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Tricheco's avatar

The "good old days" beliefs seem to have a protective function. It's highly stressful to be aware of something horrific and, at the same time, be unable to do much or anything at all about it. One way to cope is to shunt it off to the side; find a way to obscure or ignore it. The cognitive dissonance arising from that further reinforces the urgency of obscuring it. I've noticed college educated people are adept at doing that very thing, especially the PMC caste/class and their wannabes. They flood the media zone with their coping mechanisms, anxieties, denial strategies, and other assorted neuroses. Credulous people pick it up from there. When awareness finally does creep in, it's distressing. People cast around for something to soften it. The "good old days" offers an acceptable something. It's reinforced by a cultural disposition to accept a Fall from Grace narrative.

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Kathleen Devanney. A human.'s avatar

It's easy to lose sight of that. As CAF's likes to say, the Great Poisoning has been going on a very long time, now it's just obvious to everyone but the zombies.

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