ENG216 - Cultivating Curiosity

 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...

I first learned about the whole Jonestown story when I asked my dad what "drinking the Kool-aid" meant. He used to say it a lot--and still does, to be honest--when talking about Donald Trump and all the politicians and other assholes who seem to worship him. He told me that the phrase referred to people who will blindly follow someone who's manipulating them no matter her terrible they are. Then he went, "Do you know about Jonestown?" When I shook my head, he proceeded to tell me about it. Jonestown sounds like such a nightmare to me. It's almost unbelievable how Jim Jones was able to convince so many people to follow him. The fact that he could even threaten them, blackmail them, abuse them, and eventually push them all the way to suicide and yet people still would remain loyal to him... it's so scary. It's scary how someone can become so influential and then use that influence for such terrible things. It makes it even scarier to think that even I ...

 Video link: Why we choose to suffer, with Paul Bloom, PhD My first thought as to why we might choose to suffer is because effort gives us a sense of fulfillment. The video brings up differing forms of suffering--whether severe or minor--like watching scary movies and running marathons. If we're going off of these specific examples, scary movies give us a sense of thrill and powering through the movie will make us feel stronger and braver, while running a marathon takes a lot of energy and effort so we'll feel like we achieved something when we're done. So when we choose to suffer through something that takes a lot of effort and difficulty, we feel more fulfilled in the end. On the other hand, I think that some people feel like they deserve to suffer. People with depression or some other mental illness might feel hopeless, insecure, or like they're a burden to others. This is why many people with depression will self-harm: they feel like they deserve to suffer (even tho...

 Article link: Inside the mind of serial killers - are they born to kill? To be totally honest, I found this article to be somewhat disappointing compared to the other articles. It started out just repetitive, going over the same exact information that was discussed in the other two articles and the film as well. The rest was just poorly written, in my opinion. It didn't really do much to answer the initial question that was presented, so much so that I actually forgot what the initial question was until it was restated at the very end of the article. Because the article was so underwhelming and monotonous, I'll answer the question it proposed with my thoughts. I don't think that serial killers are born to kill. If we're debating whether serial killers are born or made, I would argue that they're made. I won't go into nature v.s. nurture again because I've already brought it up in so many of my blog posts leading up to this one but I'm definitely on the ...

 Article link: Serial Killers The first thing that struck me upon reading this article was that I've never really considered the history of serial killers. According to the article, many murders long ago were chalked up to being the work of monsters or paranormal beings, which is why serial killers were almost never caught until much later. Perhaps I'm just not easily scared by monsters but I've always thought that some regular person going around and killing people and then hiding within the crowd would be much scarier than some little old witch living in the woods. Unlike the previous article or the film, this article doesn't actually go deep within the psychology of a serial killer and mostly just covers the basic facts of serial killers. That being said, something that I noticed was how the article contradicted itself on multiple occasions. It explains how many serial killers will be diagnosed with various mental illnesses like bipolar disorder, psychopathy/sociopat...

 Article link: Aberrant brain gray matter in murderers This article explained a study that was conducted on the brains of a number of inmates to determine if there was any sort of common factor in their brain makeups that may help us to better understand why killers kill. The study concluded that violent homicidal inmates actually showed a reduced amount of the gray matter in their brains that are involved in emotional processing, behavioral control, executive function, and social cognition. I'm sure it's getting annoying because I bring up the argument regarding nature v.s. nurture in almost all of my blog posts these days but I have to do it one more time (I say "one more time" as if it'll be the last time but let's face it, it probably won't be). My question is: what actually causes this reduction in gray matter in the brains of these homicidal killers? Is it something they're born with, supporting the nature argument? Or is it a result of trauma an...

I'm actually really disappointed that we decided not to finish the documentary in class because I was so immensely interested in this video. I may have to finish it on my own because I was really intrigued by all the stories that Dorothy Lewis and others had to share. I was especially fascinated by the man named Max that Lewis spent a lot of time with (I can't remember his last name). Max was a killer with dissociative identity disorder (DID or formerly known as multiple personality disorder) who killed multiple of his girlfriends. Max's two alternate personalities consisted of Kalki who was a god's avatar who would basically tell Max to commit murder, as well as a monk who I can't remember the name of but would recite religious phrases and bless others and seemed to have developed to provide comfort to Max. I think what fascinated me so much about Max was not the fact that he was a murderer (we don't condone the romanticization of murder in this household) but ...

Article link:  They Went to Prison as Kids. Now They’re on Death Row. I think this article says a lot about nature v.s. nurture. Prosecutors like to say that these juveniles are "inherently evil" in order to justify incarcerating them when in reality they're this way because they were made this way by their environment. So many of these kids were initially raised in abusive or unfit households, forcing them into a life of crime in order to fulfill their basic needs. Then when they inevitably get thrown in prison, they leave even worse than they entered because they had to endure incredibly violent conditions while in prison. It's no wonder why these people are the way they are and it's really not even their fault. I'm a firm believer that many criminals deserve rehabilitation and a second chance at life. I also believe that if they had received this rehabilitation at a younger age then they would've avoided a lot more of the strife that they would've e...

