Dilbert's Scott Adams Explains "How To Know You're In A Mass Hysteria Bubble"

MojoMan · Aug 19, 2017

From time to time, people in our nation get swept up into a virtual lynch mob which is whipped up into a state of mass hysteria. Some examples of these moments over the last few years include:

The self-defense shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman

The death of Michael Brown in Ferguson

The terrorist attack on a gay nightclub in Florida

The Baltimore riots after the death of while in the custody of three black Baltimore police officers (that the officers were black was not well communicated by the press until much later).

The Memories Pizza statement of policy not to make pizzas for gay weddings (although they had never been requested to do so)

The election of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States

And of course now the violent protest last weekend of the proposed removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee in Virginia by sympathizers of the extremely vile and repulsive Nazi/KKK and of course the usual intolerant and violent leftist thugs, who cannot bring themselves to allow speech which they oppose and that does not conform to their standards of political correctness.

There are other examples. If someone wants to mention them, please feel free. In any case, I and many others have observed this pattern and practice of lynch mob, mass hysteria behavior occurring periodically for some time now. Apparently so has Scott Adams, who is the creator of the Dilbert cartoons.

By the way, if you want to leave the impression that you are caught up in the current "mass hysteria bubble," you can do so by attacking the messenger rather than the message, as Adams observes in his article below:

Dilbert's Scott Adams Explains "How To Know You're In A Mass Hysteria Bubble"

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.

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.

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.
Click to expand...

{continued}

MojoMan · Aug 19, 2017

{continued}

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 others. 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.

***
Click to expand...

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?
Click to expand...

durvasa · Aug 19, 2017

Here's a direct link to the blog post:

http://blog.dilbert.com/post/164297628606/how-to-know-youre-in-a-mass-hysteria-bubble

No Worries · Aug 19, 2017

Scott Adams appears to have drunk the Trump Koolaide. Or he wrote that after Trump's Saturday remarks, but before Trump's Tuesday remarks.

MexAmercnMoose · Aug 19, 2017

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-03-22/how-dilbert-s-scott-adams-got-hypnotized-by-trump

tallanvor · Aug 19, 2017

so many posters claiming that huge amounts of the American population are white supremacists definitely has a Salem witch trial feel to it.

dmoneybangbang · Aug 19, 2017

It's almost like mass media makes money off viewership/readership via ad revenue.

You know how to get out of "mass hysteria", turn the channel...

bigtexxx · Aug 19, 2017

dmoneybangbang said: ↑

It's almost like mass media makes money off viewership/readership via ad revenue.

You know how to get out of "mass hysteria", turn the channel...
Click to expand...

Bingo. This all day long.

Space Ghost · Aug 19, 2017

I really appreciate Adams work. Very often he is spot on. He does a very good job explaining a situation and is automatically labeled a staunch Trump supporter.

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.
Click to expand...

I often see this mentality here.

KingCheetah · Aug 19, 2017

What the **** is this woo woo bullshit?

MexAmercnMoose · Aug 19, 2017

Space Ghost said: ↑

I really appreciate Adams work. Very often he is spot on. He does a very good job explaining a situation and is automatically labeled a staunch Trump supporter.

I often see this mentality here.
Click to expand...

he did...and it got to his head

AroundTheWorld · Aug 19, 2017

I like Dilbert. His creator sounds like a weirdo (the weirdest part is his ex-wife now being his PA). But his perspective on Trump is interesting.

Bobbythegreat · Aug 19, 2017

Space Ghost said: ↑

I really appreciate Adams work. Very often he is spot on. He does a very good job explaining a situation and is automatically labeled a staunch Trump supporter.
Click to expand...

The problem that the mindless fools out there don't have the cognitive ability to grasp is that it wouldn't matter if he was a Trump supporter or not. If you disagree with his statement, disagree with his statement on merit, don't just go the ad hominem route. When you attack the person INSTEAD of attacking the argument, you've already lost.

That said, it doesn't mean you can't do both, but if your comments end at the personal attack, you are essentially conceding.

Space Ghost · Aug 19, 2017

MexAmercnMoose said: ↑

he did...and it got to his head
Click to expand...

Adams has always been an egotistical *******. Most successful people are.

chrispbrown · Aug 19, 2017

Mass hysteria? Sure some people on the left are calling the president racist, but I believe you are part of a mass hysteria if you truly believe all people on the left think the president is racist.

