RE: The Social Justice Movement is Its Own Worst Enemy
I believe that a large part of the problem in the social justice movement is an inability to articulate precisely what it is that they find offensive about something, such as 'cultural appropriation'. If it is (as one person was able to communicate, albeit in an over-the-top manner) about turning something something that speaks of poverty and oppression into today's fashion trend, then that argument is better grounded than simply 'that's XYZ culture; don't copy it!'. This coherency is strongly lacking in the movement, which is causing some valid points to be instantly dismissed by people who look only at the messenger, and not the message.
And then, there are the hangers-on who don't have an idea what it is all about, except that it is fashionable to shout slogans (that they can't understand, either). This is a problem that plagues most movements, political or social. Unfortunately, there is nothing that can be done to make people stop doing something simply because their friends are 'into it', and they want to be, too.
The inarticulate nature of SJ outrage is definitely a problem, it makes any rational response almost impossible, as the events at Yale and the cultural appropriation outrage over Halloween costumes adequately demonstrated. I am currently working on a piece about the unintended long term consequences of cultural misappropriation outrage, I hope you'll stay tuned for that in the next few days. I've been working on it a while, but the lack of logical consistency makes treating all of these SJ issues very thorny.
Trendy lemmings are unquestionably amplifiers of the friction in society, participating in order to virtue signal while having very little understanding of the issues. This bandwagon effect is intentionally manipulated to grow political movements (and ideologies, religions etc.) by vacuuming up what Marxists call "useful idiots".
The advocacy of socialism is a perfect example on college campuses today:
What a telling video! The utterly blank, deer in the headlights, look of those that had just waxed prosaic regarding socialism, when asked what it is, perfectly exemplifies the entire class of people that are best defined as sheeple. The question clearly delineates the mechanism by which those people fabricate their world view.
They do not personally consider issues, facts, or information, but rather social inclusion alone. They simply align their views with the promoted zeitgeist, and the factual basis for the issues isn't even relevant.
I have seen little published research (I haven't looked for it either. I assume TPTB are so dependent on this mechanism that public awareness of it is suppressed), but suspect up to 1/3 of the general population fits, more or less, into this category.
The other two categories aren't co-equal in number, with controllers (psychopaths) constituting ~1-3%, and 'normal' people (those capable of freedom), comprising the balance.
Accordingly, governance should be developed in order that these folks, and their masters, are allowed their desired inclusion in the productive herds, while the rest of us can go about the business of dealing with actual issues.
Neither psychopaths nor their willing prey are suited to such endeavor, due to their proclivity for social control.
There has been a lot of research done on conformity and obedience to authority, the most famous being the Milgram Experiment and the second most being The Standford Prison Experiment (which got a cinematic adaptation). The Asch Conformity Experiment is a famous one on group conformity.
Here's a short piece on the Milgram Experiment:
Asch Conformity Experiment:
And this classic gif:
Regarding suppression, well, I certainly have never heard the MSM actually advise people to form their own opinions or do their own research. Considering the MSM has become a mechanism of control in itself, that shouldn't be surprising. Thanks for the response!
Important experiments that everyone should know about.
"We have met the enemy and he is us."
LOL according the the Asch experiment, conformity was 37%. That's pretty close to 1/3, which was my working estimate of sheeple.
I much prefer Asch to the Milgram, or Stanford prison experiments, as there is far less psych trauma ;)
Well, that is an interesting video. Kids today are too used to using word-salads to hide their cluelessness when asked to define what they can't be bothered to look into. I like the term 'trendy lemmings', btw. Oh, and you really should look into what some of these people who want holidays banned on the grounds of 'cultural appropriation' actually believe they are about. If I recall correctly, I once saw one where a young lady was easily led to believe (as a prank) that St. Patrick's day had something to do with black slavery... .
Cultural appropriation is on my list of topics to treat, where I will be focusing on the long term backfire that could result if that sort of segregational idiocy actually becomes a dominant factor in society. I hadn't considered the aspect of holidays being cultural appropriation, will have to look that up. Thanks for the input!
I got around to treating cultural appropriation, it might interest you! Horror on the Horizon - Cultural Misappropriation and The Politics of Oppression.