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1. george+(OP)[view] [source] 2026-01-13 17:15:21
Adams had a normal range of beliefs. Postulating that they arose from some extrinsic and extra-personal source is a condemnation of your own limited views. People get older and begin to care less about conformity, including keeping controversial thoughts to themselves, as society loosens its reins as your needs are met (to make money, to find a partner, to have a family, etc.)
replies(5): >>loki49+V2 >>gopher+c7 >>nemoma+Nb >>ActorN+RE >>mr_toa+9D5
2. loki49+V2[view] [source] 2026-01-13 17:24:58
>>george+(OP)
A lot of the people who comment here are techie provincials who literally have no understanding that the things they believe, or at least the things they recite as their beliefs, are ideas that might be analyzed and judged against reality.
3. gopher+c7[view] [source] 2026-01-13 17:38:31
>>george+(OP)
What’s normal about bigotry? It’s brain damage.
replies(4): >>DaSHac+UH >>tim333+uZ >>GaryBl+Zq1 >>accoun+C93
4. nemoma+Nb[view] [source] 2026-01-13 17:53:09
>>george+(OP)
The law of attraction / master persuader/ I can hypnotize large audiences stuff isn't that normal, I think?

If you want an explanation for why he would try ivermectin for cancer treatment he had a lot of beliefs in that vein for a long time. I consider that tragic for him.

replies(3): >>kritik+Nf >>rainco+oZ1 >>conrad+ez2
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5. kritik+Nf[view] [source] [discussion] 2026-01-13 18:07:07
>>nemoma+Nb
He was into NLP (the hypnosis theory) from way back.

James Hoffman, the coffee YouTuber, had an interesting comment on how he tried to use that in one of his 90s barista competitions, but seemed skeptical of it now. Scott remained a believer.

replies(1): >>diydsp+Gk
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6. diydsp+Gk[view] [source] [discussion] 2026-01-13 18:24:53
>>kritik+Nf
It's a communications skill, like, say, making powerpoint slides. If you get good at it, you will swear by it. But if can't gain skill, it's easy to think it's bogus. If you're deeply interested I can go into detail as to what it's about and not about. Or you can buy some books, get a trainer, or take a class.

Tl; dr: it's about adding a second layer to your communication which attends to the subconscious, not unlike art. It was originally for therapy, but unfortunately a lot of businessdorks in the 90s got into it and perverted it.

replies(3): >>kritik+qp >>soulof+as >>tim333+XY
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7. kritik+qp[view] [source] [discussion] 2026-01-13 18:43:12
>>diydsp+Gk
I’m interested. Especially if you can point to moments in your career or projects where it has worked.
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8. soulof+as[view] [source] [discussion] 2026-01-13 18:53:58
>>diydsp+Gk
Social manipulation has been around a lot longer than the books and movements attempting to redress it as "hypnosis".
9. ActorN+RE[view] [source] 2026-01-13 19:38:36
>>george+(OP)
>Adams had a normal range of beliefs.

Manifesting things into reality through writing them often enough is FAR from a normal belief. Dude was a bit looney from the get go

replies(4): >>pureag+ld1 >>parine+SU1 >>unwise+X72 >>carlos+lJ2
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10. DaSHac+UH[view] [source] [discussion] 2026-01-13 19:51:10
>>gopher+c7
> What’s normal about bigotry?

uh I don't know, try asking almost any person who was born pre-1960? Doubt they all had brain damage. Not that it was necessarily a good thing, but it was certainly 'normal' in many eras throughout time.

replies(1): >>ceejay+QU
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11. ceejay+QU[view] [source] [discussion] 2026-01-13 20:41:27
>>DaSHac+UH
> try asking almost any person who was born pre-1960? Doubt they all had brain damage.

Actually, they probably did.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetraethyllead

