Dunning Kruger

  • 0 Posts
  • 7 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
Cake day: August 16th, 2023
  • Dunning Kruger@lemmy.worldtoNot The Onion@lemmy.world•Woman loses thousands of dollars to romance scammer posing as astronaut in distressEnglish
    5·
    24 hours ago

    There’s a lot of information that we don’t know about this, but I bet that there are a couple of pieces of information that you are overlooking here.

    My guess is that someone who believes that another person is a trapped astronaut is probably not just “stupid,” as in it’s not just that they didn’t go to enough schooling or they weren’t paying attention to their surroundings, but they are more likely to be someone with an intellectual or cognitive impairment.

    Cognitive decline and dementia are common parts of aging, and frequently affect people in their 80’s, as this woman is reported to be.

    Scams also frequently target people who are vulnerable, with one theory being that misspellings and grammar mistakes in written correspondence may be deliberate ways of screening out more savvy individuals.

    Vulnerable people are often targeted, not just through romance scams which prey on our desires for connection and understanding, but also towards people with intellectual disabilities and impairments, or more pronounced mental health conditions.

    Adding to this, many of these vulnerable people also have extremely limited financial resources; as individuals with cognitive decline, intellectual disabilities, and mental health conditions often live in poverty or are reliant on meager social service programs.

    I can only imagine what portion of this woman’s savings $6700 was, and what she may have been sacrificing to try to help someone who she believed was in danger.

    As magnetosphere mentions above, it is possible to laugh at the absurdity of the situation, while still holding empathy and compassion for the real person who was hurt here.

  • Dunning Kruger@lemmy.worldtoNo Stupid Questions@lemmy.world•Is playing horror games a good way to get desensitized to fear, or it gonna backfire and make my anxiety worse?
    27·
    6 days ago

    Playing horror games may make you more desensitized to the fear of playing horror games.

    Playing horror games will probably not help too much with broader experiences like generalized or social anxiety, or any kind of specific fears or reactivity. Those would be better addressed through therapy, self-help programs, meditation, exercise, and/or maybe medication if appropriate.

    If you want to look into some self-study therapy books, you could try books like “The Happiness Trap,” “No Bad Parts,” or “Getting Past your Past.”

    “The Happiness Trap” is an acceptance and commitment therapy book, which is structured around using mindfulness and acceptance skills to work with your internal experiences, instead of fighting against yourself (which typically makes us more anxious and fearful).

    “No Bad Parts” is an introduction to internal family systems, which is kind of like the idea in the Inside Out movies.

    “Getting Past your Past” is a self-study book based on the information processing model used in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy. This kind of approach may be more useful if some of the fear and anxiety is related to specific painful or traumatic experiences.

    Also, if the anxiety or fear is about intrusive or unwanted thoughts or images, you could take a look at “The Mindfulness Workbook for OCD.”

    Mindfulness and meditation practice is helpful for any of us, for all kinds of topics. There’s plenty of ways to build a meditation habit, such as starting with 5 minutes per day, and there are lots of videos and apps that can help. The Calm App and the Insight Timer are both free to try, however I might try the Calm App first, since they recently changed the sign-up steps for the free version of the Insight Timer.

    Exercise can also be really helpful for anxiety, depression, and just general well-being. Rhythmic movement helps to regulate the nervous system, and a 20 or 30 minute walk can be a great way to burn off excess energy before starting your day or going to a big event.

    If you do want to play horror games for their own sake, I really like the Resident Evil series. They’re kind of medium horror/ action split. The RE2 Remake is a fantastic zombie game. RE4 remake is more action/ less horror. RE7 is more horror and some gore.

  • Dunning Kruger@lemmy.worldtoWorld News@lemmy.world•Fighters will undergo screening to determine sex before women's World Boxing ChampionshipsEnglish
    1·
    13 days ago

    I appreciate you sharing that information!

    I had learned the first piece of information from a professional training led by a recognized expert on sex and gender diversity. It sounds like you are also well-informed on the topic, though, and I am always interested in learning more.

    I hope we can agree in our discussion that these distinctions are regarding traits and experiences which, as you said, are “…going to make someone think they should be considered to be sexed…” in a particular way.

