Sigmund Freud hypothesized that denial is a psychological defense against facts too painful to accept. Despite overwhelming evidence a person, or groups of people, reject reality. "I am not an alcoholic". "Climate change is caused by natural cycles". "Obama fixed the unemployment numbers". "Obama won the first debate".
Denial is dangerous because it prevents us from facing problems and making the changes that need to be made. Denial allows destructive behavior to continue. It is a common response to rape and child abuse. Children who report abuse by authority figures are frequently disbelieved. It is easier to call the child a liar than to accept the abuse and confront the authority figure. Denial enabled child abuse to continue for years after Joe Paterno was first informed of it at Penn State. Denial enabled many cases of abuse to occur in many countries over many years in the Roman Catholic church.
Denial is keeping us from taking effective action to prevent catastrophic climate change. It is far easier to think it's a long-term problem that we can put off to the future than to confront powerful entrenched interests and to change the way we live.
Denial is the root of ridiculous conspiracy theories.
these Chicago guys will do anything. can’t debate so change numbers.
Romney and his supporters cannot accept the fact that the economy has improved under Obama because it destroys their main campaign theme that Obama's economic policies have failed. Moreover,
Bloomberg has destroyed Romney's claims that tax cuts would propel small business job growth. Job creating start ups are not profitable, so tax cuts for the rich would not help them. Increasing demand for products and services drives job growth, not tax cuts for the rich.
More important, recent economic research shows that small companies play no greater role in job creation than large ones do. What matters more is age: New businesses account for the biggest share of job gains. Those companies tend to be small yet unprofitable. They would be largely unaffected by an upper- income tax increase.
Romney will lose badly if he continues to deny that the economy is improving. He will sound like a whiner and people hate whiners. People want an optimistic leader who gives them hope.
President Obama admits he lost the first debate. He is not in denial. President Obama is correcting his mistakes. He is taking charge. He is exposing Romney's lies and going on offense.
Like he does almost every time something goes wrong, Obama eschewed the mea culpas — he’s not big on apologies in front of his staff — and shut down to think things over with the adviser whose company he values most in times of trouble: himself.
At first, Obama didn’t think his performance was a complete disaster. But he began Thursday morning by watching excerpts of his own performance and was especially struck by his own tentative, grim demeanor — especially when he and a more relaxed Mitt Romney were broadcast in split-screen. It was worse than he thought, according to one person close to the situation. He was subdued but positive on a conference call with staff.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/...
Please stop
the denial. Mitt Romney had dozens of debates over the past 2 years while President Obama was busy righting the economy, killing Osama and ending the Iraq war. Just like a champion with a long rest before the championship series he came out rusty, while the challenger was sharper. And we, the supporting members of the team, need to turn up our game and not depend on our star player to do it all by himself.