Scottie said:
So anyway, what I'm seeing in some cases is that some of us are condemning the "liberal left" with rather emotionally-charged language as if they are Untermensch.
[...]
I think the best way to deal with this stuff is to post things WITHOUT directly addressing any person or group. Give data that contradicts something, and ask simple questions in an emotionally-neutral way so that MAYBE people will think. If not now, then the seed is planted for the future. Maybe...
I’ve been thinking along similar lines. There are a couple of problems that go together here, you mentioned the strange facts of left suddenly becoming right, of Hillary being a sure thing to trump getting in etc, etc, I think those repeated twists of fate are a massive shock to the system, and the way things are breaking down it’s affecting people’s identities, on a personal and social level. So you go to bed, wake up the next day and "poof" your reality disappeared!
Most folk are asleep most of the time, are basically just reacting to stuff and conforming to the social conditioning pressures from the
perceived majority. Well it’s a huge emotional shock when that comfortable little life gets disrupted! And in that state it’s easy to swing out and react, some folk though do seem to have gone too far the other way and I wonder if that’s an unconscious way to try and get back onto the stable ground of "us" and "them", of wanting to conform to the new majority, to be socially conditioned once again and find comfort in being a follower.
Some folk on the "left" are obviously pathological, as are some on the "right". The problem at the moment is that it’s easy for them to agitate others who are in a state of shock, Amygdala hijacking on masse. It looks coherent, in a 'yeah, we’re all in this together, we can fight back, there’s so many of us and we all think and feel the same, yay!' (and partly 'yay' because it gives a temporary sense of identity and belonging once again).
Problem is, when everything was cozy and comfortable they didn’t seem to have the same problems, didn’t all get out on the streets. Why is that then? Well this chicken was doing the rounds on FB yesterday and seems to sum the problem up pretty well I think...
Obviously the chicken hasn’t learned to play the sing by heart, it’s just pecking at the red dots and going after the stimulus as any chicken would. But take away the context of the lights in the keys flashing as they do, and it appears to be coherent, spontaneous. Amazing. Now, consider each red dot as a meme, a share, a reactive comment on social media. If there were some unseen overarching intelligence behind which 'dots' appear where and in what order, well that couldn’t that similarly produce the appearance of spontaneous coherent thought/actions, but spread across millions of people?
If that’s the case, which seems pretty sure to be so, then if we go with the meme-based reactive style of posting and commenting, then aren’t we just popping a red dot up there along with the rest of them? For others to then peck away at after their own fashion? We create more problems 'out there' if we’re then triggering others rather than encouraging them to
think, and we’re doing ourselves a disservice by similarly failing to think and falling prey to whoever it was that set out to push our 'take that you son of a...' button.
So it’s kind of a battle going on, between maintaining sovereign thoughts and/or going with the emotions of the group. And what if it’s not just via memes etc that the social construct of reality is shared and experienced? What we project and receive the 'agreed upon terms of reference' on masse via some more 'psychic' means. Wouldn’t that create huge pressure to conform and also change behaviors? No wonder it’s making so many people crazy if so.
Our job then, is to keep our heads I think!:
[quote author=If by Rudyard Kipling]
IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more -
you'll be a Man, my son![/quote]
