Comments on “Confused stances come in pairs”

“As a simple example, the stance of true self fixates personal continuity. It insists that there is a mental thing within us that is stable, well-defined, and fully separate: the self. “

That isn’t the True true Self theory, it is the conventional, default theory of self. The True Self isn’t mental, is not the bodymimd. See http://www.ahalmaas.com/glossary/essential-self

Thanks so much for this book, David. Over the past few years, I drifted away from the political confused stance I had adopted towards a state of dissatisfaction with all of the mainstream options, and I couldn’t put my perspective shift into words. It left me in a state of confusion, loneliness, and anger at people in either stance who couldn’t see that their views and their opponents views were mirror images of each other. Coincidentally I’m also a computer scientist and a begrudging Buddhist.

A critical reason people adopt and stick to confused stances is that they offer tons of social validation. The more strongly you adopt a stance, the higher you can climb on the social ladder associated with your stance. I know people who’ve staked their entire careers on committing to and propagating a confused stance. It seems much more troubling now with the additional context you’ve provided.