replies(1): >>antony+3B1
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12. tim333+XY[view] [source] [discussion] 2026-01-13 20:57:55
>>diydsp+Gk
I've pondered awhile on what hypnosis is. My current model is it's like prompting LLMs, the hypnotic commands are just stuff in the context window but not currently being talked about.
replies(1): >>Nursie+qy2
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13. tim333+uZ[view] [source] [discussion] 2026-01-13 20:59:45
>>gopher+c7
Sadly it's quite common in the human population.
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14. pureag+ld1[view] [source] [discussion] 2026-01-13 21:52:43
>>ActorN+RE
I think the commentor was talking about Adams's support for Trump. While maybe not normal on Reddit, HN or San Francisco, it's normal enough that more than half the voters agreed with Scott Adams.
replies(3): >>tonyme+Eu1 >>nobody+n42 >>ActorN+I84
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15. GaryBl+Zq1[view] [source] [discussion] 2026-01-13 22:58:55
>>gopher+c7
There's some very, very rich irony in your comment.
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16. tonyme+Eu1[view] [source] [discussion] 2026-01-13 23:16:56
>>pureag+ld1
Hackernews readers have a habit of downvoting descriptive comments because they read them as normative
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17. antony+3B1[view] [source] [discussion] 2026-01-13 23:49:28
>>ceejay+QU
Leaded fuel existed for a few short decades. Bigotry and tribalism have existed since time immemorial.
replies(1): >>ceejay+RI1
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18. ceejay+RI1[view] [source] [discussion] 2026-01-14 00:32:56
>>antony+3B1
Sure. But those born from the 1920s to the 1970s got a touch of brain damage, as a treat.
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19. parine+SU1[view] [source] [discussion] 2026-01-14 02:13:46
>>ActorN+RE
Prayer is basically that isn't it? Also, "the secret."
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20. rainco+oZ1[view] [source] [discussion] 2026-01-14 02:59:22
>>nemoma+Nb
> The law of attraction

The Secret has sold 30 million copies.

And at the end of the day, it's prayer. 'Prayer helps, somehow' is a very common worldview.

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21. nobody+n42[view] [source] [discussion] 2026-01-14 03:43:11
>>pureag+ld1
Less than half. 49.8%, in fact.[0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_United_States_presidentia...

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22. unwise+X72[view] [source] [discussion] 2026-01-14 04:16:47
>>ActorN+RE
>>> Manifesting things into reality through writing them often enough is FAR from a normal belief.

Hey, propaganda is a thing and it works. That's totally and example of manifesting things into reality through writing them often enough.

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23. Nursie+qy2[view] [source] [discussion] 2026-01-14 09:06:34
>>tim333+XY
I went to a sceptics talk by a stage hypnotist a while back that I found very interesting.

He said after many years he wasn’t sure what hypnotism was exactly, or even if it was an identifiable thing at all, and that in a lot of ways he was just giving people license and cover to do stuff they probably wanted to do anyway. You can’t hypnotise people to do something they don’t want to, apparently.

So if he says “Come up on stage and cluck around like a chicken, make a real show of yourself in front of the crowd”, then quite a few people will go and do it and come away saying “That wasn’t me, the hypnotist made me do it, but what laugh eh?”.

He was less sure how this might apply to (for example) hypnotic pain control, but it was an interesting take.

replies(1): >>tim333+aK2
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24. conrad+ez2[view] [source] [discussion] 2026-01-14 09:15:51
>>nemoma+Nb
AFAIK he tried it in addition to regular treatment but I could be wrong.
replies(1): >>jpadki+Tn3
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25. carlos+lJ2[view] [source] [discussion] 2026-01-14 10:59:03
>>ActorN+RE
Most people in the industrialized world zealously believe what they are told to believe, even if it goes against what's in front of their own eyes. So making things true just by saying or writing them is not that odd.
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26. tim333+aK2[view] [source] [discussion] 2026-01-14 11:04:29
>>Nursie+qy2
The cluck like a chicken thing reminded me that with small kids the teachers would have us run around and then say 'be a tree' or whatever. I guess a combination of kids liking doing that kind of thing and the authority figure telling them to.
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27. accoun+C93[view] [source] [discussion] 2026-01-14 14:07:11
>>gopher+c7
Pattern matching is very much a defining trait for humans.
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28. jpadki+Tn3[view] [source] [discussion] 2026-01-14 15:26:38
>>conrad+ez2
He got into a heated debate with his audience about COVID vaccines and ivermectin (he was pro vaccine and said they were idiots). Later he admitted he was wrong, when more evidence came out.
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29. ActorN+I84[view] [source] [discussion] 2026-01-14 18:19:07
>>pureag+ld1
No Im talking about the ending chapters of Dilbert Future. Some real interesting stuff in there.
30. mr_toa+9D5[view] [source] 2026-01-14 23:47:33
>>george+(OP)
> Adams had a normal range of beliefs.

You’re probably thinking of politics. You may not have read some of his more philosophical and metaphysical works, which were downright kooky. For example he thought that the universe was the dust of a god that had killed itself.

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