Emotive Thinking, by its very semantical syntax, seems a contradiction in terms. How can emotionalism and thinking even be considered in the same breath? It may seem reasonable, if not downright correct, that emotion leads to thinking error. Cognitive distortions have been referred to by several names, including ‘thinking errors’, ‘faulty thinking’, and ‘mind traps.’ They refer to the ways our brain can distort information to give us an inaccurate view of the world.
In researching for writing this post I came across an insightful paper written by Shona Adams entitled Humans Given Theory of Cognitive Disorders. Just wanted to give credit where credit’s due. You see I am not a plagiarizer like Joe Biden. I have no idea what, if any, political bent Ms. Adams may or may not have. For all I know, she might vehemently object to my adaptation of her work. But once we put our words, thoughts, concepts and ideas into the free marketplace- then their usage and adaptation is fair game.
I do a bit of a deep dive into this murky somewhat obscure conceptual framework to try to explain the inner brain disfunctions of Marxists generally and todays Neo Marxist Anarchists in particular. To do this requires a comprehensive understanding of how emotion causes thoughts and visa versa. Cognitive distortions contain the following elements: • emotional arousal • an adaptive nature • and, a physiological and biological basis.
An ‘Activating Agent’ is the trigger, usually sensory information, that comes into the thalamus. A ‘Pattern Match’ between the ‘activating agent’ and stored memories of perceived threat then occurs which activates ‘Emotional Arousal’. This activates the fight or flight response which helps us respond more effectively to danger. The changes that happen to our body are well known, but lesser known are the changes that happen in our brains; cognitive distortions. These cognitive distortions distort the way we see things, leading to negative thoughts. These negative thoughts often lead to increased perceived threat, and hence increased emotional arousal. The thoughts can also trigger further pattern matches with can also trigger emotional arousal. Thus, cognitive distortions are a result of emotional arousal which in turn generates more emotional arousal.
Why is any of this relevant? Think about just a few of the family and societal environment that today’s youth endure: 1.) Uncaring, neglectful and self-absorbed parents in a post- modern world who themselves are struggling to deal with new identities stripped from traditional norms; 2) Drug addled parents who are non-functioning at best and at worst destructive, hellish and nightmarish to themselves and to their families; 3.) the unhinged Marxist propagandists that masquerade for teachers and college professors with supposed intellect and knowledge who pollute and poison today’s youth; 4.) an indulgent and grossly distortive mass media propagandizing and peddling all sorts of untruths about climate change and other so-called existential threats; and 5.) Putrid Musical and “cultural” influences such a “rap” music.
I’ve heard it said that if you want to understand someone then understand their coping mechanisms (adaptive or maladaptive) that come into play in response to trauma and other stimuli.
Today’s youth have an incredible amount of repressed rage against their neglectful, self-absorbed and drug addicted parents. They often become drug addicted themselves. Blinded with rage they dare not directly confront their parents and instead rage against the oppressors, anyone to the right of Joe Stalin, and anyone who dares not to genuflect to these rageful lefty lunatics and the extremist views they impose on everyone else.
According to Ms. Adams: “Apart from the obvious role in anxiety and depression (as seen in CBT), HG also understands the role in the formation of self-esteem and shattered beliefs in trauma. With regards to the theme of relationships, their role in social anxiety, irritability and anger, as well as codependency is mentioned. Their possible role in borderline personality disorder will also be discussed. Finally, therapeutic implications of the Human Givens theory of cognitive distortions will be discussed. This includes how to use the distortions therapeutically. It also includes a photocopiable handout I have made in which I have linked CBT and HG techniques that I think actually counter the impact of specific distortions on negative thoughts when someone is aroused. The role of emotional arousal The HG theory uses the APET model to describe the interaction between emotional arousal and negative thoughts. Cognitive distortions are the link by which emotional arousal causes negative thoughts. In the HG model, the ‘Activating Agent’ is the trigger, usually sensory information, that comes into the thalamus. A ‘Pattern Match’ between the ‘activating agent’ and stored memories of perceived threat then occurs which activates ‘Emotional Arousal’. This activates the fight or flight response which helps us respond more effectively to danger. The changes that happen to our body are well known, but lesser known are the changes that happen in our brains; cognitive distortions. These cognitive distortions distort the way we see things, leading to negative thoughts. These negative thoughts often lead to increased perceived threat, and hence increased emotional arousal. The thoughts can also trigger further pattern matches with can also trigger emotional arousal. Thus, cognitive distortions are a result of emotional arousal which in turn generates more emotional arousal. Diagram of the Human Givens Approach to Cognitive Distortions Activating agent Pattern match increased Emotional Arousal (activation of fight or flight response) Physiological symptoms and cognitive distortions Increased Negative Thoughts resulting from cognitive distortions Adaptive function of cognitive distortions Strong emotions like depression, anxiety, anger and even falling in love have an adaptive response to help our survival. Our strong emotions, or heightened emotional arousal, triggers the fight or flight response to help maximize our chances of responding well to the situation. In the example of perceived danger, much is known about the physiological changes that help us run or fight danger, but much less has been understood about the role of cognitive distortions in this process. Cognitive distortions, like their physiological counter-parts, facilitate our successful escape from danger. Information is distorted to enable us to respond more efficiently and quickly to an emergency situation. DESCRIPTION