Randy Cassingham's Blog

Posted by Mike from Dallas on November 28, 2011:

And that, my friend, is why I subscribe. Entertaining, definitely. But agree or disagree, I certainly give thought to the topics. What's the point of reading them, otherwise?

It's not the conclusion that's so important as the process by which I arrive at the conclusion. In other words, not the destination but the journey. How else does one discover new destinations if one just stumbles into them by luck or by the directions of others? I want to navigate my life, not just let the winds and currents push me around.

Posted by Kris Racine,WI on November 28, 2011:

The same reason I watch "Cops" and their ilk... reminds me that I have it much better than most (and that _I_ am better than most people).

---

I'm not sure the people you see on "Cops" (or those you see in TRUE, for that matter!) are very well representative of "most people".... -rc

Posted by Roberto, Texas on November 28, 2011:

Er... the latin slogan should be Absurdum ad Nauseam. I mean the last word, nausea, in this declination gets just an "m" added to its end. It does not change miraculously from nausea to nauseu.

ORIGIN late Middle English: via Latin from Greek nausia, from naus ‘ship.’

---

Well dammit, I even googled it, but the bastards auto-corrected it without saying. I'll fix it in the morning. Thanks. -rc

Posted by bill from New Hampshire on November 28, 2011:

Or might it also be:

Absurdum ad Absurdum

The absurdity of Humanity defines Humanity?

Posted by Geoff, Arizona on November 28, 2011:

True proves my aunt to be correct when she postulates that "20% of the human race is irredeemable." Your composition above gives validity to the remaining 80%....

Posted by Peter, Minnesota on November 28, 2011:

The comment about focusing on absurdity expanding it fascinates me; I've noticed the same sort of thing. I still seek out idiocy to study it and think about it. Here's why.

Humans are error-prone. ALL humans are error-prone. No matter how smart we are. And the most important thing is to be *aware* of this; not just the specific errors we've noticed, but the *kinds* of errors humans make.

The thing that scares me is narcissistic personality disorder, which I don't *think* I'm at much risk of, but which is the simplest best-fit explanation for about 90% of the Internet kooks you will ever meet. And the really simple diagnostic is that people who have this are never at fault. It is not their fault. Other people misunderstood them, other people were dumb, other people were malicious. Other people are lying about what happened. And so on. And the reason this scares me is that it is VERY hard to do anything about it once it's in place, because the very essence of the disorder is that you can't think you're disordered -- it's just other people being jealous or stupid or mean or....

So I spend a fair bit of my time thinking about errors, and trying to be alert to my own errors. This is, perhaps, a little easier than I'd like it to be, but the alternatives are scarier.

Posted by Bob, Dallas, TX (for now) on November 28, 2011:

This is True is the text equivalent of FAIL Blog and Peopleofwalmart.com. They all make us feel better about the dumb things we have done by seeing there are people out there even dumber.

Posted by bandit, Albuquerque on November 28, 2011:

I saw a TED talk (sorry, no link), where the speaker showed a video that started with a guy at a concert start dancing really akimbo. The speaker pointed out that he was the starter, but not yet a leader. Then -- another guy got up and joined the first guy. The speaker then pointed out that the first guy was *now* a leader, because he had his first *follower*. The point was brilliant -- a leader *must* have followers, and the most important person in the entire equation is the first follower.

Please don't think I am knocking you on the ZT leadership -- I quite agree with your stance (insert lengthy rant here).

But -- it begs the question -- what triggered you about ZT?

---

At first, it was just a "weird" story. But then I saw another, and then another -- and I pick up on patterns quickly. I have a very low tolerance for injustice, especially upon kids, so once I saw the pattern, I knew I had to speak out, even though no one else was doing so. -rc

Posted by Jeremy, San Diego on November 28, 2011:

Much of the time I just laugh along with the joke, or agree with you right away. Sometimes I disagree initially and rethink my position (to some degree) on my own. I think most important are the times when I really disagree. If I debate you, we usually don't end up on the same side at the end, but you always sharpen my thinking and make me sure that the argument I am making holds water.

Thanks for that.

---

I don't demand people think the way I do. I'm satisfied when they simply think. Glad it works for you. -rc

Posted by Carl in Georgia on November 29, 2011:

Of course it's the entertaining aspect of True which brought me in originally, but what I really like is the range of thinking I find here and in the comments. I'm 70 years old and often find myself shaking my head at things like ZT, or the way politics has devolved into a mendacity fest, the everyday disappointments in the news, etc. But once each week I get to read This Is True, have a few laughs, and end up feeling really good that there are many others who enjoy using their minds and striving for clarity and good thinking. There's a lot going on in these pages and I enjoy being part of it -- hope for the human race and all that. It's not only fun; it's also important that these forums exist to counterbalance the madness out there.