I recommend HyperNormalization by Adam Curtis.
this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2026
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
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Yes. Available on YT in decent quality.
ELIZA effect for "AI", too.
Turns out most people are too fucking stupid to actually perform a Turing test.
This sounds like kayfabe, a term which has escaped professional wrestling for politics in recent years.
Suspension of disbelief refers to fictional stories where you have to go with something that doesn't seem realistic. That is a bit different than ignoring things that contradict reality, possibly due to confirmation bias, or cognitive dissonance where someone believes two or more contradictory things.
Not quite.
Suspension of disbelief refers to the act of essentially switching off the parts of ones mind that check for truth and reality, and simply following a narrative on its own terms, whatever they might be.
It's not that truth or reality are unnecessary under suspension of disbelief - they aren't even relevant.
I just replied to the other guy, it's not confirmation bias I'm talking about although that certainly plays into it.
Have you ever wondered how (not why) MAGAts believe ever more obvious and blatant lies, and why the admin doesn't even bother to make better lies? MAGAts are pushing aside what a child can perceive because they're so hungry to see that narrative continue and stay in it.
I think this is a fascinating idea.
And I just tried to explain it to a friend and she didn't get it, then I came back to the thread to find respondents who didn't get it in the same way she didn't.
She kept trying to warp it into something like confirmation bias, even though I kept trying to get her to see that the significant thing about suspension of disbelief is that truth and reality don't even enter into it - they aren't even meaningful concepts.
The only thing that's necessary when disbelief is suspended is that the narrative remain acceptably internally consistent. Whether itt true or not or corresponds with reality or not is entirely irrelevant, since the entire process of expectng and testing for those qualities has been set aside.
Again, that's a fascinating idea. I've long suspected that Trump is unable to distinguish between truth and falsehood, but that that was a consequence of his narcissism and egotism - that effectively the only measure he has for truth or falsehood is whether he believes something to be true or not - that the concept of consensual reality isn't even coherent in his entirely self-absorbed internal reality.
But I've long wondered how the at least somewhat more sane people following him manage it. Something like confirmation bias would only work up to a point that Trump has long since gone beyond.
And I think you might be on to something - just as I do when I sit down to read a novel or watch a movie or a series, when they start engaging in politics, they switch the parts of their brains that track truth and reality entirely off and instead just follow along with the narrative, whatever it might be.
But I’ve long wondered how the at least somewhat more sane people following him manage it. Something like confirmation bias would only work up to a point that Trump has long since gone beyond.
Yeah this exactly.
Something else that might play into it: so many conspiracy nuts refer to movies as if they were history, or prophecy, or scientific research. As if they were valid in a way they clearly aren't, because they're fiction. Maybe they really do live in a world where these things are interchangeable.
Maybe they really do live in a world where these things are interchangeable.
This exactly. Learning programming was a HUGE hit to my understanding and trust of myself.
Most people don't go through the visceral experience of seeing how shitty the human experience lines up with reality. Such people absolutely believe in bullshit for the simple reason that it feels correct.
...there might well be something to that.
Yes - exactly as you say, research needs to be done on suspension of disbelief.
And thanks for sharing that fascinating idea.
Is the word you are looking for "confirmation bias"?
I'm not looking for a word.
Confirmation bias is about people choosing information that suits their world view. That's not what I mean. I expanded my OP to hopefully make it clearer.
I mean, the Trump admin lying to us is one thing, but they're doing it so, so badly and yet people can't let go of it.
I guess confirmation bias could be a reason why they are driven to such extreme suspension of disbelief, but I'm talking about the How here, the development maybe.
It's about being lied to badly and still not letting go of the narrative. Wanting to take it for real so badly.
It's called 'being a fucktard'.