I blame the media

Akrasia

Thats right, you heard me.

Here it is in a nutshell.

There are a certain percentage of people in the world who are just assholes, always have been, always will be.

These people act anti-socially

The media report on this behaviour and declare standards in society are 'starting to slip'

The people who were acting anti-socially now feel validated and emboldened because they're a part of a group and they can rationalise their behaviour as due to a social phenomenon beyond their control.

People who were on the verge of acting like assholes, (ie: They're assholes some of the time, but they usually restrain themselves due to social pressure to not be an asshole) see the others acting like assholes on the news and think to themselves "why should I bother restraining myself, Other people are getting all the benefit from their assholey behaviour and here I am, restraining myself like a chump!"

So, they start acting like assholes more often, doing whatever assholey things they feel like doing, not giving a damn about what other people might think

Now the media sees that there are more assholes doing more assholey things, so they report "assholes run wild on our streets"

This encourages the assholes even further, Being an asshole is now become more widespread and the people who act like assholes, while still looked upon as assholes by the general public, start to find niches and are even targetted as a market by businesses who can profit from assholish behaviour.

Now the media will report on these events "The vast majority of people are now assholes"

This is where we are now. The media has declared that all young people are now out of control. This encourages the assholes even further, but more than this, it turns people with very few natural assholish tendencies to start acting more assholish just in order to fit in. While fleeting moments of assholish behaviour would before have been suppressed, now they are encouraged.


The media has hyped the lowest common denominator into the new cultural aspiration for the most impressionable people in society.

Social Psychologists such as nobel Prize winning Daniel Kahneman have long known that people can be influenced subconsciously by external triggers that we might not even be aware of. It has been demonstrated through countless experiments, when people are exposed to ideas/social queues and then asked to perform tasks, their performance in those tasks will be affected by the queues they have recently been exposed to (and they will not be aware any effects). Our brains work in a complex way and the short version of this story is that we end up with a herd mentality. People will be encouraged to act (in both positive and negative ways) based on how they percieve their peers expect them to behave.

Normal cultural and social peer pressure has been replaced by Media hysteria. Every time a media outlet makes a statement such as "More and More children are drinking at a younger and younger age" It validates the children who have already started to drink, and it pressurises the rest of the children who feel they are missing out or not conforming to their peer group

When The Media goes looking for drunk kids on St Patricks day so they can show far society has collapsed, all the kids who didn't get drunk on St Patricks day will be sent a signal that it is normal for people their age to act this way and by extention, they are missing out on something by not acting this way.

When the media shows people falling about on the streets and fighting after a saturday night, the people who behave this way feel normal instead of ashamed which is how they should be felt to feel.

When the media states that more and more people are drinking a bottle of wine every night in front of the tv, this becomes normal and acceptable behaviour.

It's all in the Framing.

The way messages are stated, has a huge impact on the effects they will have.

If the media reports negative behaviour by the majority in a different way "Tiny Minority of assholes destroy festival for everyone else" then this will place the social pressure on the assholes to stop being assholes and send the message that their behaviour is not normal or acceptable

Instead of the media reporting stats to exaggerate drug use "60% of all students have taken Drugs" they could report the story as "95% of students don't take drugs regularly".

Don't even get me started on these rubbish tv shows that pretend to be documentaries and just show assholes being assholes abroad, or assholes living in a house with other assholes doing assholey stuff. This is the kind of media output that does the most damage. Its like they're deliberately glamorising the most purile and immature behaviour just for short term advertising profits.

These shows are so damaging, it's not even funny.

Jorah

TL;DR

Tipsy McSwagger

Not reading all that

Pushtrak

Only an asshole would expect people to read something that long.














:pac:

Thatnastyboy

Tipsy McSwagger wrote: »

Not reading all that

Don't, I just did

It's mostly shite

davet82

i just seen lots of use of the word asshole, anybody want to summarize this for me

Thatnastyboy

davet82 wrote: »

i just seen lots of use of the word asshole, anybody want to summarize this for me

The media and tv studios are assholes, and they cause young people to be assholes..

The way the news is reported causes assholery

CageWager

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cV_q-mVAAA

Immaculate Pasta

Akrasia wrote: »

Thats right, you heard me.

Here it is in a nutshell.

