A Florida man was arrested and strip searched when a police officer mistook Krispy Kreme doughnut glaze for meth. This story shows how expectations can lead to misjudgments.
Someone believed to be responsible for a string of neighborhood burglaries in Chicago's Bucktown neighborhood was caught on video staring at a couple while they slept. The burglar has been dubbed the "Bucktown Creeper Ghost."
Speaking of dubbing, check out the photo of a Swedish police officer, dubbed the "bikini cop," taking down a cell phone thief.
It looks like Russia used paid internet trolls to pose as Trump supporters. It's long been known that Russian intelligence agencies use an army of paid trolls as part of a massive disinformation operation.
A Prarie View, Texas police officer who was at the scene of the Sandra Bland arrest says he wanted to testify to possible wrongdoing on the part of the arresting officer, but prosecutors silenced him and threatened him.
I saw Star Trek Beyond with a psychologist friend who asked me to go because his wife refused to see it. Our offices are in the same building, so we got together after work and saw an early evening show. I wouldn't have seen it otherwise. The film garnered an 83% positive rating from professional reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes. The 3D and the special effects are impressive. If you like the genre, you'd probably enjoy it, but it's just not my thing. I'm not a Trekkie or a fan of scifi. Someone over at Vox thought it was deep because of the larger social themes represented in the film, but, trust me, it's not deep or thoughtful or nuanced, either in character development or at the level of broad social commentary.
Evidently, Debra Messing apologized to country singer Blake Shelton for an offensive tweet regarding his support for Donald Trump. The spat itself is of no interest to me, but something Shelton tweeted reflects a pervasive psychological naivete regarding Donald Trump. Shelton told Billboard Magazine: "Whether you love him or hate him, [Trump] says what he thinks..." No, no, no. A politician can say offensive things, pandering to the prejudices of his audience, while not actually believing what he says. There's a name for that. It's called demagoguery. Moreover, people can and do mistake crude, vulgar, impolitic comments for authenticity, but one can be outspoken and offensive while also being completely disingenuous. Furthermore, in the heat of the moment, angry people with poor self-control habitually say stupid things they don't really believe. That's why I teach couples to take breaks when they're arguments escalate. Habitual loss of control while angry is not an adaptive quality in social conduct and it certainly isn't evidence that a person says what they really think. I believe that all of these phenomena -- demagoguery, vulgarity mistaken for authenticity, and irrational, angry outbursts -- undergird the naive belief that Trump is authentic, even though everything about his history and the findings of fact-checkers clearly demonstrate that Trump is a profoundly insincere man.
Below: Rep. Joyce Beatty trolls Melania Trump at the DNC. I don't really approve. I think it was fair to point out the blatant plagiarism in Melania's speech, especially because Michelle Obama's speech was plagiarized, but I also see Melania as something of a victim of a political operation. She is effectively a willing victim, but she is the least of my concerns about Trump.
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