quotes from the second half of the book The True Believer by Eric Hofferhttps://twitter.com/a_yawning_cat/status/1364839144250241028 …
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"There is perhaps no surer way of infecting ourselves with virulent hatred toward a person than by doing him a grave injustice." victim mentality only inspires hatred from others.
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"We do not make people humble and meek when we show them their guilt and cause them to be ashamed of themselves. We are more likely to stir their arrogance and rouse in them a reckless aggressiveness. Self-righteousness is a loud din raised to drown the voice of guilt within us"
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"To wrong those we hate is to add fuel to our hatred. Conversely, to treat an enemy with magnanimity is to blunt our hatred for him" forgiveness blunts our own hatred, it can be selfish
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"It is easier to hate an enemy with much good in him than one who is all bad. We cannot hate those we despise. The Americans are poor haters in international affairs because of their innate feeling of superiority over all foreigners"
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"It is of interest that the backward South shows more xenophobia than the rest of the country. Should Americans begin to hate foreigners wholeheartedly, it will be an indication that they have lost confidence in their own way of life." book was 1950's right after wwii
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interesting... america as a nation of losers/outcasts/rejects.pic.twitter.com/zfgwwYsTHu
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"Propaganda thus serves more to justify ourselves than to convince others; and the more reason we have to feel guilty, the more fervent our propaganda"
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"the leader cannot create the conditions which make the rise of a movement possible. He cannot conjure a movement out of the void. There has to be an eagerness to follow and obey, and an intense dissatisfaction with things as they are"
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"All mass movements rank obedience with the highest virtues and put it on a level with faith" "To the frustrated, freedom from responsibility is more attractive than freedom from restraint"
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"The frustrated follow a leader less because of their faith that he is leading them away from their unwanted selves. Surrender to a leader is not a means to an end but a fulfillment. Where they are led is of secondary importance."
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"Self-contempt, however vague, sharpens our eyes for the imperfections of others. We usually strive to reveal in others the blemishes we hide in ourselves"
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"The creative man of words, no matter how bitterly he may criticize and deride the existing order, is actually attached to the present. His passion is to reform and not to destroy."
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"The creative man of words is ill at ease in the atmosphere of an active movement. He feels that its whirl and passion sap his creative energies. The result is that, once the movement starts rolling, he either retires voluntarily or is pushed aside"
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"In the eyes of the true believer, people who have no holy cause are without backbone and character—a pushover for men of faith."
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