Political pundits are trying to make sense of what was supposed to be a Presidential Debate. I am not sure what we witnessed. The one thing we did see was two old men suffering from some sort of cognitive brain dysfunctions. I don’t think you have to be a brain surgeon, or a rocket scientist, to see there was a serious lack of gray matter being utilized in both debaters.
From the first Egyptians who used crude tools to bore through the skull to cure brain disorders, to MRis, scientists have been trying to map out the functions of the brain and its various parts. I am not neuroscientist, and far be it for me to analyze two old man banding about their golf handicap; but from where I sat, it was sad sight to see the cognitive dysfunctions of both debaters, one of whom will be the leader of the free world.
According to the Cleveland Clinic the gray matter in the brain “is where information processing happens. The grey matter is the seat of a human’s unique ability to think and reason. The grey matter is the place where the processing of sensation, perception, voluntary movement, learning, speech and cognition takes place.”
It was obvious there was some sort of cognitive disconnect sparking back and forth in the debat. Biden’s debate performance was much like an aging quarterback struggling to avoid being gang tackled. Our brain controls different signals that control different processes, It is how our brains interpret what we want to call the real world.
Biden appeared to be two steps too slow throughout the debate. Most of the time he looked like a duck who just got hit on the head. It was a Looney Toon moment: “Dah, which way did he go…” It was obvious that he lost his train of thought. It appeared he was confused on his own talking points, which for a politician is like a life preserver for a drowning man. Sure, he got a few good quacks in, like when he told Trump that he had the morality of an alley cat.
On the other side of the debate stage Trump was the surfer masterfully riding the wave of lies he has been surfing for eight years. His strategy was “go with what got you there.” It was the “Home of the Whopper”–super size the lies. And during the debate those lies were flying off the debate stage like Blow Flies heading for a shit house. It is really too bad that this debate leads the way to the White House.
Today, researchers have more tools than the sharply honed rocks the Egyptians used to look into the skull. Researchers believe that the various regions of the brain serve different functions from processing information and transmitting information to other parts of the brain and various parts of the nervous system. It would appear, to me, that each debater was using different parts of their brain to make their points. And to be honest, I don’t think they were making any good connections within their own brains because whatever was coming out of their mouths made no sense at all.
For instance, according to mindful.com, the amygdala is “the brain hub for emotional and arousal processing, often associated with the fight-or-flight response.”This is the area of the brain that shows the highest level of activity when the very first self-serving lie (is) told.” The level of activity in this area of the brain can possibly predict how big the next lie will be.
According to a recent Nature Neuroscience study by Tali Sharot and her team at University College London, “the more we lie for our own benefit, the more desensitized we become to the negative emotions associated with lying, and the easier it becomes to tell even bigger lies. She says, “part of the emotional arousal we see when people lie is because of the conflict between how people see themselves and their actions.”
The psychology of dishonesty, be it a child stealing marshmallows or politicians covering up large economic scams, stems from a deep primitive mechanism for self preservation, both physically and mentally. The protection of the ego, the need for others’ approval, the strong urge to escape negative and uncomfortable feelings, are all motivations for self-deception–mindful.com
It seems obvious that the GOP has no problem with this strategy. After all, it was Trump’s administration that introduced us to “alternative facts.” We have bee desentized to their alternative facts. Alternative facts are like Fashion Fidget Dolls : “they can go wherever you go! Fashion Fidgets combine the stress release & focusing benefits of a traditional fidget toy, with the imaginative pretend play: you can collect them, and trade for them, you can even mix and match them.”
If this election were a football game, Trump is GOP signal caller. The Supreme Court seems to be his offensive line with various federal judges throwing downfield blocks to keep their man on the field. There are plenty of Congressmen and Senators coming into the game, too. They all want to run that trick play that can possibly give them a shot at owning the libs.
On the other sideline, the question Democrats are asking is do you send the veteran Joe Biden back in? Do you send him out for the second half? Does he have one more inning left in him? They are mulling does one bad outing signal its time to bench the starter, bring up somebody from the bench or just retire a player that as literally been a major player for the Dems for 50 years. Eventually Babe Ruth and Henry Aaron called it quits. But if this was the second half of the Super Bowl or Game Seven who do you want with the ball? The aging crafty veteran or younger, stronger more agile signal caller lacking game time.
The question I ask is how as a nation did we get in this position of having to decide between a convicted liar and Grandpa. It was “a long time ago” maybe “in a galaxy far, far way” that we thought Richard Nixon was a crook and Reagan was to old be president. Boy, we were not even close.
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/anatomy-of-the-brain
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/24831-grey-matter
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