Sideswipe: August 14: There's no easy way out

True that.

Say no to conspiracy theories

You may have noticed conspiracy thinking flooding your Facebook feed and the rise of t political parties mobilising people with their ideas about the pandemic and alleging a cover-up. Canadian filmmaker Kirby Ferguson believes that people make sense of a complex, chaotic, and uncertain world in different ways — that people are either evidence seekers or magical thinkers.

"Those who tend towards magical thinking arrive at explanations that are based primarily on instinct, emotion, feelings, and gut reaction while evidence seekers mostly rely on scientific and reasoning." He says magical thinking only serves to criticise and second guess and whereas evidence seeking is about finding solutions. He also suggests there are six aspects of magical thinking:

1. Obsession with symbols and codes (e.g. pizza as a "deep state" code for child trafficking)
2. Dot connecting (e.g. linking 5G with Covid-19)
3. Behind every event is a plan concocted by a person (e.g. "deep state" conspiracy)
4. Purity (e.g. the Satanic panic and heavy metal music)
5. Apocalypse is nigh (e.g. the "deep state" again)
6. Preoccupation with good and evil (e.g. liberals are not only wrong but evil)

Hey Auckland, don't be like Neil

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Clinking glasses

Mark Nutsford writes: "My understanding is it was a little  more formal and was practised between the nobles. Under suspicion of poisoning, at the table, one person would offer their glass forward meaning tacitly  "If you are afraid I might be poisoning you, you can have my glass instead if you wish". The other party would touch the offered glass with the rim of their glass meaning tacitly in reply "That's OK, I trust you". That's not to say that the other version is incorrect.  Just find it interesting."

The best real life reason for going to marriage counselling…

"My sister in law made an appointment for marriage counselling because her husband greeted their dog before her when coming home from work."

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