The Age of Magical Overthinking

“Women, who are objects of simultaneous worship and disgust in the public eye, become both victim and villain.”

A 2014 clinical examination of celebrity worship concluded that high levels of standom are associated with psychological difficulties, including “concerns about body image… greater proneness to cosmetic surgery, sensation-seeking, cognitive rigidity, identity diffusion, and poor interpersonal boundaries.” Among other observed struggles were depress

In 1980, only about 25 percent of U.S. citizens trusted the government to do the right thing anymore. According to Grose, that’s when the boundaries separating media figures, politicians, and spiritual authorities dissolved for good.

Taylor of using allyship as an aesthetic… and they get mad at her for not doing what they want… but she’s a capitalist to her core. Most of her security team is ex–Special Forces, ex-FBI, or other former law enforcement officers. I’m not sure why fans expect her to be all, ‘Defund the police! Tear down the system that made my dream come true.’… It’

No one was leaving their couch, but everyone was afraid.

The level of worship had gotten ravenous. Spiritually ravenous.

In 2014, bell hooks said, “The most basic activism we can have in our lives is to live consciously in a nation living in fantasies…. You will face reality, you will not delude yourself.”

Learning to stomach a sense of irresolution might be the only way to survive this crisis.

The mind has never been perfectly rational, but rather resource-rational—aimed at reconciling our finite time, limited memory storage, and distinct craving for events to feel meaningful.