Internet Trolls Are Narcissists, Psychopaths, and Sadists

From Psychology Today:

Let's start by getting our definitions straight: An Internet troll is someone who comes into a discussion and posts comments designed to upset or disrupt the conversation. Often, in fact, it seems like there is no real purpose behind their comments except to upset everyone else involved. Trolls will lie, exaggerate, and offend to get a response.

What kind of person would do this? Some Canadian researchers decided to find out.

They conducted two online studies with over 1,200 people, giving personality tests to each subject along with a survey about their Internet commenting behavior. They were looking for evidence that linked trolling with the "Dark Tetrad" of personality traits: narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism.

They found that Dark Tetrad scores were highest among people who said trolling was their favorite Internet activity. To get an idea of how much more prevalent these traits were among Internet trolls, see this figure from the paper:

Look at how low the Dark Tetrad scores are for everyone except the trolls! Their scores for all four traits soar on the chart. The relationship between trolling and the Dark Tetrad is so significant that the authors write in their paper:

"... the associations between sadism and GAIT (Global Assessment of Internet Trolling) scores were so strong that it might be said that online trolls are prototypical everyday sadists." [emphasis added]

Trolls truly enjoy making you feel bad. To quote the authors once more (because this is a truly quotable article): "Both trolls and sadists feel sadistic glee at the distress of others. Sadists just want to have fun ... and the Internet is their playground!" (Read more.)

My own on-going experience with such a situation is described HERE. Share

Refugees and the Holy Family

From Fr. Z via Catholicism Pure and Simple:

The Holy Family were “refugees”.   Sort of, but not in the way that liberals want you to believe. The Holy Family goes first to Nazareth because of the census.   If you are going to your ancestral town mandated census, you are not a refugee.

“But Father! But Father!, libs are squealing, “They were denied a room in the inn.  Those innkeepers were mean refugee hating meanies!  They were undocumented migrants and the haters refused to let them in.   That’s what YOU would do!   That’s because you HATE VATICAN II!” If you register in the census, you are not “undocumented”.

They weren’t migrants, because they were only there to register and then return home to Nazareth. They didn’t get to stay at the inn or the khan, because – try to follow this – there was no room at the inn.  Which means there was no room at the inn.   They weren’t give room because there wasn’t any.  If there had been a room, they would have been given a room.  It was customary to take travelers into homes, as when people journeyed to Jerusalem to offer sacrifice.  As Alfred Edersheim explains the denial of a room had nothing to do with their poverty.  The rabbinic teaching was that travelers were to be received as the shekinah should be received.   So, they weren’t rejected because they were poor, or “different” or foreigners, blah blah blah.  The inn or khan was FULL.

The Holy Family went to Egypt.  Why?  Just before the Patron Saint of Planned Parenthood, Herod, ordered the slaughter of all the babies, an angel told Joseph in a dream to take his family to Egypt.   If an angel tells you to do something, you do it.  So, the flight into Egypt was not just due to the awful circumstances caused by Herod, it is also divinely directed because of what Herod was going to do. Also, they had to go Egypt so that the prophecy would be fulfilled:

That it might be fulfilled which the Lord spoke by the prophet, saying: Out of Egypt have I called my son. (Matthew 2:15)

So, no, the Holy Family, seeking refuge in Egypt at the specific direction of God, is not the archetype of all refugees today. If they sought refuge in Egypt, they were, in a sense, “refugees”.  However, they were a) they were three people, not thousands and they were b) fleeing the concrete danger of murder of their Child.  They sought sanctuary. Moreover, the Holy Family were no threat to the national security of Egypt.  When the danger was over, they went home.

It is interesting to note that the Joseph of Genesis was driven into Egypt, which led to the enslavement of the People. Joseph of the New Testament was driven into Egypt, which led to the salvation of the People.  Herod and Pharaoh both ordered the slaughter of infants. Moses and Jesus both escaped slaughter in Egypt and both led an exodus from bondage. (Read more.)

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The "Cosmo" Mentality and Self-objectification

From Life Site:

Teen magazines have always been trashy. The covers scream sex advice at young girls, giving them thousands of sizzling tips on how to keep their boyfriend happy, all of which seem to involve a wide range of sexual behavior at a very young age. Self-objectification, apparently, is sexy.

Glamour magazine has actually promoted dangerous “at-home” abortions. Teen Vogue recently decided to shill for porn-addicted young men everywhere and published a handy guide promoting anal sex to young girls, despite the fact that doctors are reporting a huge influx of girls that need to be stitched up—and are even using tampons in their bottoms—due to how damaging these practices are. And now, Cosmopolitan has released an article titled “8 Reasons You Should Rethink Your Stance on Cheating.”

I noticed the article when one of my friends, who is a high school teacher, posted it on Facebook with this angry comment: “Trash like this is the reason why so many of my students are completely lost when it comes to the topic of sexuality and relationships. They’re bombarded with articles where dignity is completely disregarded and replaced with twisted self-satisfying philosophy.”

That is precisely the case. In the article, Cosmopolitan makes the case that “judging” and “shaming” are a bad thing, that affairs can be fun, and that we all need to “get over our monogamy squeamishness.” In other words, teenagers who are upset that their significant other cheated on them are judgemental and squeamish dinosaurs who need to stop cheater-shaming other teenagers and just realize that a dedicated, loving relationship with one other person is impossible, and that they should just beat their dreams to death with a copy of Fifty Shades of Grey and get used to being lonely while also getting laid a lot. Or not, of course. Depends if soulless and sterile sex is your thing.

