Crime Stop: unable to understand, or bored by, contradictory information

[Starboard Song]

In the novel 1984, George Orwell describes what that society considered a positive attribute: Crime Stop. This was a deeply ingrained mental habit. Whenever someone could tell that a person, their argument, or some observation was somehow subversive, they adopted a stance in which they either became confused and unable to understand what they were confronted with, or they were totally board and disinterested. The idea was that, by adopting this response to subversive content, you could never actually get to the point where you had to stare the truth in the face.

I think that cluster-B folks, maybe many of them, develop this same response to any person, argument, or observation that they suspect may be threatening to their world view. Let's be honest: we all do it a little. But when you always feel under attack, and when processing the truth so often makes you feel more under attack, I suspect one gets very very good at Crime Stop. You can even get where you take the baby step of Crime Stop based only on the shadow of a hint of the rumor of a risk of a threat. If you do it early enough it can be truly said that at NO POINT were you experiencing cognitive dissonance, and neither were you lying. The dangerous content just never gets close enough to hurt.

Anybody else think this is a thing?

[square]

Fantastic observation.

Another similar idea is Thought Stopping, used by cults - a programming to get you to ignore/overlook contradictory information that could expose the cult leader.

[Starboard Song]

Exactly, Square. They are one in the same. And if you get really really good at it, I think you no longer know you are wrong. I suspect they are vaguely aware that other people tend to have long conversations on points they consider tedious. I think they see the contrast when someone else is more honorable. But I think it rarely gets deep enough to leave a stain.

[Cat of the Canals]

You can even get where you take the baby step of Crime Stop based only on the shadow of a hint of the rumor of a risk of a threat. If you do it early enough it can be truly said that at NO POINT were you experiencing cognitive dissonance, and neither were you lying. The dangerous content just never gets close enough to hurt.

I find this part especially interesting, because I've often felt that the PDs I know must just be swimming in cognitive dissonance all the time, based on the way factual information seems to go in but is shunted right back out in favor of whatever belief/judgment/etc. they've already decided is "correct." I've wondered how they could experience cognitive dissonance so frequently and never have any sort of breakthrough or realization or even just a smidge of doubt. But if they stop the thought before the cognitive dissonance can happen in the first place...

[Call Me Cordelia]

Yes, and a step further: I think the "attack" becomes a kind of validation of their worldview! Like in the Bible Jesus says, Even as I kid I knew mother was overprotective. I wasn't allowed to watch age-appropriate things, go out without her to chaperone me well past the age of my peers going out on their own, etc. Other parents would occasionally give gentle pushback or say something like, "Cordelia is a trustworthy girl!" Somehow this would be interpreted as persecution, and the other parents knowing that my mother was doing things the right way but they couldn't bear her making them look bad!

[SonofThunder]

This YouTube video, on the brain of a psychopath, would agree.  The video (link below) from the Institute of Human Anatomy, describes the very real scientific understanding of the underdeveloped brain function of a person with antisocial personality disorder, as an example. 

Not saying I align with the video's content, based on my experiences, but the reality you are describing is basically discussed regarding a personality disordered person's mind "...never actually get to the point where you had to stare the truth in the face".   With regard to a PD 'developing' this trait?  The video would suggest the underdevelopment prevents the opposite from occurring, therefore not a developed trait of a PD, but the inability to "stare truth in the face", right out of the gate. 

SoT

https://youtu.be/AHk7S6prF6M

[Call Me Cordelia]

Sorry, I made a mistake above. I was going to quote the last Beatitude... "Like in the Bible Jesus says blessed are you when men insult and hate you because of Me." Of course people didn't dislike my parents because of Jesus, but they sure reacted as if they were being martyred!

[Penny Lane]

This is a very apt comparison!

[NarcKiddo]

I think this is a thing. I think I have lived it myself. I don't (I hope) have a PD though I am sure I have plenty of fleas but I have lived for years with cognitive dissonance that I have likely not been aware of. I mean, it took me until my mid 40s to even start twigging what might be wrong. With the generational nature of a lot of this stuff I think much of it can get passed down.

In my case I think of it as having a protective shell a bit like the Israeli iron dome or whatever they call it. The slightest danger in the peripheral consciousness results in defensive action without my necessarily thinking about it. In many cases I can simply ignore it and mentally shut down if I have to.

My mother's way of dealing with this seems to be her assertion hat everybody lies all the time to further their own ends, including her, and that is not a problem. So everything can be explained away. She says person A is horrid. Person A is nice to you. Person A is lying. She says person A is nice. Person A is horrid to you. You are lying. She says person A is nice. Person A is horrid to her. Person A was only pretending to be nice to further their own ends. She was therefore proved right in her assumption that everybody lies. After a while you give up bothering about what is true or not and just get on with the business of surviving the basic cognitive dissonance of your life - namely that your mother says she loves you and can be trusted when your own experience tells you otherwise. That could drive you mad if you let it.