• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Boogeyman list, can you help me compile it?

Page 4 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
This is one of the best threads in a long time. :beer:

Originally posted by: Auric


Identity Theft

Mad Cow Disease/CJD
Click to expand...
Those two should make the list IMO. Mad cow was played up enough to make it in to pop culture stuff/media, and I.D. Theft has effected many people(that'll keep you up at night!), and the fear of it has driven millions to buy insurance/protection.

Now, how the hell isn't G.W.B. on the list?!? He scares some of these guys in P&N shitless. 😉

My candidates are-

1. Violent Video Games- The MSM is definitely trying to make them a boggeyman.

2. Guns- They give millions a 10/10 pucker factor.



 
Originally posted by: JD50
Global cooling...oops, wait, now its global warming.
Click to expand...

We're calling it "Climate Change" now. That way when the earth starts cooling again we can still say its all our fault and that we were right all along.
 
Excellent thread idea, Skoorb. My $0.02 on the subject:

The idea for the trilogy was suggested by an older man telling that he didn't think life was ruled by love, or reason, or money, or the pursuit of happiness -- but by fear. This smart-but cynical guy's position was that most people's actions are motivated by fear of being hungry, fear of being hurt, fear of being alone, fear of being robbed, etc., and that people don't make choices based on hope that something good will happen, but in fear that something bad will happen.

I reacted to this the way all of us tend to react to generalities: "Well, I'm not like that!" But then I started thinking about it more, watching the way people around me behaved, and I soon realised that there was something to this viewpoint, So I sketched out the three "theaters of fear," as I saw them: how fear works inside us ("The Enemy Within"), how fear is used against us ("The Weapon"), and how fear feeds the mob mentality ("Witch Hunt").

As it happened, the last theme was easiest to deal with, so it was written first, and consequently appeared first on record, and the other two followed in reverse order for the same reason.
Click to expand...
Text

The Enemy Within
The Weapon
Witch Hunt

This is IMO the greatest insight that a person can make to their own motivations. It is not until you can wake up to how fear can control you that you can wake up to how fear forces you to allow others to control you and manipulate you. Fear is the means by which humans instill and maintain dominance and and control over each other, just like hierarchy in a pack of dogs. When you feel fear that has been instilled in you by someone else, then you are in fact submitting to that someone else. This is IMO very important to this particular forum, because in nearly all cases and all posts from all partisan positions, fear and the source of that fear are the key points put forth. The posters here are, in a very real sense, advertising WITH PRIDE who their masters are, who pulls their puppet strings, and attempting to heap fear and scorn upon the rest of us for not placing those same shackles upon us.
 
Originally posted by: PingSpike
Originally posted by: JD50
Global cooling...oops, wait, now its global warming.
Click to expand...

We're calling it "Climate Change" now. That way when the earth starts cooling again we can still say its all our fault and that we were right all along.
Click to expand...

Global cooling was just as real as global warming. Ironically, the one lead to the other. When emissions were particulate-dense, they had the effect of cutting off sunlight. When emissions were scrubbed of their particulates leaving primarily CO2 and other greenhouse gases, then the opposite occurred. Which is why (and you may not have seen this before) I occasionally joke (because it's true) that catalytic converters cause global warming. It's one of the great unintended consequences (or "revenge effects") of the environmental movement.
Elaborating on that last bit, all ideas and agendas have unintended consequences. A "revenge effect" is inevitable. No matter how hard one tries, some evil will always come of every good-intended action, and likewise some good will always result from every evil action. Think of it as 2 steps forward, 1 step back in everything you do. It is IMO for this reason that collective agendas tend to stray from their original purpose, they eventually begin spending more time and resources attempting to fix and cover up their unintended consequences than on their original goal.
 
Vic

As an armchair psychologist, I like to observe how people act and what motivates them, and one of the things I do consistently see is that people are scared. It's like they need fear. Perhaps it's the best motivator, but if people cannot be afraid of something, they don't know what to do. Once a major fear is diverted, they jump to another. If global warming could unequivocally be controlled by us so that everything was peachy in that arena, some in the world would breath a quick sign of relief and then the media would feed their fear by finding something else to latch onto. The overriding theme in our world is that there always has to be something going wrong. I defy anybody to find a period in recent history (since it's better documented) in which there was not something major for people to get anxious about.

because in nearly all cases and all posts from all partisan positions, fear and the source of that fear are the key points put forth.
Click to expand...

Yep! I mean look we have something as historically unimportant to the US as terrorism that has motivated an entire political discourse for several years now.
 
Originally posted by: Skoorb
Vic

As an armchair psychologist, I like to observe how people act and what motivates them, and one of the things I do consistently see is that people are scared. It's like they need fear. Perhaps it's the best motivator, but if people cannot be afraid of something, they don't know what to do. Once a major fear is diverted, they jump to another. If global warming could unequivocally be controlled by us so that everything was peachy in that arena, some in the world would breath a quick sign of relief and then the media would feed their fear by finding something else to latch onto. The overriding theme in our world is that there always has to be something going wrong. I defy anybody to find a period in recent history (since it's better documented) in which there was not something major for people to get anxious about.

because in nearly all cases and all posts from all partisan positions, fear and the source of that fear are the key points put forth.
Click to expand...

