Oliver BurkemanVerified account

@oliverburkeman

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

Brooklyn
Joined February 2010

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

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  2. <cough>rescind the Goldwater Rule<cough>

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  3. 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.)

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  4. Retweeted
    Replying to

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

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

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  6. 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.

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  7. 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?

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  8. 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

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  9. 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.

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  10. 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.

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  12. 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.

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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.

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  14. 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

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  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"?

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  16. 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.

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  17. 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.

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

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  19. 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

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