Trump is insensitive, unapologetic, and ineffective. That's it. Can we comment on the "mass hysteria" and swarm of right wing outlets? Fox, Breitbart, Daily Storm, Alex Jones, Rush...Far right live on the fringes.

bigtexxx · Aug 19, 2017

The media is hyping up these neo nazis and kkk types purely for viewers. These folks are such a tiny percentage of America and are completely irrelevant. Nobody takes them seriously. America has far bigger problems but we're wasting our energy on this instead. Stupid.

Space Ghost · Aug 19, 2017

bigtexxx said: ↑

The media is hyping up these neo nazis and kkk types purely for viewers. These folks are such a tiny persentage of America and are completely irrelevant. Nobody takes them seriously. America has far bigger problems but we're wasting our energy on this instead. Stupid.
Click to expand...

Yup! This and the tranny issue.

Sweet Lou 4 2 · Aug 19, 2017

By July 2016, he routinely placed variants of a disclaimer at the bottom of his blog posts:

"Note: I endorsed Hillary Clinton – for my personal safety – because I live in California. It isn’t safe to be viewed as a Trump supporter where I live. My politics don’t align with either candidate, but backing Clinton reduces my odds of dying at the hands of my fellow citizens. (And yes, I am 100% serious. It just happens to be funny by coincidence.)"[48]

However, in late September, Adams officially switched his endorsement from Clinton to Trump. Among his primary reasons for the switch were his respect for Trump's persuasion skills over Clinton's, Clinton's proposal to raise the Estate Tax to 65%, and his concerns over Clinton's health.[49] In mid-October, Adams switched his endorsement again, with a post titled "Why I Endorse Gary Johnson (this week)", and ending with the promotional line, "You might enjoy my book because you’re not sure if I’m really endorsing Gary Johnson or just saying so to protect my brand."[50] In late October, Adams switched his endorsement to Trump once again, citing the Clinton campaign's bullying tactics that had "[turned] Americans against each other".[51]
Click to expand...

From wikipedia. Adam sounds like a real nut case. That article of his was the ramblings of a man losing it.

KingCheetah · Aug 19, 2017

bigtexxx said: ↑

Nobody takes them seriously.
Click to expand...

Until they start driving cars through crowds in ISIS inspired attacks.

Space Ghost said: ↑

Yup! This and the tranny issue.
Click to expand...

Your team is pushing the bathroom bill nonsense.

gifford1967 · Aug 19, 2017

bigtexxx said: ↑

The media is hyping up these neo nazis and kkk types purely for viewers. These folks are such a tiny percentage of America and are completely irrelevant. Nobody takes them seriously. America has far bigger problems but we're wasting our energy on this instead. Stupid.
Click to expand...

Huh. Does li'l t feel the same way about the voter fraud issue?

Forums

Dilbert's Scott Adams Explains "How To Know You're In A Mass Hysteria Bubble"

MojoMan Member

MojoMan Member

durvasa Contributing Member

No Worries Contributing Member

MexAmercnMoose Member

tallanvor Contributing Member

dmoneybangbang Member

bigtexxx Contributing Member

Space Ghost Contributing Member

KingCheetah Contributing Member

MexAmercnMoose Member

AroundTheWorld Insufferable 98er
Supporting Member

Bobbythegreat Member
Supporting Member

Space Ghost Contributing Member

chrispbrown Member

bigtexxx Contributing Member

Space Ghost Contributing Member

Sweet Lou 4 2 Contributing Member
Supporting Member

KingCheetah Contributing Member

gifford1967 Contributing Member
Supporting Member

Share This Page

About ClutchFans

Rockets Content

Support ClutchFans!

Dilbert's Scott Adams Explains "How To Know You're In A Mass Hysteria Bubble"

MojoMan Member

MojoMan Member

durvasa Contributing Member

No Worries Contributing Member

MexAmercnMoose Member

tallanvor Contributing Member

dmoneybangbang Member

bigtexxx Contributing Member

Space Ghost Contributing Member

KingCheetah Contributing Member

MexAmercnMoose Member

AroundTheWorld Insufferable 98er Supporting Member

Bobbythegreat Member Supporting Member

Space Ghost Contributing Member

chrispbrown Member

bigtexxx Contributing Member

Space Ghost Contributing Member

Sweet Lou 4 2 Contributing Member Supporting Member

KingCheetah Contributing Member

gifford1967 Contributing Member Supporting Member

Share This Page

AroundTheWorld Insufferable 98er
Supporting Member

Bobbythegreat Member
Supporting Member

Sweet Lou 4 2 Contributing Member
Supporting Member

gifford1967 Contributing Member
Supporting Member