"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe."
-----Albert Einstein
With all due respect to the learned Mr. Einstein, I think he erred in his word choice. I would have used "gullibility" instead of "stupidity". Stupidity implies a permanent restricted mental capacity, which is not universal. Gullibility implies a tendency to suspend rational thought, and accept the most absurd allegations or statements, or form absurd conclusions, which we all have done. Of course you may not have, but I have done it so many times that you and I together average out as highly gullible ;-)
My personal definition of gullibility is the state of mind that exists at the nexus of ignorance and strong emotion.
Ignorance is simply the condition of not knowing.
A person exhibits gullible behaviour when he/she forms illogical conclusions (and often acts on same), due to a combination of ignorance and emotion. Victims of Ponzi schemes are good examples. Most Ponzi schemes can easily be found to be preposterous when researched and examined logically, but greed can overcome a person's normal skepticism defence mechanism.
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This blog will focus on my discussions of current issues. Investments and online trading will be prominent, but there will be posts on a wide range of issues.
Hypocrisy, poor decision making, abuse of power and the gullibility of the masses will be themes that will be present in most posts. Hopefully it will help me and others concentrate on eliminating harmful decision making.
I am a Canadian, but much of my anticipated material will come from the USA. America has the world's reserve currency, has the world's largest economy, the world's largest military, and a media that set out the most ludicrous claims and "news" on a daily basis. Many decisions made by Americans affect non-Americans either directly or indirectly and are low hanging fruit for a critical cynic like me.
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I invite comments to my posts, but will delete any that are profane or threatening or demeaning to others. Critical comments are fine, especially when delivered with wit or humour.
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Now I need to see if I can post images and a video. The image(s) I hope to upload are views from my apartment balcony, and perhaps a short video clip of one of my grandchildren in action.
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For my next post I am thinking of the "water4gas" hoax.
Following that I intend to cover some of the fallacious thinking held by many people who invest in commodity ETFs, using as examples the natural gas ETFs UNG (American) and HNU (Canadian).
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