There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true. The other is to refuse to accept what is true – Soren Kierkegaard
In psychology, per Wikipedia "cognitive dissonance is the mental stress (discomfort) experienced by a person who simultaneously holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values; when performing an action that contradicts one of those beliefs, ideas, or values; or when confronted with new information that contradicts one of the beliefs, ideas, and values. In other words, the term refers to the perception of incompatibility of two simultaneous cognitions, which can impact on their attitudes.
Leon Festinger‘s 1957 theory of cognitive dissonance focuses on how human beings strive for internal consistency. A person who experiences inconsistency tends to become psychologically uncomfortable, and so is motivated to try to reduce the cognitive dissonance occurring, trying to “justify” their behavior by changing or adding new parts of the conflicting cognition, as well as actively avoids situations and information likely to increase the psychological discomfort."
I am frequently asked, “you’re intelligent, how could you support a dictator”? I explain that because I’m intelligent I don’t believe the lies and propaganda spewed on mainstream media, and I dig beneath the surface to find facts. Then I am usually told “But he’s killing his own people, he’s using chemical weapons and barrel bombs too!” That’s when I usually proceed to explain how that’s all been proven to be false or has been debunked and it doesn’t make any logical sense for him to do so in the first place.
I usually share an article or video that backs up my response. Chemical weapons allegations have been made numerous times by the terrorists and then shared to mainstream media during this imposed war. This war has devastated the country for more than six years, I share studies and analysis that prove that the Syrian state provided evidence that the opposition were the ones who used mustard or sarin or whatever the new concoction or flavor of the week chemical weapon and gas is, and that in fact it was never used by the Syrian Arab Army. At that point people will sometimes flat out ignore it, or not even consider it based on their deeply rooted biased views of the Syrian state and the Syrian Arab Army and its allies.
Depending on the intensity of their cognitive dissonance some people completely shut out any information you want to attempt to provide to them. They usually reply that they do not believe in “conspiracy theories”.
When I am asked about the imposed war and invasion in Syria I try to first explain how this war should be defined. I explain that the widely accepted terminology that was provided to the masses via mainstream media is that this was started by a revolution and then developed into a civil war. I explain to them how that is false and share with them information that I wrote about more in detail in this article.
After some discussion I tend to conclude with a simple notion that most should be able to accept. That whoever Syrians want to rule their country is who should be the president. This is a decision that only Syrians can make. This global war on Syria has destroyed the country and it was not a war that Syrians wanted to engage in. Syria is a sovereign country and should not be meddled with. It’s politics, government, president, army, etc. is not up for global debate. Does Syria meddle in other countries politics? No.. therefore why does the West, NATO, EU, GCC, etc. think it has a right to meddle in Syrian domestic politics?
I tell people that they can’t have an informed opinion about the war in Syria without knowing both sides of the story. They need to hear all the sides before they can decide what stance you they want to take. I tell them they need to use logic, critical thinking, read, research, and ask questions just like the rest of us do.I ask them questions that they seem to have trouble answering. Why would someone that’s supported by most of his people need to commit these alleged atrocities? Does it make logical sense?
Sometimes the question is posed to me about why President Bashar doesn’t allow anyone else to rule the country, why is he stuck on keeping his position as president especially during this war. I explain it’s because the people want him! No one put a gun to anyone’s head to make them vote for him. Many Syrians that were living in Lebanon stood for hours in line just to cast their votes for him. Why? They truly feel he is the best option to lead a secular, nonsectarian, and united Syria.
A popular misconception that is easily rebutted is that Syrians do not want him to lead. That’s simply not true. The majority do, he won by a 88.7% vote in the last election in 2014. I explain a popular reason the opposition do not want him is because of his religious sect. What’s even more interesting is when a Christian holds these views against President Assad. I explain to them that Christians have said time and time again that President Assad protects them, that he allows them to worship freely, and that he is commonly seen visiting churches and monasteries with first lady of Syria Asma Al Assad. I have explained many times that Syria is the only non-sectarian and secular country in the Middle East and this is made possible by having a tolerant president that respects and accepts all religions. This has worked well for many years and people coexisted without any major issues. President Bashar and his father knew how to handle the Muslim Brotherhood and kept them in line, taking him down forcefully without the people’s support will unleash horror on Syrians and especially those of religious minorities.
A Christmas choir had a surprise visitor overnight after President Bashar Al Assad and first lady Asma made an appearance at a church in the Syrian capital of Damascus where rehearsals were taking place.
After much discussion one does tend to get tired, of repeating the same thing over and over for over six years. The media propaganda beast is vicious, highly funded, emotionally driven and supported by mainstream media.
Sometimes it feels like we are David fighting against Goliath. It can get discouraging when we feel like given all of the information, facts, and proof that we have that some people have still refuse it because of a deadly combination of arrogance and ignorance.
