ENG216 - Cultivating Curiosity

 Article link:  Paul Bloom: Can prejudice ever be a good thing? When I think of prejudice, my first thought is that it's a synonym for discrimination and it's reserved for people who are truly ignorant immorally biased. But Paul Bloom argues that prejudice can be completely natural and rational. Prejudice helps us to make judgments, whether they're accurate or not, and Bloom argues that if we couldn't make guesses and perceptions about things then we wouldn't survive. On one hand, I can understand Bloom's argument. But at the end of the day, to me there's always been a difference between "judgment" and "prejudice." Maybe it's just the English nerd in me but the two have different connotations, different undertones. To me, a judgment is a guess or an idea based on one's immediate perception of something else, while prejudice is much more negative and more equal to discrimination than just a simple judgment. I can't exactly agre...

 Article link:  The democratic king: The role of ritualized flattery in political discourse Something really big that I noticed in the time leading up to and during Donald Trumps presidency was all the flattery. I remember how before he was elected, so many other politicians would insult him so much. But then after he became presidency, they all acted like they were his best friends and admired him like their king. It always kind of sickened me how their demeanors and opinions toward him seemed to completely turn around when he entered power and they realized they could benefit by getting closer to him. Additionally, we saw Trump himself exercising his flattery as well... but with all the wrong people. I remember the way he would constantly insult our allies and then proceed to shake hands with dictators like Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un. It angered me how he could openly admit to admiring leaders who did terribly things and mistreated their country's citizens. At the end of...

 Article link: The Cult of Donald Trump First of all, I love how this article just jumps right into it with absolutely no hesitation. "Donald Trump is a murderous cult leader who incited the mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, hoping that his supporters would kill his own vice president, Mike Pence, and as many members of Congress as possible so that he could become dictator." What a killer opening sentence. The very fact that we ever even had Donald Trump as a president at all has made me lose so much faith in this country. While I'm certainly disappointed in everyone who ever voted for him, I also realize that many of them were simply doing what they thought was best for our country. Just because I never fell for whatever Trump was spewing doesn't change the fact that he truly does have the makings of a cult leader, from the confidence to the charisma, and many people found that very convincing, so much so that they would appoint him as president ...

 Article link: Demystifying the cult leader First of all, I found it really interesting to look at the occult aspects of political figures in history. When we think of cult's we usually picture small societies living remotely in the woods or something, worshipping gods and performing rituals and telling ghost stories around a campfire or something. We think of the Jim Jones and the Charles Mansons when really they could be the Benito Mussolinis or the Adolf Hitlers or even the Donald Trumps. It's scary to think about how cult-esque our own politics can become and how some of these political figures who disturbingly resemble cult leaders can become powerful enough to run whole countries. One of the most disturbing things to me about cult leaders is how they start out as seemingly completely normal, perhaps even good people. Many of them are striving for a better future, wanting to create a fairer society. Nobody can tell that it's really all just a façade until it's too ...

 Video link: Evolution explains kindness--even when it kills us | Paul Bloom This video prompted me to consider why I exercise kindness. If I were to answer this question literally, I would say it's because my parents and school teachers taught me that we're supposed to be kind. But if I want to answer it more deeply, I'd say it's because I genuinely believe that all human beings (and plants and animals, too) deserve kindness. I think about how I feel when I'm not treated kindly and I know it makes me feel like shit so I would never want to make someone else feel that way. If I was lost in an unfamiliar city I would want someone to help me with directions so I'm going to do the same for others. If I was too scared to watch a scary movie then I'd want someone to watch it with so I'll be that person for someone else, too. If I tripped and fell and bloodied up my knees then I'd need someone to help me patch it up so I should go out of my way to help oth...

Video link:  Building Connections: How to Be A Relationship Ninja | Rosan Auyeung-Chen | TEDxSFU Being in my first year of year of college, making connections is a big part of my life right now. It's my first time living away from my family, my first time at such a big school, and my first time not being constantly surrounded by people I'm close to and comfortable with. So when I first got here, I was immediately confronted by the importance of learning to make connections or else my next four years would be really lonely. Unfortunately, I'm not very good at making connections. I'm really shy and introverted and insecure and I tend to get anxious and overwhelmed during social situations. So watching this video was actually quite helpful to me, as Rosan Auyeung-Chen was able to give me some decent insight and advice on the process of making connections. That being said, I would disagree with the idea that there's a step-by-step instructional process for making connec...