Repeat After Me: "We Are All Individuals"
I've seen a lot of patently ridiculous examples of logical fallacies over the years -- I am interested in politics, after all -- such as the appeal to common practice, the appeal to fear, the appeal to popularity, hasty generalizations, and so forth.
But rarely have I seen an example as absurd as a belief that seems to be picking up steam in some circles that not joining social networking sites is some kind of sign that there's something wrong with you or even that you may be a psychopathic mass murderer.
The funny thing is, it wasn't that long ago that socializing too much on the Internet was itself considered some kind of major red flag. At the same time, it was once considered quite sane and reasonable for relationships to begin with hookups with random strangers in creepy dark bars. Actually, that second example is still true among many people.
Anyone remember the aftermath of the Columbine shootings when kids who were seen as loners or wore too much black were suddenly the object of ridicule and fear?
The media, flim-flam "advice columnists", and pseudo-scientific "pop psychology" all promote such ridiculous generalizations without much consideration for the harm that unwarranted suspicion and paranoia can cause to human relationships and to society at large. Most of this crap is perpetuated in the shameless self-interest of people who don't even have any real expertise, to say nothing of actual evidence for their claims. More and more, it tends to be believed as it gets repeated to a gullible public that doesn't seem to know any better.
The problem is, this kind of psychological meme can cause real harm to people. Just ask anyone who ends up being denied a job because some gullible employer actually wonders if a job candidate's lack of a Facebook profile means that he or she is a psychopath. Or ask kids who already have enough problems with being attacked because of being different who are then targeted for more bullying based on some vague belief that wearing black or enjoying alone time or dying your hair orange must mean that they are future mass murderers.
The irony here is there are quite a few red flags that the founder of Facebook himself has some psychopathic tendencies. And Facebook, for all the hype about "social" networking, behaves in extremely anti-social ways. It doesn't have any regard for personal privacy. It lacks all respect for personal boundaries. It exploits the very users who create its wealth. It views its users not as customers but as products to be marketed to other psychopathic corporations.
In fact, I could probably make a good case for viewing people who are heavy Facebook users, mindlessly posting every sordid detail of their lives for public consumption while throwing their personal dignity and privacy out the window, with some degree of suspicion. Perhaps they are merely ignorant or perhaps their devotion to some ruthless, mindless, profit-driven corporation is an indication of some other "red flag" I should worry about.
I also find the implication that choosing not to use some corporation's product means that there's something wrong with you to be extremely creepy. The potential for some serious abuse of that kind of thinking should be obvious, particularly in a world that is dominated by corporations and their puppets in the media and government.
But I'm not sure that worries about mass murderers are really the motivation for any of this. I think it has more to do with what someone posted as a comment in the article I cited above:
The Sheeple really don't like it when any of the other sheep stray too far from the fold, they will police themselves, and insist that those errant sheep be brought back into the fold right away. We can't have sheep wandering off and thinking for themselves, we need the hive mind to keep the flock safe. Farcebook is like fitting wheels to a tomato....................time consuming and pointless.
It's a shame that in a high-technology world which offers unprecedented opportunities for individual freedom and personal choice, there are so many people who are so determined to enforce conformity. But then, I'm sure individual freedom and personal choice are exactly what such people are afraid of.
So . . . we can add not using Facebook to a long list that also includes wearing too much black, enjoying time by yourself, thinking for yourself, dissenting from corporate messages and products, objecting to government surveillance, owning a gun, being autistic, being fat, getting tattoos, dying your hair blue, or kissing a member of the same gender. I'm sure there's lots of things I'm forgetting to include.
Anyone who does any of these things should be stigmatized, cast out, viewed with endless suspicion and fear, and never, ever, under any circumstances, be allowed to be an equal and fully integrated member of society. After all, we don't want "those people" in our midst. "Those people" are out to kill us all.
Is that really the kind of society that we've come to? Is that really the kind of society that we want?
I know that jajy1979, moominmuppet, and several others on my friends list are guilty of countless examples of these offenses. All of you report immediately to Detention Camp 1A. It's for the children. Resistance is futile. And the tanks are only there for your own safety.
