-School case and the Tulip Bulb hysteria are others. The dotcom bubble probably qualifies. We might soon learn that the Russian Collusion story was mass hysteria in hindsight. The curious lack of solid evidence for Russian collusion is a red flag. But we’ll see how that plays out.

-----------------------------------------------------
It is my sincere desire to provide readers of this site with the best unbiased information available, and a forum where it can be discussed openly, as our Founders intended. But it is not easy nor inexpensive to do so, especially when those who wish to prevent us from making the truth known, attack us without mercy on all fronts on a daily basis. So each time you visit the site, I would ask that you consider the value that you receive and have received from The Burning Platform and the community of which you are a vital part. I can't do it all alone, and I need your help and support to keep it alive. Please consider contributing an amount commensurate to the value that you receive from this site and community, or even by becoming a sustaining supporter through periodic contributions. [Burning Platform LLC - PO Box 1520 Kulpsville, PA 19443] or Paypal

-----------------------------------------------------
To donate via Stripe, click here.
-----------------------------------------------------
Use promo code ILMF2, and save up to 66% on all MyPillow purchases. (The Burning Platform benefits when you use this promo code.)

The most visible Mass Hysteria of the moment involves the idea that the United States intentionally elected a racist President. If that statement just triggered you, it might mean you are in the Mass Hysteria bubble. The cool part is that you can’t fact-check my claim you are hallucinating if you are actually hallucinating. But you can read my description of the signs of mass hysteria and see if you check off the boxes.

If you’re in the mass hysteria, recognizing you have all the symptoms of hysteria won’t help you be aware you are in it. That’s not how hallucinations work. Instead, your hallucination will automatically rewrite itself to expel any new data that conflicts with its illusions.

But if you are not experiencing mass hysteria, you might be totally confused by the actions of the people who are. They appear to be irrational, but in ways that are hard to define. You can’t tell if they are stupid, unscrupulous, ignorant, mentally ill, emotionally unstable or what. It just looks frickin’ crazy.

The reason you can’t easily identify what-the-hell is going on in the country right now is that a powerful mass hysteria is in play. If you see the signs after I point them out, you’re probably not in the hysteria bubble. If you read this and do NOT see the signs, it probably means you’re trapped inside the mass hysteria bubble.

Here are some signs of mass hysteria. This is my own take on it, but I welcome you to fact-check it with experts on mass hysteria.

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.

2. The Ridiculousness of it 

One sign of a good mass hysteria is that it sounds bonkers to anyone who is not experiencing it. Imagine your neighbor telling you he thinks the other neighbor is a witch. Or imagine someone saying the local daycare provider is a satanic temple in disguise. Or imagine someone telling you tulip bulbs are more valuable than gold. Crazy stuff.

Compare that to the idea that our president is a Russian puppet. Or that the country accidentally elected a racist who thinks the KKK and Nazis are “fine people.” Crazy stuff.

If you think those examples don’t sound crazy – regardless of the reality – you are probably inside the mass hysteria bubble.

3. The Confirmation Bias

If you are inside the mass hysteria bubble, you probably interpreted President Trump’s initial statement on Charlottesville – which was politically imperfect to say the least – as proof-positive he is a damned racist.

If you are outside the mass hysteria bubble you might have noticed that President Trump never campaigned to be our moral leader. He presented himself as – in his own words “no angel” – with a set of skills he offered to use in the public’s interest. He was big on law and order, and equal justice under the law. But he never offered moral leadership. Voters elected him with that knowledge. Evidently, Republicans don’t depend on politicians for moral leadership. That’s probably a good call.

When the horror in Charlottesville shocked the country, citizens instinctively looked to their president for moral leadership. The president instead provided a generic law and order statement. Under pressure, he later named specific groups and disavowed the racists. He was clearly uncomfortable being our moral lighthouse. That’s probably why he never described his moral leadership as an asset when running for office. We observe that he has never been shy about any other skill he brings to the job, so it probably isn’t an accident when he avoids mentioning any ambitions for moral leadership. If he wanted us to know he would provide that service, I think he would have mentioned it by now.

