the herd

Some people think upon learning history, that the people of other times were foolish but not us. We are in the here and now. We are too smart to just be lemmings. If we were alive in the 30s we would not let Hitler seize power, if we were alive in the 50s we would not let the medical world use electric shock therapy as a therapy. In the 60s we would never be part of the mob burning Beatle records. We would be smart enough to grasp the twisting of Lennon’s comments and dismissal of his point entirely. I listened to Glenn Greenwald interview Robert Kennedy Jr. and afterward started following his Twitter feed. I like what Kennedy says and a lot of his history. Almost immediately, if I share that view, people want me to know he is an anti-vaxxer. All want me to know he is not sane. His anti-war views, his pro environment views, his anti-out of control corporate rule, his anti-pollution work, all not worth exploring because …you know. I watched Bernie Sanders gain traction for taking intelligent stances on significant issues and the closer he got to power the sooner the mainstream reaction was to discredit him as though reaching angry young white men was his goal all along. As if angry young white men are a voting block and they were behind him. Especially amazing when Benjamin Dixon tried to counter the untruth of that https://youtu.be/yrNtEERflr4, but it is one thing to play an open stage, it is another understand business as usual at Universal or Warner Bros.

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  1. A typical Torontonian: “someone has a slightly different opinion than me and a slightly differe that opinion of what the media and government are telling me is true, or this person is just slightly right of center, or sensibly opposing illegal immigration or standing for freedom of expression, so they’re my sworn enemy.” I’ll never understand this Torontonian mindset. It’s tragic what happened to that city. People were just normal before. Now it’s a witch hunt against anyone who doesn’t vote Liberal or NDP. 90% of Torontonians are freedom/democracy hating assholes who despise individual thought.

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    1. I don’t think it is unique to Toronto or new to life generally. The point was how the herd mentality is part of the human experience and thinking you might not be susceptible is questionable.

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