Perhaps the most tragic thing is that we've seen this movie before. We've seen it in Armenia, in Germany, in Rwanda, and in countless other places and times around the world. This is a movie that never ends well. How long will it take for humanity to learn that this is a movie that we don't need to keep remaking?
But rarely have I seen an example as absurd as a belief that seems to be picking up steam in some circles that not joining social networking sites is some kind of sign that there's something wrong with you or even that you may be a psychopathic mass murderer.
The funny thing is, it wasn't that long ago that socializing too much on the Internet was itself considered some kind of major red flag. At the same time, it was once considered quite sane and reasonable for relationships to begin with hookups with random strangers in creepy dark bars. Actually, that second example is still true among many people.
Anyone remember the aftermath of the Columbine shootings when kids who were seen as loners or wore too much black were suddenly the object of ridicule and fear?
The media, flim-flam "advice columnists", and pseudo-scientific "pop psychology" all promote such ridiculous generalizations without much consideration for the harm that unwarranted suspicion and paranoia can cause to human relationships and to society at large. Most of this crap is perpetuated in the shameless self-interest of people who don't even have any real expertise, to say nothing of actual evidence for their claims. More and more, it tends to be believed as it gets repeated to a gullible public that doesn't seem to know any better.
The problem is, this kind of psychological meme can cause real harm to people. Just ask anyone who ends up being denied a job because some gullible employer actually wonders if a job candidate's lack of a Facebook profile means that he or she is a psychopath. Or ask kids who already have enough problems with being attacked because of being different who are then targeted for more bullying based on some vague belief that wearing black or enjoying alone time or dying your hair orange must mean that they are future mass murderers.
The irony here is there are quite a few red flags that the founder of Facebook himself has some psychopathic tendencies. And Facebook, for all the hype about "social" networking, behaves in extremely anti-social ways. It doesn't have any regard for personal privacy. It lacks all respect for personal boundaries. It exploits the very users who create its wealth. It views its users not as customers but as products to be marketed to other psychopathic corporations.
In fact, I could probably make a good case for viewing people who are heavy Facebook users, mindlessly posting every sordid detail of their lives for public consumption while throwing their personal dignity and privacy out the window, with some degree of suspicion. Perhaps they are merely ignorant or perhaps their devotion to some ruthless, mindless, profit-driven corporation is an indication of some other "red flag" I should worry about.
I also find the implication that choosing not to use some corporation's product means that there's something wrong with you to be extremely creepy. The potential for some serious abuse of that kind of thinking should be obvious, particularly in a world that is dominated by corporations and their puppets in the media and government.
But I'm not sure that worries about mass murderers are really the motivation for any of this. I think it has more to do with what someone posted as a comment in the article I cited above:
The Sheeple really don't like it when any of the other sheep stray too far from the fold, they will police themselves, and insist that those errant sheep be brought back into the fold right away. We can't have sheep wandering off and thinking for themselves, we need the hive mind to keep the flock safe. Farcebook is like fitting wheels to a tomato....................time consuming and pointless.
It's a shame that in a high-technology world which offers unprecedented opportunities for individual freedom and personal choice, there are so many people who are so determined to enforce conformity. But then, I'm sure individual freedom and personal choice are exactly what such people are afraid of.
So . . . we can add not using Facebook to a long list that also includes wearing too much black, enjoying time by yourself, thinking for yourself, dissenting from corporate messages and products, objecting to government surveillance, owning a gun, being autistic, being fat, getting tattoos, dying your hair blue, or kissing a member of the same gender. I'm sure there's lots of things I'm forgetting to include.
Anyone who does any of these things should be stigmatized, cast out, viewed with endless suspicion and fear, and never, ever, under any circumstances, be allowed to be an equal and fully integrated member of society. After all, we don't want "those people" in our midst. "Those people" are out to kill us all.
Is that really the kind of society that we've come to? Is that really the kind of society that we want?
I know that jajy1979, moominmuppet, and several others on my friends list are guilty of countless examples of these offenses. All of you report immediately to Detention Camp 1A. It's for the children. Resistance is futile. And the tanks are only there for your own safety.
Perhaps the most tragic thing is that we've seen this movie before. We've seen it in Armenia, in Germany, in Rwanda, and in countless other places and times around the world. This is a movie that never ends well. How long will it take for humanity to learn that this is a movie that we don't need to keep remaking?