The most manipulative but effective thing I’ve ever done in my life was when I read an article about how children moderate their behavior to protect their self-identity, so if a child believes he’s smart, for example, he’ll intentionally study and try to do well to protect his image of himself.
Anyway, I would pull kids aside with behavioral issues at church and tell them, “David (obviously fake name), you’re such a kind person and such a good listener. I can see that in you. Thank you for always listening.” “Little Annie, thank you for taking such good care of the babies around you. You’re going to be such a good big sister. Can you be in charge of watching Sally?”
They would ALWAYS behave afterward. ALWAYS. Worked like a charm. Morally questionable because it wasn’t initially true, but I kind of willed it into existence. Tbf, I did think that they had that in them or I wouldn’t have tried.
Will publish longitudinal results of this method once my kid is old enough to report back.
I genuinely feel like an asshole for supporting this war.
I thought we had a unique opportunity to stick it to the regime in Iran. They were weaker than ever, or so we thought, after Midnight Hammer, and then the protests, etc. But if taking out their top leadership didnt cause the regime to collapse, then clearly those of us who favored this were grossly mistaken about the regime's durability in the first place.
I genuinely feel like an asshole for supporting this war.
I thought we had a unique opportunity to stick it to the regime in Iran. They were weaker than ever, or so we thought, after Midnight Hammer, and then the protests, etc. But if taking out their top leadership didnt cause the regime to collapse, then clearly those of us who favored this were grossly mistaken about the regime's durability in the first place.
Jimmy Carter’s foreign policy was a disaster. Obama’s failure to enforce his own red line was an embarrassment. Biden’s handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal was a mess. But this deal with Iran may be the most embarrassing, ill-conceived foreign policy mistake of my lifetime.