• Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 days ago

    They will deny it until they can’t and go right back to denial the moment they can.

    He’s their security blanket, their binkie. Any parent knows it’s nonsense but to the child’s mind the magic of the binkie it is real. Arguing the reality of the binkie is futile.

    Parents can rely on their child growing out of magical thinking but since these are adults, we’ve got to accept they are forever lost to the magic.

    Their need for president binkie cannot be argued with. It can be slipped from their grasp by logic or trickery. The magic must be shattered, utterly and irrevocably. Only they can choose when that occurs.

    • FosterMolasses@leminal.space
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      21 hours ago

      Yes, but actually no.

      Children, regardless of “magical thinking” naturally do not possess cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is a learned skill instilled into them by other adults. Everytime a kid asks “what’s wrong with daddy?” when he’s lying on the floor after having too much to drink, and the housewife replies “he’s just sleeping honey, now stop asking stupid questions” we gradually learn to deny our senses, critical thinking and reasoning skills. Children don’t need statistics or scientific journal entries, they can sense when something is wrong. If they see one of these protests outside on the way to the grocery store with mommy they can put two and two together without having to turn on CNN. Yet full grown adults can convince themselves a new pizza parlor must be opening.

      A child’s mind is better at discerning nonsense from the truth than you realize. It is we who repeatedly teach them that they are wrong.