I’ve read the wikipedia page that seems to define it, but it’s like every world-class scientist ganged up on that one wikipedia page to write the definition and background of it, so now my head hurts.
I still have no idea what exactly it means, or how to use it in a sentence. (Is it something you “are”? or something that you “have”?)
I see that term thrown around on many of the left-leaning Facebook pages that I follow (granted, not the best cite ever), but in my honest opinion, if a middle-class schmuck (like myself) wants to tell me over beers that he loves Trump “because of the tax cuts”, I’m not sure if the phrase “no dude, you have cognitive dissonance, those tax cuts don’t impact schmucks like me and you” makes any sense at all.
{And I swear that’s just a stupid example, I really don’t want to turn this into an argument pro/con Trump - plenty of other threads for that}
How about this one: what if I constantly bitch and moan about how I don’t have abs like Ryan Gosling, but yet I make sure I always have a 12-pk of beer in the fridge, and I order carryout-pizza three times a week? Does that mean I am / have / cognitive dissonance?
Or, if I spend as much time fucking off at the office as possible (browsing Facebook / SDMB / fantasy football sites) when the boss ain’t looking, but then get pissed off when other people get raises / bonuses, does that mean I am / have cognitive dissonance?
I forget what movie it was where a lawyer says “ok, explain it to me like I’m a three-year-old”, but that’s kind of where I’m at with this one. Thank you for any insight.