No this is your OP in a nutshell.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKMK3XGO27k

:cool:

davet82

Thatnastyboy wrote: »

The media and tv studios are assholes, and they cause young people to be assholes..

The way the news is reported causes assholery

take note OP ^^^^^


never post a block of words like that again please...


asshole!

luketitz

Although a bit of a long-winded rant, I can neither fault your thought process nor disagree with your sentiments!

hondasam

davet82 wrote: »

i just seen lots of use of the word asshole, anybody want to summarize this for me

Assholes, drink, paddys' day. That the story I think.

davet82

hondasam wrote: »

Arseholes, drink, paddys' day. That the story I think.

so we're all irish assholes...


fcukin racist! :P

mikemac1

Humanities forum

---

>

Meant in a nice way

hondasam

davet82 wrote: »

so we're all irish assholes...


fcukin racist! :P

In a word yes. I'm not a racist btw.

Dale Parish

A Ctrl + F and the inserting of the word "asshole" brings up 39 (now 40) hits!

davet82

hondasam wrote: »

I'm not a racist btw.

sure

Sleepy

I blame society for being too soft to decide that when Anto hits his 10th criminal charge he's not only entitled to stay alive but also for his life to be paid for by those of us who's lives are actually worth something.

If your only contributions to society are to damage it, you lose the right to live in it imo.

davet82

Sleepy wrote: »

I blame society for being too soft to decide that when Anto hits his 10th criminal charge he's not only entitled to stay alive but also for his life to be paid for by those of us who's lives are actually worth something.

If your only contributions to society are to damage it, you lose the right to live in it imo.

wtf?

we're talkin bout assholes

:pac:

Biggins

I blame Fox news myself!

Pedant

I'm on the verge of acting like an arsehole. What should I do?

Biggins

Pedant wrote: »

I'm on the verge of acting like an arsehole. What should I do?

Marry Tom Cruise!
I hear he's looking again!

davet82

Pedant wrote: »

I'm on the verge of acting like an arsehole. What should I do?

follow it through by doing a really really really long post :rolleyes:

Calibos

Jorah wrote: »

TL;DR

Tipsy McSwagger wrote: »

Not reading all that

Pushtrak wrote: »

Only an asshole would expect people to read something that long.

:pac:

davet82 wrote: »

take note OP ^^^^^


never post a block of words like that again please...


asshole!

I fcuking hate assholes who post TLDR.

Fine, You're a lazy bollix, why do we need to know this

Its not like it was one giant paragraph without punctuation.

Did you all open up exam papers back in the day and write TLDR on your answer sheet and hand it up to the invigilator?

Pure unadulterated irony for a post of mine in another forum where I prefaced the long post with the issue I needed answered, with an explanation that I felt it better to post all the background in one post to help people answer my question than to give very little detail in my opening post, have other posters have to drag the info out of me in a question and answer style where each Q&A takes an hour or two between posts, and the thread drags on for days before the other posters have all the info they need to help me.

I get a stream of TLDR's, people start asking me for detail that I had already posted in the long OP, I answer, they reply with another question 2 hours later, I answer 2 hours later, they reply etc etc

2 days later I finally get the answers I need. If some asshole had have said, "why didn't you post that info in the first place??!!",my head would have exploded.

Akrasia

okay here's the short version. the vast majority of people, young and old don't act anti socially, but media makes it look like most people do.
Over time, this has reduced the bar of what is considered normal behaviour and resulted in a generalised lowering of standards.
bad media!

kfallon

*prints out OP*

I'm off for a shite, will give it a read while I'm in there! It's gonna be a biggy, been baking it since this morn, tally ho!!!

Akrasia

Dale Parish wrote: »

A Ctrl + F and the inserting of the word "asshole" brings up 39 (now 40) hits!

if team america can use the word asshole repeatedly to convey the moral of the story then so can i :-)

Wompa1

That's a pretty big nutshell. Mistake number 1, don't believe any research psychologist

kfallon

Calibos wrote: »

Did you all open up exam papers back in the day and write TLDR on your answer sheet and hand it up to the invigilator?

Were the questions not short and concise like

How did Anglo-Irish relations develop during the period, 1949 – 1989?

or

To what extent was the success of the campaign for Catholic Emancipation due to the leadership of Daniel O’Connell?

