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[–] 2 points 1 day ago (8 children)

Is that young Putin? Definitely has a serial killer look to him.

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  • [–] 17 points 1 day ago (5 children)

    As terrible as Putin may be, I don't think going into physiognomy is a good thing to do. People are just born with their faces. Please don't reinforce the belief that the shape of your face somehow defines who you are.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 day ago

    I absolutely take your point - Boo Radley comes to mind - but I think the original commenter was speaking as much about the cold look in the eyes as anything else to do with the photo.

    Though I admit that could just as easily be projection based on what we know of him. The brain is a very silly bit of meat after all.

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  • [–] -1 points 1 day ago (2 children)

    If phrenology isn't real why do all the top republicans look like their mothers tried to abort them with a coat hangar?

    I'm half joking

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

    If you want a serious answer, let's start with the fact that humans are inherently xenophobic. Hundreds of thousands of years ago humans who didn't defend themselves from other tribes that looked a bit different from them got plundered and died of starvation. Xenophobia got nurtured in that manner for tens of thousands of years.

    In the modern age there is little to no reason to hate people who's ears are tilted in a slightly different way than your's, but the mechanism is still deeply ingrained in your brain and wants to be useful. So it starts working the other way. We find those who we don't like and start finding coincidental traits in their appearance that are common between them. Now instead of disliking people by views we start disliking anyone who has these traits, then the confirmation bias kicks in.

    There are stupid and evil people, but these adjectives discribe what's going on inside their skull, not outside. Works the other way, too. However beautiful the person looks like, they may very well have views of the biggest piece of shit you ever met.

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