Parents, if you are reading this, you need to be paying far better attention to what your teen children are reading. These magazines are not harmless, as many of you might assume. They are promoting a very specific worldview, and they are doing it with the help of glossy pinups, celebrity interviews, fashion advice—and loads of sex tips. Most significantly, these magazines are sending the message to your daughter that this sort of lifestyle is normal—everyone is frolicking around in the hookup culture, so make sure you don’t get left out.

Not to mention the fact that at a time when teenage girls are bombarded with awful signals about their value, these magazines inform them that their worth comes from how they look and how well they service the boys. What these magazines are doing is grooming—read Nancy Jo Sales’ horrifying book American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers. Sales, who is a journalist for Vanity Fair, was commissioned by her editor to find out why so many teenage girls were killing themselves. Initially, Sales had no problem with pornography and the other trash that has hijacked teen life. After traveling to high schools across America and interviewing dozens of girls, she speaks at anti-porn conferences. (Read more.)

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New York's Vanishing Shops

From The Guardian:

A recent survey by New York councilmember Helen Rosenthal found 12% of stores on one stretch of the Upper West Side is unoccupied and ‘for lease’. The picture is repeated nationally. In October, the US surpassed the previous record for store closings, set after the 2008 financial crisis.

The common refrain is that the devastation is the product of a profound shift in consumption to online, with Amazon frequently identified as the leading culprit. But this is maybe an over-simplification.

“It’s not Amazon, it’s rent,” says Jeremiah Moss, author of the website and book Vanishing New York. “Over the decades, small businesses weathered the New York of the 70s with it near-bankruptcy and high crime. Businesses could survive the internet, but they need a reasonable rent to do that.”

Part of the problem is the changing make-up of New York landlords. Many are no longer mom-and-pop operations, but institutional investors and hedge funds that are unwilling to drop rents to match retail conditions. “They are running small businesses out of the city and replacing them with chain stores and temporary luxury businesses,” says Moss. (Read more.)

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Modern Fashion and Versailles

From Living It:

“We always have this image of Versailles as a place of frivolity but nothing has been more documented than fashion at Versailles. It has been the topic of speeches, studies, documents and dress codes,” explains Laurence Benaïm. “From the day the Duke of Orleans, Louis XIV’s brother, went to the Innocents’ Market, where the slaughterhouses were, and returned with soiled and blood-stained feet, the red heel became fashionable. A detail that we find again in the famous portrait of Louis XIV by Hyacinthe Rigaud.”

Next to the pictures, texts recall how a micro-event could launch a trend or news became the name of a particular colour. The terms used to describe the different objects of fashion were sometimes very poetic but mostly full of eccentricity. Among our favourites is the “doe’s belly” yellow, a sombre shade called “London soot” and the nuance “opera brûlé” after the fatal conflagration that destroyed the Paris Opera House in 1781. (Read more.)

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Cutting Taxes

From PJB at Info Wars:

By enacting the largest tax cut since the Reagan administration, the heart of which is cutting the corporate rate from 35 to 21 percent, Republicans have boldly bet the farm. They have rewritten America’s tax code to reflect their belief that cutting taxes on the private sector will produce the prosperity they have promised. If it happens, the GOP will reap the rewards, if not by 2018, then in 2020.

Democrats, as the Party of Government, egalitarian and neo-socialist, have come to see their role as redistributing wealth from those who have too much — to those who have too little. For, as men (and women) are born unequal in ambition, ability, talent, energy, personality and drive, free markets must inevitably produce an inequality of results.

The mission of Democrats is to reduce those inequalities. And as the very rich are also the very few, in a one-man, one-vote democracy the Democratic Party will always have a following. Winston Churchill called this the philosophy of failure and the gospel of envy. (Read more.)

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Let the Children Play

From Global News:

According to a new survey by toy company Melissa & Doug and analytics organization Gallup, parents aren’t fully appreciating unstructured child-led playtime and would much rather choose structured activities to keep their kids occupied and days filled to the brim.

“Today’s children are experiencing unprecedented levels of pressure, anxiety, and depression – all stemming from a lack of self-confidence, resilience, independence, connection and sense of self,” Melissa Bernstein, co-founder of Melissa & Doug, said in a statement. “We may think we are protecting them from being bored or falling behind, but ultimately we are preventing them from the open-ended experiences that allow them to discover themselves, their passion and their purpose.”

The survey interviewed 1,000 adults over the age of 18 with kids up to 10 years of age in Canada, Australia and the U.K. and asked them what they thought of different types of play children engage in. When it comes to unstructured play, 57 per cent of parents believe the only skill children get out of it is creativity. Only three in 10 believe children develop problem-solving, self-confidence and other skills (art, athletics, etc.). (Read more.)

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Noël à la Cour Grand-Ducale

 Christmas at Berg Castle. From the website of the Grand Duke and Duchess of Luxembourg.

(See more.)

Via Nobility. Share

The Story Behind Charles Dickens' Writing of "A Christmas Carol"

There was a great deal of slavery in the 19th century, and it was not only to be found in the American South. From Nancy Bilyeau:

The original Dickens' manuscript is owned by the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City, one of its prized possessions, and from November 3, 2017, to January 14, 2018, the manuscript showing Dickens' own corrections is on display in the exhibition "Charles Dickens and the Spirit of Christmas."

Dickens was always preoccupied with the poor of England, especially in London and other cities. The country was going full tilt as an industrialized society, but that meant brutal working schedules for many, often 16 hours a day in the factories for six or seven days a week. "Child labor at the time was synonymous to slavery," wrote scholar Dr. Anindita Dutta. "Children were subject to inhuman torture, exploitation, and even death." (Read more.)

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