Don't like ObamaCare? Well, more than likely - you're suffering from some sort of psychological delusion according to Newsweek Senior Editor and self-declared psychiatrist Sharon Begley.
Begley, in a piece posted on Newsweek's Web site on Aug. 25, theorized that the widespread opposition to President Barack Obama's health care reform is from any legitimate reason, but instead it exists mostly because people are not willing to go against their own beliefs, but have a desire to satisfy their need to think they're beliefs are right.
Begley used the analogy that some people refused to dismiss a connection between Saddam Hussein and the 9/11 terrorist as why people won't dismiss some of the "myths" about ObamaCare.
"Some people form and cling to false beliefs about health-care reform (or Obama's citizenship) despite overwhelming evidence thanks to a mental phenomenon called motivated reasoning, says sociologist says sociologist Steven Hoffman, visiting assistant professor at the University at Buffalo," Begley wrote.
Hoffman examined why some people may link 9/11 and Saddam Hussein (not health care or Obama's citizenship.)
"For an explanation of this behavior, look no further than the psychological theory of cognitive dissonance," Begley wrote. "This theory holds that when people are presented with information that contradicts preexisting beliefs, they try to relieve the cognitive tension one way or another. They process and respond to information defensively, for instance: their belief challenged by fact, they ignore the latter. They also accept and seek out confirming information but ignore, discredit the source of, or argue against contrary information, studies have shown."
And Begley made the leap and concluded this phenomenon is behind the opposition to Obama's health care proposals. She assumed the entire opposition to ObamaCare was because of two key reasons - the fear illegal immigrants would get taxpayer-subsidized health care and the federal government would get access to physician's bank accounts - not for reasons of costs, government interference in the market or what the role of government should be in a society.
"Which brings us back to health-care reform-in particular, the apoplexy at town-hall meetings and the effectiveness of the lies being spread about health-care reform proposals," Begley wrote. "First of all, let's remember that 59,934,814 voters cast their ballot for John McCain, so we can assume that tens of millions of Americans believe the wrong guy is in the White House. To justify that belief, they need to find evidence that he's leading the country astray. What better evidence of that than to seize on the misinformation about Obama's health-care reform ideas and believe that he wants to insure illegal aliens, for example, and give the Feds electronic access to doctors' bank accounts?"
Begley has taken this elitist persona and dismissed contrary views in the past as crackpot, conspiratorial beliefs. In 2007, she likened global warming skeptics to moon-landing deniers.
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Comments Policy
And I say the folks at
August 26, 2009 - 16:31 ET by MaideneerAnd I say the folks at Newsweek are suffering from delusions as well. It's like the NY Times, Newsweek, etc all signed this big Warsaw Pact in opposition to us real Americans. One day too, I'm confident, that Pact will break as well.
may link 9/11 and Saddam Hussein
August 26, 2009 - 16:37 ET by wizardjrthe only people who did this were Dimocraps and old media setting up strawman arguments for why the war in Iraq was 'evil' and 'illegal'
I just love how they put words in the mouths of other people so they can trash them.
PLEASE!!!! Show me the "overwhelming evidence" YOU CRAZY ...
August 26, 2009 - 16:42 ET by Jayke... PSYCHIATRIST! Where's the EVIDENCE! Where's the BIRTH CERTIFICATE! You have to be CRAZY to understand these people! Talk about DELUSIONAL! This has to be a judgement of God.
Yes that is the bad part!
August 26, 2009 - 20:52 ET by MaximusBraveheartThis has to be a judgement of God... what else would explain when good is bad, and, bad is good. When freedom and free enterprise is blamed for the bad and it had no part in it! Government is the problem and it is a BEAST. Tyranny coming at this rate. Bush did not help with the terrorism laws. That will now be used by liberals to wrongly accuse and lock up conservative "trouble" makers. VOTE liberals and RINOS OUT! Do NOT trade freedom for SO CALLED security. Issue firearms to the qualified part of society and then terrorist or criminals won't get too many steps along. End of problem. M-B
It's a safe bet
August 26, 2009 - 16:46 ET by acumenthat early in life, while her peers were selling lemonade on the corner, Begley was sitting behind a carboard booth offering psychiatric help for 5 cents per session.
"Begley was sitting behind a
August 26, 2009 - 18:40 ET by celator"Begley was sitting behind a carboard booth offering psychiatric help for 5 cents per session."
And still is, it would seem.
No citizen's right to life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, or property is safe as long as Obama is President of the United States.
The Lie of 'loaded language'.
August 26, 2009 - 16:49 ET by SlyrrNotice how all these liberal puppets use loaded language like 'it's an accepted fact that', and 'everyone agrees with' and 'experts agree that'.
They prefix every lie they speak with those words, trying to lend themselves credibility which they know they don't have. It's almost as pathetic as their hackneyed use of the words 'racist' and 'nazi', and 'I was taken out of context'.
