Complete tangent here, but does anyone find that face convincing?
I mean, I’m autistic, so my knowledge of facial expressions is learned not instinctive, but I don’t find that to be a convincingly authentic expression. That does not look to me like an expression of regret or remorse or sorrow, but of someone who’s actively trying to remember which muscles to tense up.
Ain’t buying it neither.
I mean if I saw it out of context, I would assume it to be authentic and sincere. I mean why wouldn’t it be? I’m going to assume good faith in my interactions in general in situations where I don’t know the context. I also think that’s a frame pick of the clip to exaggerate things a bit / provoke a response.
It’s like when people look at pictures of murderers and say that they can see the crazy in their eyes… but then you show them pictures of non-murderers or whatever, and lie and tell them those are killers too, and you get the whole, “Yep. You can see it in their eyes and faces.”
In short, I don’t think off just a facial expression and no context, anyone can tell anything about sincerity.
Now with context? Fuck no I don’t buy it.
Maybe because I’m neurodivergent, whatever it is that makes it seem prima facie plausible to NTs just doesn’t seem to be working on me. My reaction to it, in or out of context is of someone who is acting, and doing so very, very badly.
(I’m reminded of an Oliver Sachs anecdote where he was in a brain injury ward, and the patients were watching a Ronald Reagan speech. Most people watching it thought he was speaking persuasively and eloquently, but the aphasic patients, who couldn’t understand his words, were laughing like drains at his tone and body language, and a patient who had a lesion which cut off his emotional response, when asked what he thought, said that the speech was nonsense, and none of it made any sense: it was word salad. Possibly the same sort of thing is going on here.)
the tagline “Welcome to BoingBoing: tons of infuriating shit that will destroy any faith you had in humanity, but we do have the occasional wonderful thing” weirdly doesn’t draw a lot of clicks…
Could be, but from my viewpoint (and again, as an NT person, I acknowledge things operate differently), the plausibility analysis is put into play simply by the fact that I’m exhausted by my being a cynical jerk of a person who tends to believe the worst in a situation instead of good faith. So I’ve been working really, really hard , to assume good in the absence of evidence leaning either way. This is why I said if I viewed that picture out of context, without knowing the history behind it, I would opt for a default of sincerity.
It’s interesting to note that in this case, my “finger on the scale” against cynicism would be incorrect. That it isn’t done in good faith or sincerity, that he really likely is faking it.
Of course, all that money for lawyers is going to come from donations from his white supremacist fanboys.
So it’s a good thing? Wasting the time and money of white supremacists certainly sounds like a good thing.
It’s ALSO wasting the money of left wing news outlets who likely will get most of these thrown out but a few of them will go to settlements.
I find it unconvincing… and quite punchable.
Haven’t these people suffered enough?
As far as I am aware, I am NT and do not have a brain lesion, but I find that to be a completely accurate description of Reagan’s speeches.
Before that, he can take a flying fuck at a rolling donut.
Just to get warmed up.
And so can his mother.
Being consistently reminded about Reality makes those Wonderful Things all the more precious.
And I, for one, prefer the typical BoingBoinger’s take on Reality, compared to that of FOX ‘News’.
for example.
That, for me, is another Wonderful Thing.
Posting three separate threads on the Smith/Rock debacle in one day seems rather focused on one particular aspect of ‘reality,’ but maybe that’s just me.
Then seeing this post about Rittenhouse right after, it just all felt a bit intentionally… provocative, shall we say.
If Horst Rittenhouse is looking to get a fascist anthem written about his martyrdom this is a weak way to go about it
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