AND ADAPTIVE PURPOSE OF COGNITIVE DISTORTIONS Black and white thinking In black and white thinking, we see things in all or nothing terms. When we use words like ‘always’, ‘everybody/all’, ‘never’, ‘nobody’, etc we are probably using this distortion. If there is an element of doubt or ‘grey’ when we are emotional, we will see it in an extreme ‘black’ form. For example, if you see a lion in front of you, you may be perfectly calm if it is behind bars in a zoo. However, if there is any element of doubt about your safety, like the back gate being open, the emotional part of your brain will classify the grey as being black and your body will be ready to run from potential danger. If we were to react as if there was relatively little danger in this situation, which may well be the case if there is another gate too, our logical brain would be too busy calculating potential risk, which may prevent us responding quickly if necessary. So, if there is a potential threat and things aren’t completely ‘safe’, our brain will categorise things in black and white terms to help us respond very quickly to danger, which may save our lives. Perfectionism When we do something in an emergency, it is important we do it right, or we could die, leading to the tendency for perfectionism. So, for example, if we are tying a knot in a rope to swing out of danger, it is very important that we get that knot right or we could die! Perfectionism is also influenced by the black and white thinking distortion. Either something is completely perfect or else we react as if it is not worth anything at all. We are likely to be using a perfectionistic distortion if we use words like ‘should’, ‘ought’, and ‘must’, and therefore is sometimes called ‘musterbation’. When we have this mindset, getting things perfect makes us feel good. However, because of the importance of getting things right, we may become very upset and find it difficult to tolerate situations that are not perfect. Catstrophize Related to black and white thinking is catastrophizing, in which we act as if we know that the worst thing will happen. It is very adaptive for us to plan for the worst case scenario, as this may save our lives if it actually occurs. In high risk jobs, there is often a plan for dealing with worst case scenarios, as this can provide an important safety net to have in place which make us more able to relax and feel better. However, when we are emotionally aroused, we are more likely to believe that the worst situation will actually occur. Using the above example, it may be quite adaptive to be ready to run if we notice that a gate to a lion’s cage is open, even if there is only a slim chance that it may be true! Predicting the future Predicting the future or ‘fortune telling’ is where we act as if we know what will happen. In order for us to react quickly to potentially dangerous situations, we need to assume we know what will happen. We do not have time to think through the factors that might affect the likelihood of this happening, as this would dangerously slow down our reaction time. Thus, if a lion is nearby, you might predict that it might want to eat you and get into your jeep without waiting to find out.! Unfortunately, we are not actually able to predict the future - we would be very rich from winning the lottery! Mind reading Mind reading is a form of predicting the future, when we assume and act as if we know what the other person is thinking without them telling us. In a dangerous situation, it is important for us to predict what the other person is thinking, so that we can quickly take evasive action. So, if we meet someone with a knife on a dark street, we might read their mind and assume that they are intending to stab us and cross the road. We do not have time to consider the evidence as to whether or not that thought is actually true. While mind reading may be adaptive, if we think others are thinking badly of us, this may increase our perceived threat and make us more anxious or depressed. Personalise We are also more likely to personalise situations that might be unrelated to us, or take responsibility for things that are not under our control. Using the example of a lion, if we are in the wild and see some grass moving, we may wonder if the lion is behind it and relate the random event to ourselves. Similarly, we might take a random comment that we hear and assume that the person is talking about us. Over-responsibility The other aspect of personalising is that we might try to take responsibility for things that are beyond our control. It is sensible to try to change things around us to make us safer, and many of us try to control our environment or those around us as a way of managing our emotions to help us feel better. So, if we can influence our environment it may help us be safer or at least feel better. Unfortunately, we can only control what we do, say, or choose to dwell on. If we try to regulate our emotions by focussing on things beyond our control, we may feel more helpless or scared when we are not able to control those things. Thus, while personalising has an adaptive function, it can also inadvertently increase our emotional arousal. Overgeneralise HG recognises our ability to pattern match. Overgeneralising is taking one specific incident and responding as if that happens all the time or in all situations We can pattern match from one dangerous situation to another because very rarely is one danger absolutely identical to the next. If we have been hit by a bus in the past, that memory is stored so that when we see a different vehicle coming hurtling quickly towards us, a pattern match happens to our past experience and our body gets ready to run from the truck. However, because of pattern matching we may sometimes inaccurately overgeneralise and feel strong emotions in safe situations. For example, if I make a mistake on the computer, I might think that I am incapable of using computers! Negative bias When in danger, we have a tendency to scan for danger, focus on the negatives and potential danger, and block out the positives which may be irrelevant to helping us respond in the emergency. For example, if we know there is a lion out there, we will be focused on the potential danger instead of admiring the pretty butterflies and flowers! This is called a negative bias. As a result of the negative bias, we over emphasise the negative which often leads to increased perceived threat and stronger negative emotions. The trance-like state intense focus of attention in high emotional arousal, which helps us concentrate in an exam, enables us to have