it's also possible, as @selentelechia suggested, that people get trained on *clumsy* signals; e.g. if people get mad every time you don't instantaneously do something you don't know how to do, you might infer that this means "instantaneous obedience is obligatory"...
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even though the people who got mad at you *didn't* believe that instantaneous obedience is obligatory. Maybe you need a *few* sources of authoritarian ideology to promote the hypothesis to your attention, but *mostly* you're being trained on people's unintentional signals.
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Anyhow. Instantaneous obedience is *impossible.* Not "evil" or "tyrannical"; it literally doesn't exist. You *can't* do what you're told directly. You *have* to map it to how you would do it *first*, and then your reward function has to be drawn to it.
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Other people can't "make you do things." What other people can do is *make you suffer*. They can promote hypotheses to your attention, and the right stimuli in the right order *can* tie you in a knot of trying to believe two contradictory things at once.
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There's a (false, IMO) belief you might call "descriptive authoritarianism" -- the theory that people *can* make other people do things, that instantaneous obedience or direct manipulation is possible.
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There's also a (probably false?) belief you might call "descriptive individualism" -- the theory that other people, or external circumstances, can't have *any* effect on your mind that you can't undo, in one motion, "at will".
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What external circumstances can do is *insert a thing in your awareness*. "I am hearing the phrase 'You should do X.'" You don't get to choose this, I think; it's thrust upon you. Which means that contradictions can be inserted into your "workspace" of awareness.
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You can *resolve* contradictions; if you successfully explain away, make sense of, resolve, the temporary contradiction, you can stop suffering. But you may or may not actually do this. Other people can cause you suffering; you may or may not know how to remove it.
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Replying to @s_r_constantin @selentelechia
Great thread. Do you have an academic background in psychology/cognitive science? I have updated my read list to include "Complex PTSD" and I was wondering if you have other book(or any other form) suggestions 1/2
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for a person trying to make sense of mental illness on not only a theoretical but also on a practical level, actionable level. Or maybe sources that could get one started on mindfulness/meditation 2/2
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lol, no academic background. I don't have any sources I like on mindfulness tbh; I live in California, it's kind of in the water. Many people swear by The Mind Illuminated, but I don't think I endorse it.
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Replying to @s_r_constantin @selentelechia
brb ordering some Californian water on Amazon. Mindfulness in Plain English seemed good to me but I have no reference beyond that and lazy googling
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