    What a privilege it is for me, as a cisgender person, to discuss the philosophy of the sexual classification of other people; and to air my thoughts publicly about how other people should understand their own bodies, or be allowed to participate in their own lives.

  • Dunning Kruger@lemmy.worldtoGreentext@sh.itjust.works•TRICKLE DOWN
    20·
    6 months ago

    I was shooting heroin and reading “The Fountainhead” in the front seat of my privately owned police cruiser when a call came in. I put a quarter in the radio to activate it. It was the chief.

    “Bad news, detective. We got a situation.”

    “What? Is the mayor trying to ban trans fats again?”

    “Worse. Somebody just stole four hundred and forty-seven million dollars’ worth of bitcoins.”

    The heroin needle practically fell out of my arm. “What kind of monster would do something like that? Bitcoins are the ultimate currency: virtual, anonymous, stateless. They represent true economic freedom, not subject to arbitrary manipulation by any government. Do we have any leads?”

    “Not yet. But mark my words: we’re going to figure out who did this and we’re going to take them down … provided someone pays us a fair market rate to do so.”

    “Easy, chief,” I said. “Any rate the market offers is, by definition, fair.”

    He laughed. “That’s why you’re the best I got, Lisowski. Now you get out there and find those bitcoins.”

    “Don’t worry,” I said. “I’m on it.”

    I put a quarter in the siren. Ten minutes later, I was on the scene. It was a normal office building, strangled on all sides by public sidewalks. I hopped over them and went inside.

    “Home Depot™ Presents the Police!®” I said, flashing my badge and my gun and a small picture of Ron Paul. “Nobody move unless you want to!” They didn’t.

    “Now, which one of you punks is going to pay me to investigate this crime?” No one spoke up.

    “Come on,” I said. “Don’t you all understand that the protection of private property is the foundation of all personal liberty?”

    It didn’t seem like they did.

    “Seriously, guys. Without a strong economic motivator, I’m just going to stand here and not solve this case. Cash is fine, but I prefer being paid in gold bullion or autographed Penn Jillette posters.”

    Nothing. These people were stonewalling me. It almost seemed like they didn’t care that a fortune in computer money invented to buy drugs was missing.

    I figured I could wait them out. I lit several cigarettes indoors. A pregnant lady coughed, and I told her that secondhand smoke is a myth. Just then, a man in glasses made a break for it.

    “Subway™ Eat Fresh and Freeze, Scumbag!®” I yelled.

    Too late. He was already out the front door. I went after him.

    “Stop right there!” I yelled as I ran. He was faster than me because I always try to avoid stepping on public sidewalks. Our country needs a private-sidewalk voucher system, but, thanks to the incestuous interplay between our corrupt federal government and the public-sidewalk lobby, it will never happen.

    I was losing him. “Listen, I’ll pay you to stop!” I yelled. “What would you consider an appropriate price point for stopping? I’ll offer you a thirteenth of an ounce of gold and a gently worn ‘Bob Barr ‘08’ extra-large long-sleeved men’s T-shirt!”

    He turned. In his hand was a revolver that the Constitution said he had every right to own. He fired at me and missed. I pulled my own gun, put a quarter in it, and fired back. The bullet lodged in a U.S.P.S. mailbox less than a foot from his head. I shot the mailbox again, on purpose.

    “All right, all right!” the man yelled, throwing down his weapon. “I give up, cop! I confess: I took the bitcoins.”

    “Why’d you do it?” I asked, as I slapped a pair of Oikos™ Greek Yogurt Presents Handcuffs® on the guy.

    “Because I was afraid.”

    “Afraid?”

    “Afraid of an economic future free from the pernicious meddling of central bankers,” he said. “I’m a central banker.”

    I wanted to coldcock the guy. Years ago, a central banker killed my partner. Instead, I shook my head.

    “Let this be a message to all your central-banker friends out on the street,” I said. “No matter how many bitcoins you steal, you’ll never take away the dream of an open society based on the principles of personal and economic freedom.”

    He nodded, because he knew I was right. Then he swiped his credit card to pay me.