Are people today too susceptible to group pressure?

[BUDFORCE]

This is nothing new.

I remember in the 80s all these asshats going on about freeing Nelson Mandela and the stuff going on in South Africa.

And everyone here brainwashed into thinking that was the correct political stance.

Look at South Africa now.

 

[Deleted User 298457]

That's because you're OK to call someone a racist/homophobe/transphobe/saxomophobe without reproach on here or in the eyes of the law. However call someone any other name and it's a criminal offence these days!

lol, did you not see what happened when I did that to @dowie ? He even knew what was going to happen as he stopped quoting me, to avoid the "quoted deleted post" bit from happening. It was called an insult and the worst rule of the forum to break. The hypocrisy has only really settled in having seen the car crash going on in the Israel thread.

 

[Efour]

I didn't think so until I read this thread now I pretty much agree with the strongest opinions here.

 

[StriderX]

Decades-long unresolved issues surrounding inequalities causing political polarisation such that it eventually becomes impossible to find people not polarised? My total lack of shock.

Can we just skip to throwing bottles of alcohol at each other?

 

[jsmoke]

On the other hand maybe your too susceptible to thinking there's a united group of people out there with a unified agenda. I never really got the mainstream, the herd.

In this case it's more about understanding what Israel really means, to some it's just blatant theft and bullying to others it's fate/destiny.

It's similar to evolution vs creationism. You get die hards on both sides and the majority in the middle who call themselves agnostics.

 

[Colonel_Klinck]

This is nothing new.

I remember in the 80s all these asshats going on about freeing Nelson Mandela and the stuff going on in South Africa.

And everyone here brainwashed into thinking that was the correct political stance.

Look at South Africa now.

You're right. Should have just kept the black man where he belonged, the white race being far superior and all that

I remember meeting a couple of South African lads in Zambia in 1993. They actually made a comment that they wished the blacks back home were more like the blacks there. I couldn't help myself so pointed out that the black people in Zambia were able to vote and weren't 3rd class citizens. That's not to say Zambia didn't have problems because it did. Black and white people got along great there though. Loved my time living there.

 

[dirtychinchilla]

There is definitely an increased pressure to be seen 'conforming' to whatever right-on message is currently on trend. Be that Metoo, BLM, #freePalestine or whatever.
Thinking back it wasn't always the case, for example back when plain old LGBT was a thing.

An end to racism, and end to homophobia, an end to sexism, all very bad things to wish for.

 

[Reality|Bites]

chatting to my mum on fb and sent her a link to the Jim Jeff dry hole joke....she's awol now lol

 

[Raz]

This is nothing new.

I remember in the 80s all these asshats going on about freeing Nelson Mandela and the stuff going on in South Africa.

And everyone here brainwashed into thinking that was the correct political stance.

Look at South Africa now.

What?

You're linking Nelson Mandela to the current situation in SA?

 

[Dis86]

What?

You're linking Nelson Mandela to the current situation in SA?

Terrorist fighting against an oppressive government. Seems pretty apt tbh.

 

[krooton]

The irony of our 2 largest resident conspiracy theorists complaining about people being swayed...

 

[dowie]

For some reason, when I first watched it I thought she was a "police community support officer", but it seems she's a full-fat police officer, that's pretty dubious!

Part of it perhaps is that she's a bit thick, part of it might also be that the Police actions more recently have been a bit borderline political... they had the whole taking a knee thing at protests, including senior officers - pandering to woke idiots like that was a dumb precedent to set - head of the Met now regrets it:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/met-police-blm-take-knee-cressida-dick-a9631811.html

Britain’s most senior police officer has said she would not “take a knee” in the symbol of solidarity with Black Lives Matter protesters.

This numpty did it outside downing street and in doing so sets some expectation where his colleagues get fingers pointed at them:

And of course, not long after that the crowd of woke idiots started to kick off anyway... all because of an incident that happened in the US.

That sort of stuff has blurred the lines a bit, this police officer (possibly a Muslim(?)) recalls the performative nonsense at the BLM protests and thinks it's fine to join in here too?

Is it group pressure or are people simply unable to stand by principles and remain professional?

Re: this point, that is what the head of the Met has cited re: some officers taking a knee in the BLM protests, from the above article:

Dame Cressida Dick said officers who knelt at London demonstrations following the death of George Floyd may have felt pressured by crowds.

The Metropolitan Police commissioner said all officers in the force had since been banned from taking a knee at demonstrations or in other operations.

 

[Reality|Bites]

As I mentioned before if WW2 was going on in todays world the woke idiot would be shouting hail hitler I suspect....without knowing what would follow and what we know now I mean.

 

[Tony Edwards]

As I mentioned before if WW2 was going on in todays world the woke idiot would be shouting hail hitler I suspect....without knowing what would follow and what we know now I mean.

Because he was a vegetarian or because you havent really put much thought into it?

 

[413x]

I'm not one for band wagons. I care about a few things. But not much. I don't do the Facebook profile banners or anything like that.

Gf has said before... . Why don't you care more?

I kind Of just say that if I cared about everything my life would be full of stress. If I can't or won't change something I won't bother most of the time even thinking about it. It's not that I don't care. I just don't care enough to do anything.
I'd rather make a difference to 1 or 2 things I care about. Than worry about everything but all I do is put a Facebook banner up.

That said real activists are a good thing. They raise awareness and eventually things change. What I don't care for is people that only care enough to make a token gesture but look down on others who don't.

 

[PlacidCasual]

I don't know that people are more susceptible today but it may be easier than ever to create momentum and apply pressure. The kneeling police officers may rightly have thought failing to do so would spark a confrontation that was unnecessary.

Problem is weirdoes and ******* have access to an entire planets worth of people that share their vision and can spur them further on. We seem to be in a moment of wacky crusades.

A couple of quotes that for me catch the zeitgeist if not the OP.
​

Gibbon wrote that the following five attributes characterised Rome at its end. First, a mounting love of show and luxury; second, a widening gap between the very rich and the very poor; third, an obsession with sex; fourth, freakishness in the arts, masquerading as originality, and enthusiasm pretending to be creativity; fifth, an increased desire to live off the state. We are back in Rome.

a good indication of societal decadence is when it prefers to obsess over fictional offences rather than real ones”

 

[danoliver1]

One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.

 

[dowie]

Because he was a vegetarian or because you havent really put much thought into it?

Because they're happy to go along with reducing people to their group identities, elevating some groups or that aspect of some groups' identity is evil etc... they've accepted flawed illiberal ideas.

Apply the same logic of the arguments for white privilege (based mostly on differences in outcomes) to Jewish people in Germany pre-WW2 and you can easily argue for Jewish privilege and active discrimination against them. Granted that doesn't go as far as locking them up in camps but plenty of the woke have demonstrated their willingness at least to form mobs and go smash up windows, burn businesses etc..

 

[potatolord]

Gf has said before... . Why don't you care more?

Heh, I used to care more. I used to be fairly militant left-wing, and spent a lot of time on that back in my 20s.

Time and experience has taught me to value things I can touch and experience over causes that I can do nothing about.

 

[413x]

Heh, I used to care more. I used to be fairly militant left-wing, and spent a lot of time on that back in my 20s.

Time and experience has taught me to value things I can touch and experience over causes that I can do nothing about.

Yeah. She cares about too much. And it's counter productive. I do my litter picks and collect litter out in my kayak.
I like to say to her. If everyone made a little difference to one thing, it would be a lot more effective than everyone caring about a lot but doing nothing.

Imagine if everyone picked up one piece of litter. There would be none.