But why do they listen to that douchebag? Because that was one of the options available.
Meanwhile, people are still listening to the underground. Quite a few. But it doesn't create the same illusion as what's popular.
J-Ryze is wondering why so many seem to be guided by idiocy. I wonder the same thing too, at times. Yet I haven't forgotten, most people hated that popular kid in school.
We're easily manipulated, it doesn't take much. Shit, you and I speak different, for example. You're so programmable. Someone like Elon Musk could say an astroid's headed for earth and people will panic. Hopefully not too many but I wouldn't be surprised..
Shitty part is Musk and all them know how easily we're manipulated. Turns to a game for everyone who ain't a game piece.
You checked out any links that Berwick account is attaching?
Musk said something.
Who listened to who? By the time it gets to the end of the line, a whole new story takes shape. Then that gets published and cycles down. This goes on and on.
Now let's take Musk and that situation out of the picture but keep the same pattern. Notice how the same damn thing happens with anyone else and what they say. Now apply how society is herded into echo chambers online. The arguments exist, you just don't see them, so it creates this illusion everyone is in support of an idiot. When you see people you trust on social media supporting something, maybe you don't trust the information but you trust your friend or family member so the info is trusted by default. When it gets that far down the line, it becomes difficult because you don't want to tell your friends off in this day and age. One click of the button and you're out of their life forever. So that kind of shit plays a role too.
It's probably an unpopular opinion, but I think those at the top have very little to do with what happens. I think the people straight up do it to themselves, then refuse to blame themselves, because it's easier to blame the big name at the top who can't even hear you. Those at the top roll with the punches and make adjustments on the fly. Everyone makes it really easy to stay one step ahead.
I wonder what would happen if this tactic was used against humans in a grand science experiment. Take for example scientists can't convince youth to participate in their experiment so they reach to my generation.. "Get fucked!" We said. So they reached for my mothers generation by first reaching for her parents generation—seniors, elderly folk.
The one's who were first in line.
They used to tell people, "Never put your personal information online." There was so much paranoia around that it even meant some were afraid to touch the internet.
Then suddenly your friend is asking you to be their friend and you're like, WTF? We're already friends. And they show you this Facebook thing. They put their name on there, and they didn't die. Then, "Holy fuck I wonder if so and so is on here from way back when!" And you can't reconnect if you don't use your real name, because they won't know who the fuck you are. So look how easy it was to put a name and face to everyone online. That was no accident. And people were only putting their faces on because suddenly 'selfies' were the cool thing to be doing. So you can say one ELITE did that to everyone but really, the people did it to themselves. And of course it's not their fault they suddenly have privacy concerns. Are corporations spying or are they simply browsing what was given to them?
Years later now my parents on this damn thing. Mom never gave a shit about politics her whole life. She couldn't even put CNN down while that election was going on. And If I dared say anything about the existence of possible brainwash, of course that can't happen to her. Just like everyone else is immune. Just like the people on the other side think they're immune because they get their information from anything but mainstream media, therefor it can't possibly be brainwash. But it is. Want to see how EASY it is to place a thought within someone's head? I just did it to you.
Dope.
So what you're saying is this isn't the time and place to ask if you have siblings? More specific, are you a third child?
Second of two.
Scared to touch the internet to political gurus. Well played.
Last child woulda been my next guess.
I'm speechless.
When I posted I was hoping for some interesting insights from some of the brightest people I've encountered on Hive.
I got all that and more in this thread alone, @nonameslefttouse , @dandays , lol.
If I were to attempt to sum it up it'd be:
"Society's playing a giant, twisted game of 'broken-telephone.'" 🤣
Thanks for weighing in, appreciated.
Fear. Fear of being seen as the outsider. Fear of being seen as a conspiracy theorist. Fear of being seen as a racist. Fear of being seen as an anti-vaxxer. Fear of being seen as a Democrat. Fear of being seen as a Republican.
People are making far too many decisions based purely around fear these days.
That actually tells us that we are becoming a globe that has a growing number of cowards.
Brave doesn't mean without fear. It simply means facing and moving forward in spite of our fear.
Yet fear is clearly dominating...
Perhaps the biggest one... Fear of being wrong.
We've been conditioned to think being wrong is a bad thing. Something to admit. Something to avoid at all costs.
Yet really it is one of two ways I know of for us to learn. If you are wrong you have an opportunity to learn from it. It only becomes a bad thing if you don't learn from it and keep making the same mistakes.
The other way is when we are ignorant about things. All of us are ignorant about far more things than we likely know. This is not bad. We are ignorant about the things we don't know. When we learn new things we have removed some of the ignorance.
