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   arcanicanis (arcanicanis@were.social)'s status on Tuesday, 15-Nov-2022 14:29:03 JST arcanicanis
   Just an idle thought I've been mulling over at times: I wonder if what seems to be an increasing prevalence of borderline personality disorder (or at least 'splitting') thinking patterns is a result of significant cognitive dissonance (difficulty of processing self-contradicting information/beliefs), and thus a person becoming more rash in trying to rationalize things in a black/white dichotomy, just to avoid any uncertainty or self-doubt, rather than taking a more 'balanced' or 'gray' opinion on something.
   In other words, I wonder if people being exposed to 'news'/info/vocabulary that contradicts itself, and still choose to buy into it, are more susceptible to BPD.
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     spiritsplice@pieville.net's status on Tuesday, 15-Nov-2022 16:24:21 JST spiritsplice

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     @arcanicanis 84% of the genome deals with the brain, making it a huge target for mutation. Due to the lack of purifying selection since the industrial revolution, the gene pool has been stagnant and rotting. This has resulted in a large % of the population being unfit to survive under normal conditions. We see the prevalence of physical mutations like ugliness and morbid obesity, but we ignore than those are always comorbid with larger amounts of dysfunctional brains.

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     arcanicanis (arcanicanis@were.social)'s status on Thursday, 17-Nov-2022 08:19:50 JST arcanicanis

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     • Ironwood
     There was a prior friend with a confirmed diagnosis that always had to rule out uncertainty or doubt in everything for themself, including scapegoating to bullshit rationalizations, just to be able to feel good. For example, he ran a computer repair store, customer would complain of printer issues, he'd say it's a virus (despite no signature matches or anything), and would get irate if politely and logically challenged on it. Same with purchasing decisions, that they always had to have "the best" or "the most superior", despite it often being very subjective. For example, him buying into the Apple ecosystem late, when there were product releases with thermal issues that couldn't run at base spec, very elementary security mistakes made in macOS, etc, but that doesn't matter, he had "the best!" and everything else is "utter garbage"; same with amateur radio equipment brands, as well as mediocre everyday items. Overall, commonly spotlighted in his own words: it was a very reoccurring focus of trying to rid of any doubt or uncertainty.
     
     Then there's also a person from military that I had suspected of the same, but unconfirmed. It seemed like they had to latch onto any figure or person they consider "smart" to be able to tell them what opinion to form, rather than forming an opinion for themself. It was to such a degree where they'd shovel like 8-15 news links a day to me, earnestly waiting for me to digest the article for them, and give them what to think. They also had to have their worldview strictly in a binary dichotomy, either one extreme or another. Coincidentally also an Apple user and hardcore Reddit user.
     
     In both cases, there was always the strong dependency on latching onto someone to help them reduce uncertainty/doubt. If the environment of the people they're around changes, their "views" change as a result. The former one tumbled into Twitter and Reddit while I was away in military, and ended up adopting many of the alphabet identities and flipping views, and went on a heavy decline.
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     Ironwood (ironwood@social.anthro.cc)'s status on Thursday, 17-Nov-2022 08:19:51 JST Ironwood

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     BPD is more to do with attachment issues and abandonment fears, i think. I’d be interested to know if cognitive dissonance exacerbated a borderline personality