Linda S. Masterson

Strict constitutionalist, emphasis on 1st and 2nd amendments. Kindness and Comity, socially; self-responsibility, individually. Cheerful.

[Linda S. Masterson @oolgoddy]

@kevinnbass Check out Sudbury Valley School and the little book, FREE AT LAST.

[Linda S. Masterson @oolgoddy]

@JoshWalkos What a clear and helpful and brave message. Thank you for posting.

[Linda S. Masterson @oolgoddy]

@ClarksonsFarm1 The driving and "pals" stuff is trivial "bread and circuses." Why contribute to that when YOU HAVE A VOICE WITH THINGS THAT MATTER.

[Linda S. Masterson @oolgoddy]

@ClarksonsFarm1 NO. NO. NO. Jeremy, stay with the farming. It's much more impactful for what really matters. PLEASE. You have a VOICE. USE IT. Don't take the pressure off the government for the terrible policies.

[Linda S. Masterson @oolgoddy]

@gothburz That is a form of highway robbery -- owning hardware w/o ownership of necessary software permissions. Outrageous!

[Linda S. Masterson @oolgoddy]

I'm so happy to be American, and I'm hoping we can fulfill the idea of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" for ALL people of Earth.

[Linda S. Masterson @oolgoddy]

@walterkirn War & Peace is not a difficult book at all. It is many slices of human experience through a complex culture caught up in both war and peace, revealing the transcendent liminal mystery that illuminates even battlefields. Masterpiece of teaching for the attentive.

[Linda S. Masterson @oolgoddy]

@NCIUniversity Advaita vedanta

[Linda S. Masterson @oolgoddy]

@spikebrehm @jgebbia Wonderful. Thank you. Now, the FED.

[Linda S. Masterson @oolgoddy]

@RobertKennedyJr That foot....

[Linda S. Masterson @oolgoddy]

@walterkirn @PezeshkiCharles @elonmusk Hmmm.... Mission creep, Elon?

[Linda S. Masterson @oolgoddy]

@SamaHoole Your posts are my daily delight and education. I hope you are enjoying your X experience, bc you are making a massive contribution!

[Linda S. Masterson @oolgoddy]

@BrianRoemmele SUPER interesting and important, IMO. Thank you.

[Linda S. Masterson @oolgoddy]

@WicksVal THIS IS SO SAD. I hope he gets wonderful treatment and beats this thing. THANK YOU, JEREMY, FOR USING YOUR RESOURCES TO SHINE A LIGHT ON THE PLIGHT OF FARMERS. A HERO.

[Linda S. Masterson @oolgoddy]

@BrianRoemmele Do you have any follow-on to this post?

[Linda S. Masterson @oolgoddy]

JOHN KENNEDY'S "PEACE" SPEECH, June 10, 1963
This is what statesmanship sounds like, IMO.
(27 mins)
It's my view that people under 50 years old have no memory of this quality of leadership in the US. You may want to listen to this so you can realize it does exist and is worth our working toward

"Peace need not be impracticable, and war need not be inevitable. By defining our goal more clearly, by making it seem more manageable and less remote, we can help all peoples to see it, to draw hope from it, and to move irresistibly toward it." --- JFK

He was murdered five months later.
https://t.co/pkKgdWAkRW

[Linda S. Masterson @oolgoddy]

@walterkirn Think and act local.

[Linda S. Masterson @oolgoddy]

@TulsiGabbard So many of us are holding you both in our hearts, sending prayers for expert care, gracious healing and complete recovery. Sending you Peace. Aloha nui, L

[Linda S. Masterson @oolgoddy]

@TulsiGabbard You are so loved, respected and appreciated. May you and Abraham find PEACE on this journey. Aloha nui, L

[Linda S. Masterson @oolgoddy]

@walterkirn Wow. Did you see this? https://t.co/eccqHQjTU8

[Kenny Carmody @KennyCarmody]

Every obedience experiment in history had the same overlooked finding.

Not everyone complied.

In Milgram’s lab, 35% refused to deliver the final shock. In Asch’s line experiments, 25% never conformed, not once, across any trial. In Zimbardo’s prison, at least one guard refused to dehumanize. One prisoner demanded a lawyer instead of a doctor and broke the psychological frame entirely.

We spent decades studying the ones who obeyed.

We barely asked what made the others different.

That question matters more now than it ever has.

The resisters in the COVID era were not difficult to find. Physicians who filed exemptions and lost their licenses. Nurses who walked away from careers rather than mandate patients into decisions they hadn’t genuinely chosen. Scientists who published contrary data knowing what it would cost them. Parents who stood alone at school board meetings. Ordinary people who simply said, quietly, without drama , no.

What made them different?

Research consistently identifies a cluster of factors. Not personality traits you either have or don’t. Situational and cognitive patterns that can be cultivated.

First: prior reflection on authority. The resisters had usually thought, before the crisis, about the limits of institutional trust. They weren’t cynics. They were people who had already asked the question “under what conditions would I refuse?” before anyone was asking them to comply.

Second: a concrete reference point outside the consensus. A value, a principle, an oath, a relationship that existed independently of the institutional structure demanding compliance. Something the system couldn’t reach.

Third: at least one other person. Milgram found that a single dissenting confederate reduced compliance dramatically. The resisters rarely stood entirely alone. They found each other. Sustained each other. Gave each other permission.

Fourth: the willingness to tolerate social pain. Not immunity to it. Tolerance of it. They felt the pressure. They felt the exclusion. They chose the discomfort of integrity over the comfort of belonging.
None of this is innate. All of it is learnable.

The most important thing Milgram, Asch, and Zimbardo taught us is not how fragile conscience is.

It’s that conscience can hold, if you’ve trained it, named its limits, and found even one other person willing to hold theirs beside you.

Build that now. Because the experiment is always running.

Until then stay humble.