Science has been weirdly silent about aholes and aholery, a real and common kind of behavior not covered by psych diagnosis or criminology. Here's an overview of how we'll think scientifically about the aholes in your life in the context of aho

"Hey, don't study assholes!" and why we will anyway.

Mar 3rd, 2021 36m 53s

They'll say calling people aholes is mean, name-calling, a waste of time, counterproductive, and dehumanizing. They'll say no one's an ahole or everyone's an ahole. They'll say just ignore them. Here's why we're going to study them anyway.

Nope, that doesn't make someone an ahole.

Mar 3rd, 2021 31m 25s

You can't tell an ahole by their causes, rhetorical style, personal histories, motivations, demographics, power, impact, the range of their aholery, their exploitation of cheap rhetorical tricks, or how they make us feel. So what does distingui

OK, So how do we even decide what makes someone an ahole?

Mar 3rd, 2021 30m 47s

People categorize things intuitively and often get it wrong. What's the best way to categorize? Here we explore logic and science and conclude that the best way to diagnose aholery is to explain how they evolved. There are plenty of animal pred

A Natural History of Aholery

Mar 3rd, 2021 36m 16s

A cradle (origins of life) to grave (current situation) overview of the evolution of aholes. All organisms have to keep out toxins and let in nutrients. Human language turns this kind of "selective interaction" into confirmation bias, preventin

Spin Dominance: How aholes use rhetoric to get the last word

Mar 3rd, 2021 40m 36s

It's easier playing God than being human. All aholes have to do is ignore what words mean and focus only on whether they sound flattering or insulting. Here we explore how aholes get the last word by weaponizing words.

Frame Dominance: How aholes get the last word on who gets the last word

Mar 3rd, 2021 44m 57s

Aholes don't just fight with weaponized (spun) words; they play judge or umpire, deciding who wins the fight and it's always them. They have a bag of easy tricks (listed here) they use to disqualify anyone who challenges them.

Ideological Detours to Aholia: How beliefs can become gateway drugs to being an ahole.

Mar 3rd, 2021 43m 48s

All of life's paths have detours to aholia. In this class, we explore how people can become Aholes with a cause, of whatever kind, religious, spiritual, political, philosophical, etc. It's a two-step process: Embrace the belief because it makes

Aholes Without a Cause: The many non-ideological detours to aholia

Mar 3rd, 2021 34m 7s

In a pinch, or when we can get away with it, we can become aholes with no ideological cover story to rationalize it other than that we want what we want. Here we explore some of the many ways that happens.

A better term for Aholes and how to diagnose them

Mar 3rd, 2021 50m 35s

Based on our explanation for them, we're finally ready for a more descriptive term, based on their behavior, not our response to them. We're also ready to suggest some formulas for guessing whether you're dealing with one. We can also begin to

Verbal Combat and Fierce Fallibilism: How to make trumpbots pay for playing God

Mar 3rd, 2021 50m 3s

The alternative to being an ahole (trumpbot) is being a fallibilist, confident in your bets but still more confident that they are bets, not certainties. Here we explore fallibilism and how it frees us to be fierce in combat with someone roboti

Obverse Psychology: The Fallibilist Defense in Verbal Combat

Mar 3rd, 2021 47m 15s

Aholes act like they can't lose which may seem a power-advantage against fallibilists who know they could be wrong. Here we show how to rob them of that advantage with a technique called obverse psychology.

Humbling Aholes Where They Live

Mar 3rd, 2021 43m 45s

Most responses to aholes don't work. Not even the recommended strategies about helping them discover their inconsistencies so they'll want to change. This technique will work and it's simple. Whether aholes go high-horse or low, playing prude o

Optimal Illusion: The Key to Ahole Prevention

Mar 2nd, 2021 53m 6s

Escapism is inescapable, so the trick is to kid ourselves where it helps rather than harms. In this last podclass session we explore how to Play God right, taking flights of fancy but always with a return ticket to reality secure in our heart p

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