{"id":164162,"date":"2025-10-06T08:35:31","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T16:35:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=164162"},"modified":"2025-10-06T08:36:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T16:36:10","slug":"the-pursuit-of-happiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=164162","title":{"rendered":"The Pursuit Of Happiness"},"content":{"rendered":"

UCLA psychologist David Pinsof writes<\/a>: We get boatloads of psycho-bullshit from therapists, academics, sociologists, and self-help gurus. We use our childhoods and our parents as bullshit excuses for everything we do, even though our upbringing has barely any influence on who we turn out to be\u2014<\/span>it\u2019s mostly genes<\/a> <\/strong>and chaos<\/a>. We blame everything on imperceptible <\/span>cultural forces<\/a> that control everything and are caused by nothing\u2014\u201cthe media,\u201d \u201csociety,\u201d or \u201cthe system.\u201d We talk about \u201cauthenticity,\u201d which is supposed be who we really are, even though <\/span>it\u2019s just who we want to be seen as<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019re also drowning in political bullshit. We\u2019ve got politicians, pundits, podcasters, op-eds, partisan academics, and slanted news sources, all offering a plethora of<\/span> <\/strong>moral rationalizations<\/a> for the cobbled-together, historically contingent policies we\u2019re supposed to support to <\/span>show allegiance to our political tribe<\/a>. We gobble up bullshit about how we\u2019re intellectually and morally superior to millions of people <\/span>who have the same human nature as us<\/a>\u2014a human nature which includes the tendency to see outgroup competitors as <\/span>intellectually and morally inferior<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Thanks to the cornucopia of bullshit, we always have the right thing to say at the right time. We always have the perfect platitude, zinger, one-liner, or talking point at the tip of our tongue. It\u2019s probably intimidating to people who weren\u2019t raised in our WEIRD culture. It probably makes us seem like a society of smooth-talking salesman who can convince anyone of anything. When people unacquainted with our bullshit first encounter it, they\u2019re probably awed and terrified. <\/p>\n

To all the anthropologists and world travelers out there, I\u2019m genuinely curious: do non-WEIRD cultures share our most advanced forms of bullshit?<\/p>\n

Do they <\/span>pretend to want happiness<\/a>, or anything like \u201c<\/span>self-actualization<\/a>\u201d?<\/span><\/p>\n

Do they talk about <\/span>authenticity, humility, not caring about status, and bravely challenging social norms<\/a> the same way we do?<\/span><\/p>\n

Do they <\/span>pontificate on<\/a> <\/a><\/strong>the meaning of life<\/a>?<\/span><\/p>\n

Do they think they are <\/span>special, enlightened humans who have transcended the dark side of human nature<\/a>?<\/span><\/p>\n

Do they think <\/span>morality is about being nice and making the world a better place<\/a>?<\/span><\/p>\n

Do they think <\/span>they don\u2019t care what other people think<\/a>?<\/span> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UCLA psychologist David Pinsof writes: We get boatloads of psycho-bullshit from therapists, academics, sociologists, and self-help gurus. We use our childhoods and our parents as bullshit excuses for everything we do, even though our upbringing has barely any influence on … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43013],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-164162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-david-pinsof"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t