# Anticipatory obedience

**URL:** <https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/anticipatory-obedience/11838>\
**Category:** Politics and Social Issues\
**Created:** [December 24, 2025, 3:08pm UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/anticipatory-obedience/11838 "2025-12-24T15:08:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![lausten](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.centerforinquiry.org/lausten/32/23705_2.png) [@lausten](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/u/lausten)\
**Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 3:08pm UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/anticipatory-obedience/11838/1 "2025-12-24T15:08:47Z")

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Having read a little Festinger and Skinner, it’s weird to see this happening at a national scale. “Reputational threat” is abstract and something you might expect in a closed boardroom or dysfunctional wealthy family. But here we are.

> **[Trump May Have Stolen 2024. Democrats Completed the Autopsy and Buried It.](https://open.substack.com/pub/wendy664/p/trump-didnt-win-by-stealing-votes?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&shareImageVariant=overlay&r=3g5ui9)**
>
> By 2024, Trump’s decade of lies worked: Democrats couldn’t publicly question actual interference without appearing to validate election denial.

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**Author:** ![lausten](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.centerforinquiry.org/lausten/32/23705_2.png) [@lausten](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/u/lausten)\
**Post date:** [January 5, 2026, 3:33am UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/anticipatory-obedience/11838/2 "2026-01-05T03:33:44Z")

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No comment, because I haven’t watched the whole thing yet.

[Transcript, video of Jack Smith’s testimony on Trump cases released](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/transcript-video-of-jack-smiths-testimony-on-trump-cases-released/ar-AA1TmT8l?ocid=BingNewsSerp)

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**Author:** ![citizenschallengev4](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.centerforinquiry.org/citizenschallengev4/32/28718_2.png) [@citizenschallengev4](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/u/citizenschallengev4)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2026, 4:06am UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/anticipatory-obedience/11838/3 "2026-01-10T04:06:24Z")

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Yeah, same old game.

> **[Yes, Bush v. Gore Did Steal the Election](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2012/06/yes-bush-v-gore-did-steal-the-election.html)**
>
> In case you happen to see any relevance to the current situation.

[https://www.npr.org/2018/11/12/666812854/the-florida-recount-of-2000-a-nightmare-that-goes-on-haunting](https://www.npr.org/2018/11/12/666812854/the-florida-recount-of-2000-a-nightmare-that-goes-on-haunting)

> **[Supreme Court and Election Law Still Feel the Fallout 25 Years After Bush v....](https://statecourtreport.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/supreme-court-and-election-law-still-feel-fallout-25-years-after-bush-v)**
>
> The 5–4 decision started a long slide in public approval for the court, accentuated by a widening partisan gap.

We The People turned our backs on our government and Constitution and it really started rolling with the success of the Tobacco Legislation Wars, and even bigger effort the Climate Science Denial machine.

[https://www.merchantsofdoubt.org](https://www.merchantsofdoubt.org), and on infinitum.

I had a front row seat, since I kept my eyes on the prize (a healthy Earth) since my high school awakening to the science. It’s crushingly depressing sometimes, but that passes and life goes on. In my late twenties someone suggested I ask myself:

> > > “What will you be present to?”

Perhaps the finest, most concise, constructive piece of physiological advice I ever received.