If you already believed President Trump is a racist, his weak statement about Charlottesville seems like confirmation. But if you believe he never offered moral leadership, only equal treatment under the law, that’s what you saw instead. And you made up your own mind about the morality.

The tricky part here is that any interpretation of what happened could be confirmation bias. But ask yourself which one of these versions sounds less crazy:

1. A sitting president, who is a branding expert, thought it would be a good idea to go easy on murderous Nazis as a way to improve his popularity.

or…

2. The country elected a racist leader who is winking to the KKK and White Supremacists that they have a free pass to start a race war now.

or…

3. A mentally unstable racist clown with conman skills (mostly just lying) eviscerated the Republican primary field and won the presidency. He keeps doing crazy, impulsive racist stuff. But for some reason, the economy is going well, jobs are looking good, North Korea blinked, ISIS is on the ropes, and the Supreme Court got a qualified judge. It was mostly luck.

or…

4. The guy who didn’t offer to be your moral leader didn’t offer any moral leadership, just law and order, applied equally. His critics cleverly and predictably framed it as being soft on Nazis.

One of those narratives is less crazy-sounding than the other. That doesn’t mean the less-crazy one has to be true. But normal stuff happens far more often than crazy stuff. And critics will frame normal stuff as crazy whenever they get a chance.

4. The Oversized Reaction

It would be hard to overreact to a Nazi murder, or to racists marching in the streets with torches. That stuff demands a strong reaction. But if a Republican agrees with you that Nazis are the worst, and you threaten to punch that Republican for not agreeing with you exactly the right way, that might be an oversized reaction.

5. The Insult without supporting argument

When people have actual reasons for disagreeing with you, they offer those reasons without hesitation. Strangers on social media will cheerfully check your facts, your logic, and your assumptions. But when you start seeing ad hominem attacks that offer no reasons at all, that might be a sign that people in the mass hysteria bubble don’t understand what is wrong with your point of view except that it sounds more sensible than their own.

For the past two days I have been disavowing Nazis on Twitter. The most common response from the people who agree with me is that my comic strip sucks and I am ugly.

The mass hysteria signals I described here are not settled science, or anything like it. This is only my take on the topic, based on personal observation and years of experience with hypnosis and other forms of persuasion. I present this filter on the situation as the first step in dissolving the mass hysteria. It isn’t enough, but more persuasion is coming. If you are outside the mass hysteria bubble, you might see what I am doing in this blog as a valuable public service. If you are inside the mass hysteria bubble, I look like a Nazi collaborator.

How do I look to you?

49
Leave a Reply

avatar
  Subscribe  
Notify of
Anonymous
Anonymous

Without occasional mass hysteria’s, life would be boring.

Anonymous
Anonymous

The fever has to run its course. Attempts to suppress the fever always makes the underlying illness and its damage to the body worse.

musket
musket

Scott…..you are like we are in this situation……watching and commenting while George Soros and the media attempt a coup to overthrow the Trump administration.

Trump is a hardass and will never quit just so he can say he never quit. I’m betting on Trump……because he’s right.

Maggie
Maggie

I am sharing this with my 12 hillbilly friends and neighbors.

Stucky

I am comforted that the Barcelona terrorists will, as usual, be caught and shot within a week.

I am relieved that the police will state that they had these guys on their radar all along.

I rejoice that leaders all over the world are actually “outraged”. Phew!!

I’m happy to stand in “solidarity” with the citizens of Barcelona.

I will buy balloons today in their honor.

And flowers.

Maybe even a teddy bear.

Along with politicians and MSM, I will furrow my brows, ponder deeply the meaning of it all, and breathlessly wonder “what can be done to keep this from happening again?”.

I will want to scream “Keep the fucking mooslims out of you county!!!!”. (But, I won’t for I am Modern Man who lives for Diversity and Multiculturalism.)

