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by jbandela1 1054 days ago
Maybe we should have a Bejerot Syndrome.

This is where an “expert” impugns the intellect or morality of the people who disagree with them instead of trying to understand the very real reasons why.

3 comments

Or more precisely, the mental health of the people who disagree with them.

Knowing that the person who came up with Stockholm Syndrome was the very same person who the hostages sided with the bank robbers against makes it look a lot like drapetomania (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drapetomania).

I can think of a few examples over the past 3-8 years where this would be a useful syndrome to have named and in the popular memory.

Oh well, Stockholm Syndrome is catchier.

That certainly sounds tempting but we should struggle to have less poorly substantiated syndromes, not more :-)
Perhaps Bejerot Syndrome could refer to the pop-science tendency to gather and link rational objections to a proposal, policy or practice so they can be posed as pathologically associated symptoms.
Agreed - but, isn't character assassination a classic technique of authorities employed against those who disagree with them?