A suggestion for Dealing with These Kinds of Comments
August 26, 2009 - 16:50 ET by FeynmanFanWith all the blathering and inane statements coming from the left, it's getting a little frustrating to try to keep track of who's the most stupid person in the news any given week.
I want to make the suggestion that NB start a weekly poll, maybe on Friday evenings, to let the members select which of the statements made during the week was the most stupid. We could also establish a Stupid Hall of Fame and either monthly or quarterly elect someone from the weekly winners into the hall based on their stupid statements.
That would let NB give the really stupid people their due and enshrine the outstandingly stupid on their own Mount Olympus.
Just a thought...
"I support the President but not his policies" - Blonde
FF: Most stupid person in the news?
August 26, 2009 - 17:07 ET by SickofLibsJeez, I can't even keep up with 'who's the stupidest leftie of the day' here on NB. And this is turning out to be a banner week for some reason, making it all the more difficult.
Sickoflibs
August 26, 2009 - 17:10 ET by FeynmanFanI'm open to suggestions for improving the proposal. Maybe we have a stupid person of the day and elect the stupid person of the week from that group.
There must be some way to bring some structure to all this stupidity.
"I support the President but not his policies" - Blonde
"...all wee weed up..." by a landslide...
August 26, 2009 - 17:26 ET by vrwc13...especially when you think of the position of the person it came from.
v
...pass the popcorn please
So, the liberals are busy
August 26, 2009 - 16:52 ET by Chris NormanSo, the liberals are busy trying to string every caricaturization they can think of about conservatives into one grand cartoon of all of us. That's like me saying all liberals are long haired, bearded, maggot infested, pot smoking, old hippies who spend their days building bombs.
The "Mainstream" Media: By liberals. For liberals.
LOL
August 26, 2009 - 16:59 ET by CarlosSYou mean they're not?
Some still are. The rest
August 26, 2009 - 17:11 ET by Chris NormanSome still are. The rest cut their hair, put on the suits and rep ties, and pretend they're just normal people. They don't like wearing the uniform of respectability, but they have to for the time being. They're like the giant cockroach wearing the farmer in "Men in Black"... :)
The "Mainstream" Media: By liberals. For liberals.
Hmm
August 26, 2009 - 17:14 ET by CarlosSmight explain why our resident democRAT won't eat lunch with us..., he's really a bug
You're better off. Ever
August 26, 2009 - 17:19 ET by Chris NormanYou're better off. Ever seen how a bug eats?
The "Mainstream" Media: By liberals. For liberals.
and argues
August 26, 2009 - 17:33 ET by CarlosSI told him that I couldn't argue politics with him anymore because I was afraid that he might report me to the "snitch" line
lol
August 27, 2009 - 03:19 ET by well99Make a note:Send this post to snitchonyourneighbor@whitehouse.com. CarlosS will be added to our list.Joe Biden will now send him emails.If that doesnt drive him crazy nothing will.
Criminy.....
August 26, 2009 - 16:55 ET by pantrymanand yet another one...there MUST be something in the water !
Not my President...not now, not ever.
The People....................
August 26, 2009 - 17:04 ET by GeneralAlThe people with this problem have a name. Its spelled LIBERAL COMMUNIST DEMOCRAT!!!!!!
Cognitive Dissonance; Dr. Leon Festinger, Stanford University
August 26, 2009 - 17:14 ET by wotsiznamewotsizname As I recall, from Professor Festinger's examples, this is a social psychological mechanism in which a person comes to accept a falshood based on contradiction resolved by agreeing with a persuader. The Begley person seems herself to be the victim here, and the objectors to changing the USA into a Union of Socialist Republics are the sane (sanity: wholeness of mind) and loyal US citizens.
Psychology - the weakest
August 26, 2009 - 17:18 ET by G. MayPsychology - the weakest and least developed of sciences.
They'll acknowledge these ideas as "theories", but apparently the folks at Newsweek don't appreciate the irony in applying this subjective social "theory" to subjective material and then hammering home that point to demean those with whom they disagree.
While we're playing armchair psychologist, let's just call this little piece for what it is - projection.
The STATE...
August 26, 2009 - 18:14 ET by Intellectual HonestyWhat better evidence of that than to seize on the misinformation about
Obama's health-care reform ideas and believe that he wants to insure
illegal aliens, for example, and give the Feds electronic access to
doctors' bank accounts?"
In the bill (Sec. 241) the criteria for assisted coverage (public option) includes that only people that are legal residents of a STATE are eligible. Not of the country but of a state thus a state that has sanctuary status would have legal room as such. The fact is the plan is to grant amnesty next year and wala instant citizens for instant mooching and instant voting.
The second point of doctor's bank accounts. Uh, no dufus we are talking about patient bank accounts. They can't even get their conspiracies straight.