I will cry tears of joy when my President tells me “We will defeat ISIS, let me tell you!”.

In three days time I will forget all about Barcelona, for I have seen this movie a million fucking times, and I know another sequel is coming any day now.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Did you notice that throughout the world, as our deified world leaders expressed various degrees of condemnation, that only Trump actually called it what it was by using the word “Islamic” to describe it?

TampaRed
TampaRed

Yeah,I noticed it Anon and I wish we didn’t have such a racist,bigoted sob as our Prez.
Why can’t he be like Obama was,or Teresa May,or Merkel,or my fave,Macron.
He plays to the worst stereotypes about Americans-combining travel bans,immigration changes and harsh talk will only discourage potential Americans from coming here-do we really want that?
WeAreImmigrants@ TBP#

unit472
unit472

“The Horror of Charlottesville”??? Mr. Adams seems to have a case of the vapors too. A person, singular, ONE died and, so far, I haven’t even seen a report on cause of death. Was it caused by being hit by a vehicle? Was it James Field’s vehicle? There is video of another vehicle at another location running down demonstrators. It was a Maroon Suv or van and was filmed from a roof top crashing into demonstrators.

Let’s get some facts from someone other than the corrupt Clinton tool Terry McAuliffe before we jump to media induced conclusions. The kind of people who attend Antifa demos are also the sort of people who have drug overdoses you know.

TJF
TJF

I just looked for that maroon SUV or van video. It looks like it was being pushed from behind by another car that is hard to see at first. I don’t have any questions that the antifa female that died was hit by the challenger and not the maroon vehicle.

Jake
Jake

Was she an Antifa or a useful idiot or other kind of do-gooder?

Anonymous
Anonymous

TJF is correct, the van was just the third in the line of vehicles with the challenger impacting a car which hit the van.

Scott is still reacting with vapors and when the truth of that singular event comes out (if it gets to) it will be as full of crap as the story of “white supremacists beating black man in garage” on the same day.

unit472
unit472

Here’s the problem ( at least for prosecutors). Unless it was Field’s vehicle that hit Ms. Heyer it is going to be hard to prove intent. After the initial crash there doesn’t seem to be any mortally wounded person between Field’s car and the one he rear ended. There is hardly any blood in ANY of the videos, certainly as compared to other terrorist attacks using vehicles as a weapon.

Now when Field’s reverses away from the scene he dumps quite a few people ( carrying clubs) but they all appear to be male/negro. If Field’s car pushed another car into Ms. Heyer ( and I don’t know that it did or didn’t) where is the intent to injure or kill? People rear end other cars all the time and sometimes that car will hit and kill a pedestrian.

Annie
Annie

From the evidence Field’s intent was to save his own ass. His car was attacked first, before it ran into the crowd (see video 1). When his car stopped it was attacked by multiple men with bats within a couple seconds (see video 2). If he had not put it into reverse and gotten the hell out of there he would have been beaten or worse. As far as I know it is not a crime to defend yourself or flee from an assault in this country.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_orKYk_Q28E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mnywjPPDtU

TampaRed
TampaRed

I believe that you all are probably correct,and the cops/prosecutors know it,which is why only the 2nd degree murder charge,not 1st degree.
Unless he confessed or they find evidence pointing to a plan to commit violence,I think he either walks or pleads for a short prison term.

Stucky

‘ … and I know another sequel is coming any day now.”
———- me

Well, THAT didn’t take long!

7 people stabbed in Finland. Authorities aren’t sure if it’s terrorism related — Even though the assailant was heard yelling “Allah Snackbar!”. Fuk Now I gotta add Finnish authorities to my list of dumbfuks with an IQ just a tad bit higher than a jellyfish.

#fukmeded, now I gotta buy TWO teddy bears!

