{"id":18813,"date":"2021-05-20T17:43:07","date_gmt":"2021-05-21T00:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=18813"},"modified":"2021-05-20T17:43:09","modified_gmt":"2021-05-21T00:43:09","slug":"book-mental-immunity-infectious-ideas-mind-parasites-and-the-search-for-a-better-way-to-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2021\/05\/20\/book-mental-immunity-infectious-ideas-mind-parasites-and-the-search-for-a-better-way-to-think\/","title":{"rendered":"BOOK: \u201cMENTAL IMMUNITY: INFECTIOUS IDEAS, MIND-PARASITES, AND THE SEARCH FOR A BETTER WAY TO THINK\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Mental<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mental Immunity: Infectious Ideas, Mind-Parasites, and the Search for a Better Way to Think<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

by Andy Norman<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Astonishingly irrational ideas are spreading. Covid denial persists in the face of overwhelming evidence. Anti-vaxxers compromise public health. Conspiracy thinking hijacks minds and incites mob violence. Toxic partisanship is cleaving nations, and climate denial has pushed our planet to the brink. Meanwhile, American Nazis march openly in the streets, and Flat Earth theory is back. What the heck is going on? Why is all this happening, and why now? More important, what can we do about it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Mental Immunity, Andy Norman shows that these phenomena share a root cause. We live in a time when the so-called \u201cright to your opinion\u201d is thought to trump our responsibilities. The resulting ethos effectively compromises mental immune systems, allowing \u201cmind parasites\u201d to overrun them. Conspiracy theories, evidence-defying ideologies, garden-variety bad ideas: these are all species of mind parasite, and each of them employs clever strategies to circumvent mental immune systems. In fact, some of them compromise cultural immune systems \u2013 the things societies do to prevent bad ideas from spreading. Norman shows why all of this is more than mere analogy: minds and cultures really do have immune systems, and they really can break down. Fortunately, they can also be built up: strengthened against ideological corruption. He calls for a rigorous science of mental immune health \u2013 what he calls \u201ccognitive immunology\u201d \u2013 and explains how it could revolutionize our capacity for critical thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hailed as \u201ca feast for thought,\u201d Mental Immunity melds cutting-edge work in science and philosophy into an \u201castonishingly enlightening and productive\u201d solution to the signature problem of our age. A practical guide to spotting and removing bad ideas, a stirring call to transcend our petty tribalisms, and a serious bid to bring humanity to its senses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Goodreads.com)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mental Immunity: Infectious Ideas, Mind-Parasites, and the Search for a Better Way to Think by Andy Norman  Astonishingly irrational ideas are spreading. Covid denial persists in the face of overwhelming evidence. Anti-vaxxers compromise public health. Conspiracy thinking hijacks minds and incites mob violence. Toxic partisanship is cleaving nations, and climate denial… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18813"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18813"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18814,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18813\/revisions\/18814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}