Yep! I mean look we have something as historically unimportant to the US as terrorism that has motivated an entire political discourse for several years now.
Click to expand...

Fear is a potent and highly addictive drug. The chemical responses are are not dissimilar to amphetamines. Plus, as I mentioned earlier, it has evolved in social animals as a means of establishing hierarchy, and finding one's place in society gives one a sense of purpose, reason, and order. The word "terrorism" is just another trigger for the fear response among countless others.
 
How auspicious! I was just in the break room (they have Fox news on, sadly) and honest to God, the headline on the screen was "NEW THREAT" and some idiot talking about the power grid, so we're back to that again. Also, no word of a lie, he mentioned identity theft in his spiel.
 
Its certainly true that fear is a powerful motivator, and that it controls people's lives more then they would be willing to admit. It probably affects me more then I think, I know it affects my decisions and I know I spend a good deal of time worrying about things that probably won't ever happen.

It is like a drug. I mean, look at the news. We all watch it. And its depressing. But we feel a need to be informed about the "New Threats". But there's only so many threats of consequence, and the news is on every night so sometimes they have to make a big deal out of nothing.

Its probably a basal thing, and maybe its inherently human. Afterall, humans didn't rise to the top of the food chain by being faster or stronger, we got there by thinking more. And that included thinking ahead beyond our immediate fears...what do I do if the crops fail? Or a bear invades the cave? We have to fear to plan ahead. Only now we are more divorced from these things, the hunger for a problem to solve is still there. And an epic problem (not necessarily real) is the most appealing.
 
Originally posted by: Vic
Originally posted by: Skoorb
Vic

As an armchair psychologist, I like to observe how people act and what motivates them, and one of the things I do consistently see is that people are scared. It's like they need fear. Perhaps it's the best motivator, but if people cannot be afraid of something, they don't know what to do. Once a major fear is diverted, they jump to another. If global warming could unequivocally be controlled by us so that everything was peachy in that arena, some in the world would breath a quick sign of relief and then the media would feed their fear by finding something else to latch onto. The overriding theme in our world is that there always has to be something going wrong. I defy anybody to find a period in recent history (since it's better documented) in which there was not something major for people to get anxious about.

because in nearly all cases and all posts from all partisan positions, fear and the source of that fear are the key points put forth.
Click to expand...

Yep! I mean look we have something as historically unimportant to the US as terrorism that has motivated an entire political discourse for several years now.
Click to expand...

Fear is a potent and highly addictive drug. The chemical responses are are not dissimilar to amphetamines. Plus, as I mentioned earlier, it has evolved in social animals as a means of establishing hierarchy, and finding one's place in society gives one a sense of purpose, reason, and order. The word "terrorism" is just another trigger for the fear response among countless others.
Click to expand...

On the other hand it's possible that a jaded, apathetic attitude could cost a society dearly when confronted with real dangers. Just because something might be overblown doesn't mean it doesn't exist. I get what you are saying, but I also believe there's a trendy counter-movement that sees itself as some sort of uber sophisticated intellectual elite and not subject to the fears and dangers that surround us. They are somehow above the crass emotions and urges of the masses. Well, just as some people might take things too far, others will refuse to take them anywhere. Fear CAN be a potent and highly addictive drug. Fear can ALSO be part of a rational, realistic appraisal of the situation and a potent warning. Something like fear is just like any emotion: They have a useful purpose but can be twisted.

 
I also believe there's a trendy counter-movement that sees itself as some sort of uber sophisticated intellectual elite and not subject to the fears and dangers that surround us. They are somehow above the crass emotions and urges of the masses.
Click to expand...
Superb, you just described in to a T and quite succinctly. Actually, I do fear things, but I believe I am better able to judget their relevancy. For instance, I fear dying prematurely from a health related problem and the numbers say this is valid, so I take care of myself. I am not likely to die from terrorism, though, so I pay it little heed. Perhaps we can all assuage unrealistic fears with some basic training in statistics.
 
This morning I had to turn off the TV because of that fire in London. The reporter kept saying, "as far as we know, this is not a terror related incident." Seems like every story lately has to include that sentence.

How about going forward we assume events are not terror related until we have some evidence that they are? Throwing the word 'terrorist' out every 6 seconds in stories totally unrelated to terror (california wild fires???) just dilutes any real threat.
 
Originally posted by: sirjonk
This morning I had to turn off the TV because of that fire in London. The reporter kept saying, "as far as we know, this is not a terror related incident." Seems like every story lately has to include that sentence.

How about going forward we assume events are not terror related until we have some evidence that they are? Throwing the word 'terrorist' out every 6 seconds in stories totally unrelated to terror (california wild fires???) just dilutes any real threat.
Click to expand...
It's irritating. I don't know if the fault lies with media here or the people who would just assume it must have been a terrorist and they need to be reassured that it's not, like a mother reassuring her 3 year old that there's no monster under the bed.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top