Mostly it’s our brain’s innate and hard-wired survival system which is that it invents stories to explain feelings.
This worked great 40,000 years ago when we were hiding from wolves and lions and cave bears and shit, it allowed us to connect the huge cave-bear footprint to the idea that there may be a cave-bear in the area.
In our modern, complex world that lacks cave bears almost entirely, this response system has just been coopted as a marketing and advertising tool. As well as for political propaganda.
People have a misconception about the brain, like it’s a logical, reasoning tool and it will make “sense” of the world. Not even close, it’s entirely a story-telling machine.
This is also why depression can be lethal so easily, a disease that makes you feel bad invites your brain to invent stories to explain and treat the problem, and those stories are often disconnected from reality. Learning to identify when you feel an emotion or feeling that starts your brain ruminating is one of the first tricks to both feeling a little better and staying ahead of outside influences.
The vast majority of people don’t base their positions on logic or data, but on vibes.
Then what builds those vibes?
Mostly it’s our brain’s innate and hard-wired survival system which is that it invents stories to explain feelings.
This worked great 40,000 years ago when we were hiding from wolves and lions and cave bears and shit, it allowed us to connect the huge cave-bear footprint to the idea that there may be a cave-bear in the area.
In our modern, complex world that lacks cave bears almost entirely, this response system has just been coopted as a marketing and advertising tool. As well as for political propaganda.
People have a misconception about the brain, like it’s a logical, reasoning tool and it will make “sense” of the world. Not even close, it’s entirely a story-telling machine.
This is also why depression can be lethal so easily, a disease that makes you feel bad invites your brain to invent stories to explain and treat the problem, and those stories are often disconnected from reality. Learning to identify when you feel an emotion or feeling that starts your brain ruminating is one of the first tricks to both feeling a little better and staying ahead of outside influences.
Tribal concensus