the conspiracy theory is out to get me
In my meanderings around the internets I’ve noticed something odd recently…
There are an increasing frequency of, what I guess you’d call, nationalistic inflammatory topics.
A good example of this is the use of the number 10 websites e-petition, with an emotive subject that is entirely false:
“The world-famous Red Arrows have been banned from appearing at the 2012 London Olympics because they are deemed “Too British”.”
These petitions then get sent round, stirring people up… mostly, people who won’t bother to take 2 secs to check if its true or not.. which of course it isn’t.
The thing that concerns me, is that, whilst these things are largely completely false and at best based on a distorted actual event they are creating an increasing “us and them” feel in the general population… hell, I’ll admit when I first saw the red arrows one, my reaction was “how ridiculous”… ask yourself honestly, if you didn’t know that was false, would you of a) been appalled at “political correctness gone mad” and b) signed it?
Whats clever about these stories, is the sentiments they stir up… recently, I’ve seen similar things about Muslim doctors refusing to treat female patients… Immigrant related crime “warnings” – one of these is doing the rounds on email, its actually quite funny, wish I’d kept it now to stick up… another is a very clever attack on the surnames of small shop keepers in a recent story on small licencee’s serving to underage customers…
These posts are cropping up in all kinds of places: forums on health, money, newspaper online comments (see previous post on that one!) and even clubbing websites.
Here’s the million dollar question… whats causing this trend?
1) There is no trend, you’re just noticing them more.
2) The population as a whole is becoming more averse to these issues due to over-immigration/overly p.c. regulation/political opinion.
3) A cleverly orchestrated campaign by a, lets say, political party with a vested interest.
Surely not… I mean, when I traced a couple of examples back to their source, its a co-incidence they ended in a similar place right?
You decide.
Recenlty read this in the papers:-
Children’s books that don’t have happy endings should be banned, it was claimed yesterday.
Youngsters are already exposed to enough misery in their lives and should be protected from such stories, says a parents’ group.
The Happy Ending Foundation is planning a series of Bad Book Bonfires for later this month, when parents will be encouraged to burn novels with negative endings.