Thursday, November 26, 2009

a name for the tendency to see the mutilated arab corpse and friends in pieces of burnt toast

nov 25th, 2009
 
in case you were wondering what this sort of delusion is called, here's the answer: pareidolia.
 
an amateur parsing of it is pare + idol + ia: let me attempt to say what it means -- para (like), idol (idol), that is, the tendency to make things idols :-)
 
perfect description of the "i saw the arab corpse on the side of a freeway overpass in LA" type paranoid delusion.
 
 
 

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