Regardless of the outcome it is our duty to spread the truth. Humanity is depending on truth advocates to spend their energy and speak up for the the oppressed. They have been silenced for far too long. Syrians have been suffering for over six years from a global war they did not chose to take part in. Keep your heads held high and your voices strong my fellow truth advocates. At the end the truth will prevail and you can sleep soundly knowing you were on the right side of history.
Please note this article was also posted on my site The Rabbit Hole.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cognitive_dissonance&oldid=776262170
Please add proper editing and sourcing of copied and pasted text.
Some tips:
Thank You!
As a so-called "independent journalist," this makes her plagiarism/copy-paste even worse. She should know how to properly cite sources and quote the copied texts.
Agreed @ats-david How unprofessional and trashy of her.
Lol.. trashy? Look at ALL of my other posts and see for yourself, if this has ever happened, before mislabeling my work. I do not write most of my posts on steemit first, so when I transfer them over, sometimes links, pictures, videos do not transfer over correctly.
You really love kissing up to these accounts don't you? Craving attention and hoping they will throw you a bone. I feel sorry for you.
I feel sorry for you. . . Do you want to be added to the list? Keep running your mouth.
I see Bloom sent you... well it's wonderful to meet you David.
Instead of playing a perpetual victim and trying to deflect legitimate criticism, maybe do the one thing that you're supposed to do as an alleged "professional" in your field?
I have a pretty low tolerance for BS like this. Do your "job" and maybe these situations wouldn't exist.
I responded below.. before seeing your second comment. Again, I apologize and will make sure to double check that all hyperlinks and citations are appropriately made when transferring my articles.
You better
Hi Sarah, I truly appreciate your posts and your desire for honesty and getting the truth out about western support for terrorists in Syria. Sorry that there are so many always trying to derail you. As a token of appreciation I have found strong evidence that Bloom and that Kurdish account that spent so much time jumping on your posts and harassing you with derogatory language were 100% factually incorrect when they stated that the Kurdish SDF were NOT working with ISIS. The BBC has now, finally, reported truthfully on this matter and provide 100% factual proof that the Kurdish SDF supplied ISIS with 47 trucks and 13 buses to escape from Raqqa and into Turkey in October. Video here:
Hired gun accounts here at Steemit are, unfortunately, proving to be a problem when it comes to revealing the truth as they hide behind the banner of acting as police of content, when in actuality they are conducting financial intimidation and censorship. In my opinion, Ats-David and Bloom represent one of the worst aspects of Steemit. Look at the size of their wallets and its easy to see that certain governments have decided that monitoring and downvoting content on Steemit is a necessary priority for them. I hope Steemit's leadership can find a way to deal with such accounts that allow for free speech and expression while also punishing those that seek to harass truthseekers rather than expose truth. Personally, I'm not about money as I am financially stable, so I really don't care if they downvote me, but I think that other truthseeking individuals might be turned off by blatant unfair punishment that is dished out by high monetary account holders who seek to censor the truth..... at any cost.
For those curious about this matter, the thread in question and Blooms account info is here:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@sarahabed/obsessive-downvoting-tagging-posts-a-method-of-silencing-and-censoring-curators-on-steemit
https://steemit.com/@bloom/transfers
And now look at @ats-david above, $50,000 in that account used, as they state, for 'slaying' good content, such as Sarah's.
@ausbitbank @v4vapid @dwinblood
THANK YOU! Bloom is clearly unstable.. I have noticed two other things that he did lately (I am sure there are many more but I was out of town and haven't been on much for the past week). He went on another steemit members post where I had made a comment about living in the country and ranted and raved about me.. neither the post nor my comment was political.. nor did anyone mention him. He is proving to be a troll of the lowest kind. Secondly, he downvoted and hide comments on post about his abuse! How nefarious can one be? Now he has his friends stopping by to downvote and insult my work. I appreciate you having my back.. the TRUTH will not be silenced by a biased, deranged individual such as bloom nor his posse.
You'll notice that in the original article it was hyperlinked. All the other hyperlinks are there as well. Sometimes when transferring articles over from my page to steemit they do not transfer over correctly, I apologize for not double checking that all the hyperlinks were included in my steemit post. I will make sure to double check going forward.
https://sarahabed.com/2017/04/19/cognitive-dissonance-the-most-prolific-psychological-plague-of-our-time/
Can you please edit the post to quote the section from wikipedia
Sourced from wiki
I memba there's some previous issues with bloom - and he's calling out my support for this "plagiarized" article.
Anything not written by you should be quoted and sourced, and then it will be much harder to him to justify his flags.
Hello @Ausbitbank it was past the editing window. I explained that it didn't transfer over correctly from the original article. I apologize.
