Oliver BurkemanVerified account

@oliverburkeman

Guardian writer. Tweeting on psychology etc. Out now: THE ANTIDOTE: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking

Brooklyn
theguardian.com/profile/oliver…
Joined February 2010
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  1. 18 hours ago

    Yes I am retweeting praise from here, you're going to have to deal with it, people. Honored is putting it mildly.

    2 replies 3 retweets 27 likes
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  2. Aug 21

    <cough>rescind the Goldwater Rule<cough>

    2 replies 4 retweets 14 likes
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  3. Aug 21

    If I think Trump's behavior results in part from psychological disorders, is it my obligation to keep quiet because some people might wrongly think I'm saying that such disorders usually/often lead to Trump-like behavior –which is a totally different point? (I'd say no, I think.)

    2 replies 3 retweets 10 likes
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  4. Retweeted
    Aug 21
    Replying to

    There's a good argument that Shackleton went to Antarctica ( certainly the third time) just to get away from his marriage

    3 replies 2 retweets 10 likes
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  5. Aug 21

    Thanks for many amazing replies to this, I am very grateful!

    2 replies 1 like
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  6. Aug 20

    For a thing: what are some famous historical examples of people being commitment-phobes or getting cold feet about marriage, apart from Franz Kafka? Thanks.

    40 replies 10 likes
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  7. Aug 20

    This claim seems untrue to me. I think I would, however deeply I'd regret the situation. And in any case, if you're so sure of yourself, why not have a referendum and see?

    1:02
    Remainers will never accept a Leave result, no matter how many referendums we have.
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    6 replies 1 retweet 14 likes
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  8. Aug 20

    I'm interested in Scaramucci's theory that "racist" isn't quite the right term for Trump, in terms of his personal attitudes, because he doesn't think of anyone at all as fully human, other than him

    3 replies 3 retweets 18 likes
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  9. Aug 20

    It's a slogan for the social media age, because within bubbles, it's possible to imagine that you just have to aggressively stamp out a few remaining dissenters and then your view will prevail, whereas, if you engaged with the world as a whole, you'd see that was absurd.

    1 reply 4 retweets 53 likes
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  10. Aug 19

    Also the insinuation in "get over it" that it's some kind of weird hangup to want reasons to believe things before you believe them.

    You can start reading a tweet at the end. If it concludes with “Get over it” or “Get used to it,” it is likely that the author has a weak argument or no argument and also likely that he or she is angrily asserting a tenet of some dogma.
    3 replies 3 retweets 51 likes
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  11. Aug 19

    This is excellent

    Revisionist History launches an in-depth investigation of chutzpah. Israelis are involved. I think this a wild one.
    3 likes
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  12. Aug 19

    Corbyn chronically responds to questions on whether Brexit should happen by saying people had understandable motivations for supporting it, as if these were somehow the same thing.

    1 reply 11 likes
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  13. Retweeted
    Aug 15
    Replying to

    It should be - in much the same way as Boris "should be" ruling out no deal on account of the fact it would be a disaster. Problem is that both men put their personal ambitions and ideology above doing the pragmatic best thing for the country.

    1 retweet 8 likes
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  14. Aug 15

    I don't quite see why Swinson's getting criticized for wanting a caretaker PM except if it's Corbyn, yet Corbyn isn't getting criticized (that I've seen) for wanting a caretaker PM but only if it's Corbyn

    9 replies 17 retweets 67 likes
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  15. Aug 15

    Shouldn't Corbyn's position be "I'd like to lead a short-term caretaker government to stop No Deal, but I'd also be happy for it to be led by someone else if that's the only way to make it happen"?

    13 replies 20 retweets 103 likes
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  16. Aug 14

    This is great. Too much internet-based advice stuff is, like, "yeah! the other person is wrong and bad, you're being mistreated!" – which may be entirely true in many cases, but it's still useless/counterproductive, because you can only ever make change from your end.

    "A conversation ends only if you let it end. It’s not just how he responds to you bringing up these conversations. It’s also about how you respond to his refusal to have them." : When your partner stonewalls ("four horsemen," ) (
    1 reply 2 retweets 5 likes
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  17. Aug 13

    My problem with this v popular thread is that it starts from the assumption that hypersensitivity/narrowing speech norms/etc on the left are a "fallacy", a myth, whereas I think there's a kernel of truth there, that's then being exploited by some very bad & cynical people.

    Do you have white teenage sons? Listen up. I've been watching my boys' online behavior & noticed that social media and vloggers are actively laying groundwork in white teens to turn them into alt-right/white supremacists. Here's how:
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    3 replies 8 retweets 49 likes
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  18. Aug 13

    The basic, problematic dynamic whereby labelling Trump voters racist – though they very well may be – fuels Trumpism.

    2 replies 2 retweets 6 likes
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  19. Aug 13

    But – it seems odd to use as the key example for this piece a letter defending the right of philosophers to explore multiple viewpoints. The petitions by the other philosophers who want those philosophers to shut up would seem to make the point more forcefully

    1 reply 1 retweet 6 likes
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  20. Aug 13

    1 reply 1 like
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