Article link: The four types of serial killers: Visionary, Mission, Hedonistic, & Power True crime is something that's always been really intriguing to me but I've never actually considered why a killer might kill. It's so wild to think about what's actually going on inside a killer's brain, to think about their motive behind the kill and what they'll gain from it. That being said, it's quite disturbing to see just how far someone might go to fulfill their needs and desires. I mean, sure, I've had some low points in my life but I've never considered killing anyone over it. A piece of criticism I have for this article is that I'm not sure how credible it is. Aside from the various grammatical mistakes I encountered, it appears to come from a website that publishes articles without consulting actual professionals and relies on its viewers to correct its errors. It was still a really interesting read though. One last thing that stood out to me w...

It really is just wild to me that anyone can actually be in favor of the death penalty. Not only that but I also find numerous flaws in many of the arguments made by the people in the video who supported death row. For example, when one guy said that someone who did something bad doesn't deserve mercy, my first reaction was to question if death is perhaps too merciful. Wouldn't you rather a terrible person be forced to live their life in prison, having to spend each day with the regret over what they've done? And when they were discussing the woman who found and killed her child's rapist, they said it "was not her right" to kill the guy. By that logic, if it wasn't "her right" then whose right was it? At the end of the day, I do believe that people deserve a second after a wrongdoing and I do believe that people can be rehabilitated back into society; and I'm not usually an optimist. In some cases, I believe that life in prison is even a wors...

The argument regarding capital punishment is something that's become incredibly politicized. It's often split fifty-fifty; many are still in favor while many are firmly against it. It brings up many questions: if someone takes someone else's life then do they deserve to have their life taken? And it the death penalty is a punishment supposed to be reserved for the worst of the worst then why has it been used so many times? In my senior year of high school, I was in an English class that focused on social justice. In this class, I did a presentation on the death penalty with some of my friends. Prior to this project, I was in favor of the death penalty. But as I conducted by research on the topic, I became more and more convinced that capital punishment is not the way to go. Even now, as I begin to study it again thanks to this group, I continue to be firmly against the death penalty. Aside from the fact that it's literally punishing someone by taking their life, there a...

I chose this topic to research for this round of presentations because environmental justice is something I've been interested in and passionate about for a long time. For a long time I've looked up to young climate activists like Greta Thunberg and I would like to do what I can to fight alongside them against the growing plague that is climate change. Additionally, I'm currently enrolled in a critical thinking in history class that focuses on climate change and I thought it would be interesting to compare what I've learned in that class to the research I would do for this project. Overall, I think this presentation went a lot smoother than my last presentation. The problem with the last one is that my group was the very last group and I think that encouraged a lot of us to procrastinate. Additionally, it meant that we ended up picking up all the people who either joined the class late or weren't available on the day that we chose our topics. This led to a lack of c...

Video link: Step Inside the Circle First of all, this video was incredibly emotional to watch. It made me really sad to see all these men who have gone through so much and where they all ended up. Sure, they must've done something bad to end up in prison but whatever they did was all they believed they could do to survive in an environment that was trying to kill them. It also makes me feel significantly more grateful and fortunate for the life I've lived so far and the fact that I was born into a more or less stable family. I think this video says a lot about the argument regarding nature v.s. nurture. A lot of people argue that everyone is either born good or evil and there's no amount of love and care that'll change that. I remember when we read Lord of the Flies  in my sophomore year of high school and we had the exact same discussion on so many occasions that I even ended up asking my dad about it. My dad works in law enforcement and he explained how when he would ...

Video link:  Why are people racist? | What's Behind Prejudice? Episode 1 | BBC Ideas I've never really understood how people can be racist. I'm lucky enough to have been raised by two parents who taught me not to discriminate and that racism is wrong. When I hear someone say something racist or watch them do something racist, how genuinely wonder how they can have the audacity to say such a thing, how they don't feel any remorse upon committing such an act. I deeply admire the way Onyeka Nubia was able to explain his argument in such a polite and civilized manner. I know that when I get into discussions about racism (and any sort of bigotry, really) I tend to get really heated and it makes me come off as less credible. I really liked what he said about not punishing people for their racist views. Often we get really angry at people who are racist when they share their ideas (although this brings up the argument regarding freedom of speech but not freedom from the conseq...

 Video link: The myth of race | BBC Ideas Before watching this video, I didn't understand what people meant when they said that race is a social construct. I always thought that since people have physical characteristics that can indicate their race, that must mean that race is ingrained into our DNA in some way. I was blown away by the idea that I could have a closer relation of genomes with some random person of some random other race than I could with someone of my same race, but that makes the argument that race is a social construct make so much more sense to me. Since there's really nothing in our DNA that indicates our race then that must mean that race is something assigned to us by society. To be honest, race is something I've always been confused by in the sense that I'm not really sure what my race even is. I know I'm Hispanic on my dad's side and White on my mom's side. I've always identified more with my Hispanic side but am I Hispanic enoug...

 Video link: This Is Who We Are First of all, I want to comment on the actual composition of the video itself. I think that the special affects with all the lightbulbs and lighting and background and everything were just absolutely beautiful and really helped to draw the viewer in. I was blown away by how powerful Prince Ea's voice was and I truly think I could listen to him all day. Additionally, the background music gave the video so much more emotion, I got literal shivers while watching it. I think that all of these things together really helped to bring everything together and to get the message across. Comparing human beings to lightbulbs would not have been my first idea but the way that Prince Ea went about it in his video made perfect sense. I really love the way he used lightbulbs to represent people in the sense that we all look different and have obvious outward aspects (ex. race, gender expression, body type, etc.) but on the inside we all have a certain energy that gi...