Caroline > Recent Status Updates

Author is right that these days seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is unfortunately, like so many other psychological disorders, experiencing over self-diagnosis. Specific criteria characterize this disorder, and most people don't meet those: "Estimates vary, but research generally suggests that in the US, somewhere between 0.5 percent and 3 percent of people suffer from the disorder [...] The vast [BELOW]

"While there were questionnaires that asked about seasonal depression, distress, and sleep disorder in winter, there were no surveys that made room for the potentially positive aspects of the season. This not only created problems for my study, it hinted at biases in the larger scientific framework for researching winter. If we can only study what we can measure, the fact that there were no existing [BELOW]

"Sometimes all you can do is try to get the conspiracist to focus on the real world and spend less time online. Researchers have shown that activities and goals that give conspiracists a real-world focus can help to break the spell. When conspiracists are focused on real-life objectives, outside their online circles, those groups and conspiracies begin to matter less to them. Most people prefer [BELOW]

"Serendipity [...] is the bread and butter of conspiracism and conspirituality. In this world, nothing happens by accident. Everything in life is scripted and planned, both by the "black hat" forces of evil and the "white hat" good guys. Coincidences don't exist. Correlation is causation. It's not just that conspiracists assume a connection between two or three seemingly unrelated events. They [BELOW]

It's significant that both women the author profiled lived through repeated traumatic events in childhood and are socially isolated and adrift. The last two traits in particular create a trap: These attracted them to a toxic combination of New Age beliefs and conspiracy theories (a combo dubbed "conspirituality" here) in the first place. Then, conspirituality circles [BELOW]

I wanted to read this book to learn about the rise of conspiratorial thinking among women in general, but the “women” of the subtitle is deceptive. Instead this book profiles two deeply troubled (and frighteningly uneducated) women who enthusiastically assaulted police officers and trespassed inside the Capitol on Jan. 6. Their humanizing, heartrending backstories offer [BELOW]

"My gaze darts poignantly to the key ring hanging on his bloodstained belt."

Say what?

It's "My gaze darts pointedly to the key ring hanging on his bloodstained belt." Jeez. O.o

I want to be annoyed with the editors, but come on. The author studied English literature, but even if she hadn't, I assume she, ya know, reads.