They are hardly a tl;dr

Calibos

I agree with the OP and was thinking similar thoughts the other day.

If there is one phrase I hate its,"Lovely guy, but a demon/messer with the drink on him"

Drink removes your inhibitions and in many respects, the real you comes out to play. So if drink makes you think its a great laugh to kick off wing mirrors and run over car roofs when you are drunk, but your mates say you are sound when sober, well, I must disagree. You are a fcuking asshole, who manages to keep your assholery under the lid when sober. The real you comes out with drink.

Thats why I could never be mates with someone who acts like this while drunk, no matter how nice they seem sober. Its a red flag/indicator. Do I think the fcuker sober would come to my BBQ and run over my car roof for a laugh when he arrived at my house?? Of course not. Do I think this type of person might be unempathic enough to kick the dog out of the way when no one is looking or to help himself to a valuable he could pocket.? Quite possibly.

I don't become an asshole when drunk because I am not an asshole to begin with.

Bowlardo

Akrasia wrote: »

Here it is in a nutshell.

.

I agree with you completely. very enjoyable read and thanks for going through the effort of writing it

Pushtrak

Calibos wrote: »

I fcuking hate assholes who post TLDR.

Actually, I did read end up reading it when I saw there wasn't anything better to read on here.

Its not like it was one giant paragraph without punctuation.

True, if it were different, I'd probably have been irritated by the OP and not even bothered coming back to the thread after commenting.

Did you all open up exam papers back in the day and write TLDR on your answer sheet and hand it up to the invigilator?

Nah, the paper questions were fine. I did the exam correctors a favour though, and swapped the R for a W. I then proceeded to the next question.

Pure unadulterated irony for a post of mine in another forum where I prefaced the long post with the issue I needed answered, with an explanation that I felt it better to post all the background in one post to help people answer my question than to give very little detail in my opening post, have other posters have to drag the info out of me in a question and answer style where each Q&A takes an hour or two between posts, and the thread drags on for days before the other posters have all the info they need to help me.

TL;DR

In all seriousness, did you actually use paragraphs like the OP here? Or was it a mess?

I get a stream of TLDR's, people start asking me for detail that I had already posted in the long OP, I answer, they reply with another question 2 hours later, I answer 2 hours later, they reply etc etc

That's the nature of non-AH forums.

2 days later I finally get the answers I need. If some asshole had have said, "why didn't you post that info in the first place??!!",my head would have exploded.

You wouldn't have needed any answers then, though.

As for the OP... Fear mongering nonsense.

Washington Irving

meh

davet82

Akrasia wrote: »

okay here's the short version. the vast majority of people, young and old don't act anti socially, but media makes it look like most people do.
Over time, this has reduced the bar of what is considered normal behaviour and resulted in a generalised lowering of standards.
bad media!

was that so hard?

Whats TLDR?

smash

Jake1 wrote: »

Whats TLDR?

too long, didn't read.

books4sale

Nice copy/paste job OP

Jester252

I blame YOU. That right YOU

Akrasia

books4sale wrote: »

Nice copy/paste job OP

Where did I copy and paste it from?

I suppose I could take this as a compliment?

Jake Rugby Walrus666

IT WAS the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way -- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
There were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a plain face, on the throne of England; there were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a fair face, on the throne of France. In both countries it was clearer than crystal to the lords of the State preserves of loaves and fishes, that things in general were settled for ever.
It was the year of Our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy- five. Spiritual revelations were conceded to England at that favoured period, as at this. Mrs. Southcott had recently attained her five-and- twentieth blessed birthday, of whom a prophetic private in the Life Guards had heralded the sublime appearance by announcing that arrangements were made for the swallowing up of London and Westminster. Even the Cock-lane ghost had been laid only a round dozen of years, after rapping out its messages, as the spirits of this very year last past (supernaturally deficient in originality) rapped out theirs. Mere messages in the earthly order of events had lately come to the English Crown and People, from a congress of British subjects in America:

which, strange to relate, have proved more important to the human race than any communications yet received through any of the chickens of the Cock-lane brood.