Learning from mistakes...
Learning new things...
Yet we've been conditioned to fear mistakes and also do everything we can to seek scapegoats and avoid admitting them.
It's a new kind of fear. Amplified. Fear on steroids. Yet there's no danger. The natural state of mind might be struggling, not even knowing where to place this stuff.
I think maybe people feel like they're being watched.
If you and I were sitting at a table in a bar, with a few others, discussing whatever, I'm wrong, you correct me, maybe I'm a little bit embarrassed, but the moment is already in the past. Live and learn. Easy to navigate. Worked for thousands of years.
So now we're on this grand stage social media style.
Same scenario, I'm wrong, you correct me, but my mistake was published, and I just spent the past ten years creating the illusion of perfection then tricking myself into thinking my friends/family/followers/whatever actually believe it because all they ever do is say nice things, while I make damn sure to never share photos of my junk drawer or that time I thought it would just be a fart.
So now, not only did everyone in the bar witness my mistake, but all the people coming and going well off into the future are going to know, as if this instance of failure was posted on the door. Whereas before, when it comes to those people, all I really had to worry about was my hygiene, knowing full well they'd never see or smell me again and if they did, my appearance is all they'd remember.
OMG I'm having a panic attack. I should have thought of all these consequences before I opened my big mouth.
Stage fright. Luckily, humanity to the rescue! Groups are formed around ideas. Stupid ideas. Smart ideas. All ideas. A safe space for everything and everyone including the folks who mock safe spaces.
Someone waltzes in to offer a correction, and the entire bar swarms them. "There will be none of that here."
Fear naturally converts itself to anger if there's no danger involved. People are putting on a show. Protected by like minds. Even something as simple as a question is converted into an insult. How is it even possible to not know what comes so naturally to us.
So I'm discovering there's a fear of being wrong combined with an illusion of being right, all while one's livelihood could be on the line if they change their position. And I can't think of one cult member in the history of cults that actually knew they were in a cult, so I'm not even sure where to begin with this.
Yeah. If you pay attention you also realize how privileged we have been and how so many concerns of the past are no longer concerns that we have turned things that should be trivial into very horrific things.
I mean I walked up to my grandkids a week or so ago and said "Punch, pow, kick, choke, slam" they looked at me. "Did I hurt you?" They said no. "They keep saying words are violence. They've completely forgot the sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me saying."
Grandpa has to try to drop some wisdom, keep them on their toes, and make them think from time to time.
You see your friend and a few strangers over there, walk up, can kind of hear what they're saying, they don't see you coming, you lightheartedly say, "You people are so full of shit."
They look, they see the dumb look on your face, relax, greet you, invite you to join. Next thing you know you're sitting there bullshitting with them.
I said, "You people are so full of shit," with that exact same social situation in mind, but on Facebook. Within one minute I received a notification thinking someone responded. Nope. I got served. Apparently what I said was hateful and I was demonstrating some form of superiority over others, according to this message, that also stated my one liner had been removed, and I was no longer welcome in the establishment. And it wasn't like any other message I had ever seen on that platform. Big, bright, bold; orange! As if they slapped a warning label on me.
So either I got reported or some fancy code stepped in to make decisions but regardless, all I could think about was how much developing this misunderstanding must have cost them...
Just giving me the ability to say, "Relax, I'm just kidding," would have been far more cost-effective.
It also prevented me from making new friends. You see, in this social situation, you can approach a group like that and sometimes one will snap back with an, "Excuse me!"
You tell them you're kidding, they observe the others and their reaction, quickly settle down feeling relieved, and the result is often two strangers feeling comfortable with one another almost instantly. Breaking the ice.
Now imagine that being interpreted as violence and that social media swarm I mentioned comes into play had the message not been removed. Convert that into a bar setting and picture all those people surrounding a gentleman attempting to shame him out of the establishment over a misunderstanding. Yelling and screaming. Feeling invincible and on top of the world. Dumping drinks on you. Spitting on you. No choice but to shove your way out of there and suddenly forty people are jumping you, and calling it self defense; because a word was the first punch?
Yep. That is it exactly. It was the lesson I was trying to convey to my grandkids. There is a big difference between words and violence. If I was not an adult and they were not my grandkids I could ask them if they need me to demonstrate the difference. It'd be their choice. I'd not say it in an antagonizing way. When I was younger I might have. :)
I'm myself around my kids. They'll be fine. And that's all I need to say about that.
Haha... yeah. My kids are all in good shape too. The grandkids too. Yet I like to keep them on their toes and make them think differently from time to time.
The only normal thing about grandpa is that things will not be normal.