Society

What Is... Series (Insights into Psychology)

What Is… Pop Psychology

In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week’s term is pop psychology. Wikipedia describes popular (pop) psychology as “the concepts and theories about human mental life and behavior that are purportedly based on psychology and that find credence among and pass muster with the populace.” Pop psychology is to …

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What Is… the Euphemism Treadmill

In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week’s term is the euphemism treadmill. Psychologist and linguist Stephen Pinker coined the term euphemism treadmill in a 1994 article in the New York Times. It refers to a process by which words that are used as a euphemism for …

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chain wrapped around ankles of person standing in sand

Mentally Ill People In Chains: A Disturbing Reality

The man in the photo below has a chain around his ankle, and he’s chained to the tree he’s leaning against. That’s his wife, and he has a mental illness. This photo, taken by photographer Robin Hammond, is in Ghana, but this doesn’t just happen there. I’m feeling rather grateful about living in Canada right …

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Arbeit macht frei sign at Auschwitz

The Holocaust and the Failure of the US Education System

Yesterday, I saw that the Holocaust was trending on Twitter. It turns out that it was because of new survey results. Claims Conference released the results of its U.S. Millennial Holocaust Knowledge and Awareness Survey, which surveyed 18 to 39-year-olds in 50 American states. Some of the disturbing results from the survey were: 63% (69% …

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Kyle Rittenhouse as Christian Right Hero?

Two men get killed. Some members of the Christian right are calling the man who killed them a hero and a patriot sent by God. Something isn’t adding up here. On August 25, 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse grabbed his AR-15 style rifle and left his home in Antioch, IL, to head over to Kenosha, WI. He …

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What Is... Series (Insights into Psychology)

What Is… the Psychology of Advertising

In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week’s term is the psychology of advertising. A University of Southern California blog says that we see an average of 5000 ads a day and 2 million 30-second commercials a year. And all of that is carefully composed to take …

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Social privileges (e.g. white privilege, male privilege, class privilege) vs. social burdens (racism, sexism class discrimination

Social Privileges as a Counterpoint to Social Burdens

Lately, white privilege has been a hot topic. The people I’ve come across who take a stance against the idea of white privilege seem to have in common the line of thinking that they haven’t been handed anything, so how can they have social privilege? Wikipedia describes social privilege as: “a special, unearned advantage or …

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