Hi CS.

I hope you don't mind if I use your response to my post to illustrate something that is a common occurrence in human communication.

What I posted was as follows:




CS, I think you will not mind if I use your responses to my post to illustrate some common things that happen in human brains and human communication and that make life complicated. I think that because your posts are thoughtful.

This is the full sentence I posted: Zimmerman, from what little has actually been written about him - and very little of that little bit has been based on impressions of people who know him well - might be a bit quirky, but quite possibly no more quirky than many of us, and certainly no more quirky than many friends, relatives and acquaintances Most of us probably have, and some of whom we love.

you posted two responses.

Subject: RE: BS: Killed for being black? Florida today
From: GUEST,CS - PM
Date: 23 Mar 12 - 10:06 AM

"Zimmerman, from what little has actually been written about him - and very little of that little bit has been based on impressions of people who know him well - might be a bit quirky, but quite possibly no more quirky than many of us,"

I disagree with this Janie. Personally I suspect this person was in fact more than "a little quirky" in the same way that I see any person acting in an extreme fashion (I believe unprovoked killing of a stranger - in a culture which does not explicitly condone such actions - to be an extreme action) to be more than "a little quirky".

and Subject: RE: BS: Killed for being black? Florida today
From: GUEST,CS - PM
Date: 23 Mar 12 - 05:19 PM

Having had time to mull over Janie's conclusion that Zimmerman was but "a little quirky" and as it echoed BillD's equivalent statement early on in this thread (Zimmerman was but "a little odd"), I realise that it's important -if indeed not essential- to contextualise such notions in terms of ones culturally determined understandings of 'normal' human behaviour.

On consideration, and based on the context of our different cultures (with all the unspoken -and often unconscious- assumptions that belonging to differing cultures necessarily implies), I suspect that my subjective understanding of "a little odd" or "a little quirky" will, and do, differ substantially from that of Janie's and Bill D's.

I did my best, when choosing the words I used in my post, to convey that I do not think there is sufficient information available to draw conclusions or to make assumptions about Zimmerman or any degree of quirkiness he might possess.

There is no rational basis that I can discern to either agree or disagree with my sentence regarding Zimmerman and the available information. There is no indication, as best I can discern, that I am making any assumptions about him or his degree of quirkiness. I did the best I could to convey my lack of assumption.

You are a thoughtful person. It is possible I am a bad communicater. It is possible my unexamined cognitive distortions lead me to think I am conveying objectivity when I am not,or even more significantly, that I delude myself that I am striving with some success in being objective when in fact I am exhibiting significant bias. It is possible your own cognitive distortions resulted in an inaccurate reading of my post. The most likely explanation is we both have unexamined cognitive distortions that influence both what we express and what we hear.

That is the norm. That is being human. It is the failure to examine that within ourselves that is dangerous.