this negative bias. Minimise coping resources A side effect of the negative bias is minimising our coping resources. Because we are focused on the problem and not the solution, we will also block out the positive resources that we have, or examples of times when we have dealt well in similar situations. This can undermine our resources and make us underestimate our ability to cope. Emotional reasoning Finally, in an emergency the logical part of our brain inhibited. This is because the logical part of our brain is slower and will slow our responses down. The more emotionally aroused we are, the less logical we are! So, if we have not go full access to our logical thinking, what are we going to base our decisions on? All we have to rely on is our gut instinct or our initial thought., which we need to rely on without questioning it in order to respond rapidly to danger. This tendency to believe something, just because we think it or feel it, is called emotional reasoning. The inhibition of our rational thought when we are emotionally aroused has a very adaptive function. If you were walking along the pavement with a motorbike hurtling towards you, and your rational brain wondered what speed it might be travelling and what make it is, you may well get run over! As you will see, this inhibition has an impact on our distortions too. Magical Thinking Emotional reasoning and personalising can also lead to magical thinking. In this distortion, we believe that just because we have a thought that one of our behaviours might have caused an unrelated event, it must therefore be true. We may then invest much energy in doing those behaviours to prevent the disaster we fear. The more we try not to think of the thought, the more often it pops into our heads, further exacerbating the situation! So, if I flap my arms on the street corner to keep the dragons away, I may believe that there are no dragons because I have been flapping my arms, and feel compelled to continue flapping my arms. The more anxious I become if I am not able to flap my arms on the street corner, the more emotionally aroused I become. I will then not be able to see the situation very and become more anxious. When emotional reasoning is combined with the other distortions it escalates our perceived threat. So, my perfectionistic and black and white distortions can lead me to think that either I can do salsa dancing perfectly or else I can’t dance at all. The catastrophizing will influence me to think the worst; that I will slip and fall over breaking my leg and front teeth. Mind reading will then cause me to think that I know that you are thinking the worst; that I can’t dance at all. Generalising may cause me to think that you think I’m stupid and can’t do anything because I can’t dance. And emotional reasoning will dictate that because I think it, therefore it must be true! This is an example of how these distortions, which have an important adaptive function, can create havoc with our emotions. The more emotionally aroused we are, the stronger our distortions.”
After all that being said, my relatively simple point is that today’s neo Marxists and Anarchists have been subjected to all sorts of trauma. In turn that has caused them to suffer a verifiable mental lapses and errors in judgment, if not outright mental diseases. In turn this causes them to have and make repetitive and self-reinforcing cognitive errors.
The end
result is that today’s cockamamie commies and anarchists (just like their ideological predecessors regular old Marxists) have no ability to perceive the world as it is. Their brain addled conditions thus inevitably lead these deluded individuals to verily believe the insanity that comprises their world view. Thus, to them terrorizers who throw homosexuals off rooftops, who rape innocent women, and who wantonly kill innocent babies—-are the liberators of the oppressed and the powerless. Ergo-ipso facto-Hamas good-Israel bad. These cognitively compromised Lilliputians and mental midgets simply ignore all the evidence to the contrary of their delusions- after all why should they even have to consider the evidence-when they intuitively and emotionally know their “truth.”
You know David-that you don't have to be a Marxist to engage in emotive thinking. So an otherwise sane person can engage in emotive thinking on a particular subject. So for example, an individual had a bad experience with a real estate developer-it would not be surprising for that individual to generalize badly about all real estate developers including Trump. Who knows what hidden prejudices lurk in the hearts of any individual man that can distort their usual sane world view into a twisted non-sensical perception of a particular person or issue. Afterall, you have selected enough Juries to appreciate that. I remember selecting a Jury in Westchester County on a plaintiff's personal injury case and a defendant's attorney did not object to my selection of a black woman jury. BTW I won the case but got a small dollar verdict. Later when I asked the defense attorney why he did not challenge that Juror-he told me that because she was a telephone operator-he believed she would be just obnoxious enough to be a bit obstinate and not just fork over a ton of money. Turns out that he was correct. He had keyed in on the more operative prejudice of that particular juror.
All true, but, honestly, the neo-Marxists or fascists are not who concern me most. It's the ordinary, non-Marxist, non-trans-philia, non-racist, hard-working and decent people, many of whom are Rs, that frighten me by their easy way they have been hypnotized by the media into believing that Trump is such a danger that we must ignore even gross signs of incompetence and anti-American behavior on the left. Last night, to use an example, I spoke with a rabidly anti-Trump self-described moderate, who does not think we should have illegal aliens, men in women's sports, etc. I went through Russia's and China's activities during Obama, Trump and Biden's terms. Despite the obvious, he couldn't see that it was anything but a coincidence it happened during O & B's terms, not Trumps. He didn't see Trump's victory against ISIS in Syria and Iraq as being significant. He doesn't want illegals in our country but doesn't think they 10,000,000 are significant or that Biden ended all Trump's tactics only to go back to them in desperation later. Not really a big deal. What mattered is that Trump said that Mexico would pay for the wall and they didn't.
I have any number of good friends and family members, all decent or even terrific people who are like this.