France, less favoured on the whole as to matters spiritual than her sister of the shield and trident, rolled with exceeding smoothness down hill, making paper money and spending it. Under the guidance of her Christian pastors, she entertained herself, besides, with such humane achievements as sentencing a youth to have his hands cut off, his tongue torn out with pincers, and his body burned alive, because he had not kneeled down in the rain to do honour to a dirty procession of monks which passed within his view, at a distance of some fifty or sixty yards. It is likely enough that, rooted in the woods of France and Norway, there were growing trees, when that sufferer was put to death, already marked by the Woodman, Fate, to come down and be sawn into boards, to make a certain movable framework with a sack and a knife in it, terrible in history. It is likely enough that in the rough outhouses of some tillers of the heavy lands adjacent to Paris, there were sheltered from the weather that very day, rude carts, bespattered with rustic mire, snuffed about by pigs, and roosted in by poultry, which the Farmer, Death, had already set apart to be his tumbrels of the Revolution. But that Woodman and that Farmer, though they work unceasingly, work silently, and no one heard them as they went about with muffled tread: the rather, forasmuch as to entertain any suspicion that they were awake, was to be atheistical and traitorous.
In England, there was scarcely an amount of order and protection to justify much national boasting. Daring burglaries by armed men, and highway robberies, took place in the capital itself every night; families were publicly cautioned not to go out of town without removing their furniture to upholsterers' warehouses for security; the highwayman in the dark was a City tradesman in the light, and, being recognised and challenged by his fellow-tradesman whom he stopped in his character of "the Captain," gallantly shot him through the head and rode away; the mall was waylaid by seven robbers, and the guard shot three dead, and then got shot dead himself by the other four, "in consequence of the failure of his ammunition:" after which the mall was robbed in peace; that magnificent potentate, the Lord Mayor of London, was made to stand and deliver on Turnham Green, by one highwayman, who despoiled the illustrious creature in sight of all his retinue; prisoners in London gaols fought battles with their turnkeys, and the majesty

of the law fired blunderbusses in among them, loaded with rounds of shot and ball; thieves snipped off diamond crosses from the necks of noble lords at Court drawing-rooms; musketeers went into St. Giles's, to search for contraband goods, and the mob fired on the musketeers, and the musketeers fired on the mob, and nobody thought any of these occurrences much out of the common way. In the midst of them, the hangman, ever busy and ever worse than useless, was in constant requisition; now, stringing up long rows of miscellaneous criminals; now, hanging a housebreaker on Saturday who had been taken on Tuesday; now, burning people in the hand at Newgate by the dozen, and now burning pamphlets at the door of Westminster Hall; to-day, taking the life of an atrocious murderer, and to-morrow of a wretched pilferer who had robbed a farmer's boy of sixpence.

All these things, and a thousand like them, came to pass in and close upon the dear old year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five. Environed by them, while the Woodman and the Farmer worked unheeded, those two of the large jaws, and those other two of the plain and the fair faces, trod with stir enough, and carried their divine rights with a high hand. Thus did the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five conduct their Greatnesses, and myriads of small creatures -- the creatures of this chronicle among the rest -- along the roads that lay before them.

paddyandy

Akrasia ; A wonderful original post you obviously understand how it gradually develops .I hope people will study it .Well done unfortunately our journalists often lack the courage to write clearly enough as you do .I understand that too .

seamus

"What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?"

Plato wrote that. 2,400 years ago.

All people yearn for the better times of their youth. But it's a fallacy, a cognitive biaise. Standards are not slipping, society is not crumbling, and the world is not a worse place now than it was when you were young. In fact it's better. Much, much better.

dr.bollocko

seamus wrote: »

"What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?"

Plato wrote that. 2,400 years ago.

All people yearn for the better times of their youth. But it's a fallacy, a cognitive biaise. Standards are not slipping, society is not crumbling, and the world is not a worse place now than it was when you were young. In fact it's better. Much, much better.

"Plato was only a bollox"

- Bowlo.

paddyandy

A lot of people on boards have very short attention spans and some none at all .

Thatnastyboy

paddyandy wrote: »

A lot of people on boards have very short attention spans and some none at all .

tl;dr

paddyandy

AKrasia ; I've filed your original post .I'll keep it in mind to put it about but i'll remove source and take the expletive out of it and if you have any objections please pm me and your request will be honoured .Don't worry .