Corrected. Sorry that he got you involved in what was clearly an unintentional error.
Unintentional. Aren’t you a journalist?
As a lifelong learner, cognitive dissonance is quite familiar, and an even longed for, state. Every bit of new knowledge gained displaces either ignorance, or more commonly, an incorrect belief.
Without such cognitive dissonance, I would find life unbearable. Each resolution of it is a victory over ignorance, and these rewards imbue my life with meaning and happiness.
I wish more people recognized the value of victory over ignorance, and how much better it is, in every way, from the shot of dopamine we are given when we defend our chosen belief against facts that disprove it.
I prefer my dopamine with a dollop of truth, while all too many seem to prefer the chaser of ignorance with theirs.
Thanks!
Beautifully worded!
It's very good indeed that Russia's military assistance in Syria turned the tide against ISIS and the other rebel forces supported by the US, and allowed President Assad to prevail. But, I worry what the globalists might do next. They are inhuman, evil psychopaths.
The best weapon we have is speaking the truth wihout fear - for fear and intimidation is the most potent weapon the enemies of life have. Being without fear weakens and destroys the enemy.
Well said @globocop. We need to also defend each other's right to speak the truth. I appreciate your comments on my last post. I was really glad to see that many people understood it's purpose.
Yes @sarahabed : We ought to defend everyone's free speech - especially when we don't like what's written/said - for this is the only situation where that right becomes important.
Your article here is first class - I agree with your analyses and conclusions. The alphabet soup agencie's controlled MSM are a disgrace to humanity - a comical display of trebling down - for the advance of their own demise. So be it.
Much appreciate your stand on Syria and free speech.
Yes, they are continuously scheming. Just recently Trump met with Putin and they discussed Syria.. so we have to see what comes out of that talk. Daesh is almost entirely defeated in Syria and Iraq but the concern is now the Kurdish militias that the US supports. The Syrian government is focused on maintaining Syrias soverignty and unity.. will the Kurds make demands and face a similar fate to what took place recently in Iraq after Barzani's Kurdish referendum? Or will they agree to terms within the framework of the Syrian constitution? We know that the US has used them in the past as pawns and has dropped them when they were no longer useful, but it seems they keep allowing themselves to be put in that position while expecting a different result. Lots of different moving pieces. You've also got the big House of Saud purge/debacle, threats to Lebanon.. the US's obsession with "poking the bear" so to speak in Iran. I think what it comes down to is Putin's ability to keep Trump from taking any drastic measures that could cause more conflict and turmoil in the Middle East. When the world is run by evil inhuman psychopaths which I completely agree with you on.. it really becomes difficult to anticipate or predict how things will go.. we need to just take it one day at a time.
I think the saddest part of all - the people don't care about the truth anymore.
When you point them to wiki-leaks and other hard facts -BOOM!- cognitive dissonance and MOTIVATED REASONING take over.
Thanks for this informative post @Sarahabed
You're right, I deal with such people on a daily basis. They get very upset and refuse to accept information that will shatter their illusions, that will make them question what they thought was true. They would rather be comforted with lies than accept the ugly truth.
My Grandpa is a perfect example of this-
Grandpa- "Jeremy Corbyn- He's evil, A terrorist"
Me- "He won a peace prize in 2013"
Grandpa- "Don't Lie"
Me- "Grandpa I'll show you"
Grandpa - "I dont believe you"
Arghhh!
LOL!
That is funny hahaha
He wouldn't be an avid reader of the Daily Mail and the Sun would he? sigh
People really need to take a chance and read some real news sometimes
Not saying that as somebody who supports Corbyn (I'm not even a UK citizen or anything)
I just think it's funny how people can parrot opinions around that have nothing to do with any logical or rational thinking
He is a daily fail reader but also 87 so a different generation!
Theres a great website called whoshouldIvote for- ranks in order the political party most aligned to your views.
Someone I know who has voted Conservative at every opportunity mainly for a love affair with good old Winston came out in this order
Lib Dem
Green
Labour
Conservative
UKIP
In that order! Yet every election and every one due they will vote Tory. And we wonder in the UK why we don't know our arse from our elbow in politics!
Hahahahaha you sound like an alright chap mate ;)
wow beutifull picture @sarahabed
if you can visit to my post
Thank you!
A good article 👍.
Thank you!
This is a really good article and I agree with most of it, except for this one line...
Actually yes Syria does meddle in other countries affairs of the 12 wars involving Syria 6 of them were foreign interventions directly attributed to Syrian government policy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_Syria
12
3 wars of liberation
7 wars involving outside countries with the gulf war of 1990 admittedly having nothing to do with Syrian government policy
2 "Civil Wars" One a take over attempt by Islamists(muslim brotherhood) and the present one started by a color revolution(arab spring)