DUDE !!! Stop drinking the water
August 26, 2009 - 18:03 ET by rightwingchefI think this nob is suffering from drinking the water in a Buffalo...
It's true.
August 26, 2009 - 18:54 ET by Jack Herman"For an explanation of this behavior, look no further than the psychological theory of cognitive dissonance," Begley wrote. "This theory holds that when people are presented with information that contradicts preexisting beliefs, they try to relieve the cognitive tension one way or another. They process and respond to information defensively, for instance: their belief challenged by fact, they ignore the latter."
Such as the MSM's belief that they are not liberally biased in spite of the enormous evidence otherwise.
The Psycho Analyses at Newsweek
August 26, 2009 - 19:30 ET by needleSome say … the Psycho Analyses at Newsweek want ObamaCare to be enacted so that they can start collecting Physicians’ fee from the Gummit.
- Relying upon the State Run Media for your information is like relying upon an embezzler for your portfolio management.
Pop Psychology
August 26, 2009 - 20:22 ET by iveseenitallThis pop psychology crap has been poisoning American society for at least forty years. It is insulting to intelligent people, but the MSM, the "educators", and various other charlatans continue to get away with spewing their nonsense to anyone who will listen. Some, of course, profit greatly from it. Sad.
NEVER,NEVER trust a "liberal"
ISIA....The book which first
August 26, 2009 - 21:23 ET by celatorISIA....The book which first alerted me to the corrupting messages of the msm, and the political back story to msm "news" was Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves To Death".
It's a great read, still available today. The idea is that news has been presented as "entertainment" for many years in order to lull us asleep to reality. The OJ Simpson trial is a classic example. It was presented as entertainment and a ratings game. That two people were brutally murdered is secondary. All these Nancy Grace type stories? Ratings, baby. There are lots of examples.
The result, says Postman, is a tremendous coarsening of the national dialogue. Politics, as an example, is presented as "fun". Liberals are "fun", they love everybody and by golly they want you to be happy. Propping up teen girls as sexual objects for adult males is "fun". That sort of thing.
Leftwing politicians promise the ultimate "fun", which is Utopia. Guantamano? That can't be "fun". Close it. MSM goes along with the idea, and pushes the notion of releasing the prisoners. They aren't having fun there.
Put in today's issues, Obama is presented as a fun guy. He smiles, he golfs, blah blah blah.
The converse, then, falls right into place. Conservatives are not "fun", They are evil and don't want anyone to enter Utopia. They are mean. They frown. They are bad, bad bad. Don't play with them.
Postman argues that all this foolishness has enormous negative impact on the printed word, television news, what books are published. It causes us to become mentally lazy, and susceptible to whomever is selling "fun".
No citizen's right to life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, or property is safe as long as Obama is President of the United States.
What is it with these
August 26, 2009 - 20:42 ET by RR GOPWhat is it with these Libtards? They think every damn government "program" that the Democrats come up with is automatically worthy of support and is worth it's weight in (someone else's of course) gold.
We've seen socialized medicine at work in other countries and in a few states here. IT DOES NOT WORK!!!
What is the point of screwing over millions of people just to pi$$ off us conservatives?
To me, that is truly a sick, evil, infantile mentality.
One of the 34% who thinks George W. Bush was a great President. One of the 86% who wants to bring back the stock and pillory.
She is a partisan hack boys and girls.
August 26, 2009 - 21:11 ET by JWFThere is a good reason Blonde listed Ace of Spades as the first blog in the list. Go there often.
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/291405.php
Sincerely,
a Veteran of a 1000 psychic wars.
Begley from Newsweek
August 27, 2009 - 06:47 ET by nandrelliOf course, she doesn't realize that SHE is making the unfounded assumption that there is nothing wrong with the bill, just because the Democrats have said there is nothing wrong with it. There have been numerous analyses that give page/paragraph references in the bill directly contradicting the Democrats, and SHE is ignoring THOSE facts.
And as far as her offhand remark about 0bama's citizenship, "overwhelming evidence" of it does not exist. 0bama has produced NO documentary evidence of his citizenship, just his statement that he was born in Hawaii, and she believes that. After all, he should know where he was born, he was there when it happened, right?
Begley
August 27, 2009 - 09:18 ET by east tennessee johnWho is this bitch? I had 20 years of experience, partially owned my own employee benefits design firm, am an honors graduate in both government and economics and I oppose Obamacare and I don't need any Liberal Obama ass kissing Lucy to analyize why I oppose it. If Newsweek can spare her intellect I'll debate her anytime, anyplace on healthcare. This, I guess is just another symptom of how these elites, with no knowledge or accomplishmnet themselves are just going to take on the burden of caring for us prols. As Newsweek sinks into the sunset with the NYT, maybe this condescending elitist can join Modo on the corner.