2018-01-13

American Left In Extreme Negative Mood

Socionomics posits that mood is not influenced by a happy song or a sad movie, but instead people seek out songs and movies that match their current mood. Horror movies did well in the 1930s, 1970s, and has been growing steadily as a genre since 2000.

It follows that people in a negative mood will focus on negative news items. I was watching the morning news today and saw a montage video of generally left-wing news outlets and guests saying "shithole" over and over and over. And I wondered, if it is really triggering to hear that term, why repeat it over and over? Every time they hear it, it must induce some negative feeling, but they keep doing it. It is as if President Trump dropped an atomic bomb that set off a chain reaction. It was by far the most talked about topic. If people were in a good mood, they would ignore it or downplay it. People in a negative mood will focus on it and look for ways to be offended or triggered. They want to feel angry and this provided a great excuse.

I wonder if Trump even said this word though. It certainly isn't impossible, but seeing people say this word over and over on TV and other people in meeting not hearing it, it made me think he may have achieved an amygdala hijack. It's a case of someone hearing what they want to hear. Trump may have said he doesn't want immigrants from certain countries, with or without a descriptor. He may have simply said the deal is dead. But the person hearing it immediately has an extreme emotional response and "hears" the term that most closely aligns with their feeling.

The takeaway is that President Trump is not causing the negative mood among a subset of the left. They are in a negative mood and if they didn't have Trump, they would find something else to get outraged about. Also, the negative mood exhibited is a warning of what is coming for America. At some point in the coming decade, there may be a president (it could be Trump) who is as hated by most Americans as a subset of the left hates Trump. Those who do not hate that President will hate the rest of America.

While the political/media complex are stewing in extreme negative mood, most Democrats are more influenced by the broader society's rising social mood. ZH: Americans' Confidence Hits 17-Year High As Democrats Throw In The Misery Towel

The rising stock market and cryptocurrencies point to euphoria, even if it is only a bear market peak. It's not a new high in social mood because the nominal indexes are inflated by central bank policies. This doesn't feel like the 2000 peak outside of the stock market because it's a reversal within a larger context of falling mood. To the extent central banks have pushed mood higher than it should be, they will cause an overreaction in the reversal, increasing the risk of civil war, political collapse and violence at the trough.

2 comments:

  1. "I wonder if Obama really was born in the USA. It certainly isn't impossible, but seeing people say he was born in Kenya over and over on TV made me think Trump may have achieved an amygdala hijack. It's a case of someone hearing what they want to hear."

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    1. Good point. He managed to keep that conspiracy theory going well after its sell-by date.

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