TPC
TPC

Things are escalating. Left-wing IEDs will start to make appearances, and will be claimed by groups who are new on the scene (compared to KKK or Islam). They will say that they are the good guys. That we must fight “the Nazis” (ill defined) and that they are the only ones with the bravery to do it.

The media will excuse them. Hollywood will laud them. Colleges will recruit for them.

And the Turning will move on.

The only way to avoid or even mitigate this is if Trump does something so mind-bogglingly out of leftist expectation that they can only sit and shock. He won’t do such a thing, so nothing will be mitigated.

I’ll be 35 after Trump’s second (if it arrives) term. TPC for prez?

Ghost

Who’s your Secretary of State? (The Incorrect answer is “Chelsea Whateverhernameisnow?” All other names are valid considerations, including EC. or Beatrice)

TPC
TPC

SecState – Stucky
SecTreasury – Admin
SecDef – Not sure. A lot can happen between now and then.
VP – See SecDef answer.

Gayle

Trump’s unforgivable sin was equating the behavior of the Antifa gang with the Nazis. Antifa/BLM has been allowed numerous times to shut down the rights of others by using physical assault and property destruction, and they get their way every time. During this same time, how many riots have the Nazis instigated? How about during the administration of that other great racist, Barack Obama? This is the perspective that Trump has in his head and from which he uttered those fateful words. True, he has never claimed moral superiority, but the man has a strong sense of fair play, one of the qualities that endears him to the deplorables.

As the press well knows, if you want something to go away, you purposely ignore it. The Charlottesville rally could have been permitted but downplayed by the governor and mayor. Tactics to prevent confrontation could have been planned and implemented, but that would have prevented the construction of the needed narrative.

Generally, Americans pretty much ignore white supremacists. If a bunch of guys want to march around with torches while shouting offensive slogans, we minimize their message by turning away. There are many in the country who voice beliefs that offend others, and it has always been so.

The truth is we are being bullied. Bullies are never stopped by reasoning (check Europe). Only one thing works.

Anonymous
Anonymous

They will twist and twist and twist to extract anything they can from it…
comment image

Anonymous
Anonymous

No real choice, that Russian thing has failed since people just finally lost interest in it and they need something to keep the masses fired up against him.

musket
musket

Her choice…don’t pole vault over mouse turds.

Anonymous
Anonymous

It’s not about the choice being a problem, it’s about the reason given below.

Vic
Vic

I’m beginning to doubt this woman actually died. You can call me a conspiracy theorist, but what mother would use her daughter’s death as political propaganda? I would be prostate for weeks if not months if something happened to my kid. And I certainly wouldn’t be talking to the press about it. Especially, an unexpected death like this that would be completely shocking on top of the grief.
Did the lady not really die or is the mother just that cold?

Ottomatik
Ottomatik

I noticed for all of the Charlotteville outrage and condemnation, not a peep for the Shitcago body count same weekend, 30 something shot, 9 dead. I guess if it is just garden variety black gangsters its tough to virtue signal.
Soon we will reach the apotheosis of libtard virtue signaling and the Senate (ours not the roman) will decree divine victim status for all non-white males, thereby excusing all non-white male crime while simultaneously declaring white males to be a permanent criminal class.
Of course this is after the retirement of the Racist Declaration of Independence, and the Racist Constitution.
The elimination of all white male references in National Monuments, Buildings, Streets, books, papers, and especially Cash will help make these poor, downtrodden, abused, wretches, shinning, productive, citizens of the New Age.
I am explaining this to those of you who do not get it, on behalf of my elderly MSM addicted mother.

Vic
Vic

Ottomatik part of that sounds like Reconstruction after the War Between the States, especially the part about “excusing all non-white male crime while simultaneously declaring white males to be a permanent criminal class.” I hope we don’t go back to that again.

Vic
Vic

Scott Adams writes, “When the horror in Charlottesville shocked the country, citizens instinctively looked to their president for moral leadership.”

What person in their right mind looks to a politician for “moral leadership?”

Discover more from The Burning Platform

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading