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Cracked.com: 5 Ways Powerful People Trick You Into Hating Protesters

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13,774
http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-ways-powerful-people-trick-you-into-hating-underdogs/

I think this is one of those websites that does edutainment listicles (I know all the hip new buzzwords), but this just reminded me a bit of some of the things we've seen with CFS.

#5. Wait For One Of Them To Break The Law, Then Talk Only About That

[Isn't there one case that's been referred to a few times, but it's so weak they have to imply that there's lots of serious police concern about people not breaking the law]

#4. Convince The Powerful Majority That They're The Oppressed Ones

[Poor Sir Simon]


#3. Focus On Their Most Frivolous Complaints (And Most Unlikable Members)

[Didn't Hanlon dig up patient with alcohol problems (not exactly common with CFS) who'd been done for a child sex/pornography crime?]


#2. Pit Two Disadvantaged Groups Against One Another (And Insist That Only One Can "Win")

['If you're unhappy with the quality of psychiatric research into CFS, you're stigmatising those with mental health problems. Why are you so dismissive of the suffering of those with schizophrenia?']


#1. Insist That Any Change Will Ruin The World


[Okay - maybe they don't do this one]
 
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Kyla

ᴀɴɴɪᴇ ɢꜱᴀᴍᴩᴇʟ
Messages
721
Location
Canada
#1. Insist That Any Change Will Ruin The World

[Okay - maybe they don't do this one]

Oh they ABSOLUTELY use this one.

It's the implication that if they validate ME millions of hardworking ambitious people will suddenly decide to quit their jobs and lie in bed all day whilst collecting benefits.

You know. Because anyone would actually choose to live like this.
 
Messages
13,774
Oh they ABSOLUTELY use this one.

It's the implication that if they validate ME millions of hardworking ambitious people will suddenly decide to quit their jobs and lie in bed all day whilst collecting benefits.

You know. Because anyone would actually choose to live like this.

Yeah, that is an undercurrent to things I hadn't thought of. I was only going for the more explicit stuff.
 

worldbackwards

Senior Member
Messages
2,051
As far as no.1 goes, I've absolutely read Wessely talking about 'dangerous radicals setting back the progress of science'. It's a kind of hegemony (showing off my university education there) that you see a lot of in conservative institutions, a no nonsense, 'all is right with the world, don't go spoiling things' argument, where Richard Dawkins sits on high judging things with unimpeachable impartiality and anything else is judged to be 'unscientific', with the threat that, should anyone tamper with this natural order, you'd have homeopaths on crack selling healing crystals on the NHS in about five minutes. IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT, HMMMM, HMMMM?

Basically, the 'Sense About Science types use 'unscientific' in the same way that the word 'unnatural' is applied by fundamentalist religions to things like homosexuality, in a knee jerk, 'everything stays the same or WE ALL DIE' reaction that has no bearing on the real world whatsoever.

I want to be in a band called 'homeopaths on crack'.
 
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Snowdrop

Rebel without a biscuit
Messages
2,933
I want to be in a band called 'homeopaths on crack'.

That phrase was actually used in a tv series. Kristin Chenoweth says something to that effect in Pushing Daisies. :D

Sorry, off topic but this list should be stickied and countermeasures taken whenever dealing with public media.
 

worldbackwards

Senior Member
Messages
2,051
That phrase was actually used in a tv series. Kristin Chenoweth says something to that effect in Pushing Daisies. :D
I watched a bit of that - I wonder if it's stuck in my sub-conscious somewhere. Or perhaps it's a well known fact that all homeopaths take crack. Anyone crack smoking homeopaths here wish to confirm?

Actually, I've met George Lewith. That's probably where I've got it from :)
Sorry, off topic but this list should be stickied and countermeasures taken whenever dealing with public media.
Indeed it do.
 
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5,238
Location
Sofa, UK
I think my example falls under type 5...except that they didn't wait for protesters to break the law, they just invented completely spurious police injuries (in a co-ordinated fashion) and then publicly claimed that large numbers of injuries were sustained by police at the demonstration. This lie was plastered across the news media and the protesters got some very bad PR from it.

My sister was there as one of the protesters, and suffered what seems to have been some kind of post-traumatic stress from the vicious police tactics at the demo. She was then shocked to read the claim of large numbers of police injuries, when the entire protest had been scrupulously non-violent and the protesters (including herself) had been extensively trained in non-violent demonstration. She was working as a researcher for an MP at the time, so she submitted a Freedom of Information request and got the MP to ask the right question in the house, as a result of which came the following news story:
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2008/dec/15/kingsnorth-climate-change-environment-police

injuries reported included "stung on finger by possible wasp"; "officer injured sitting in car"; and "officer succumbed to sun and heat". One officer cut his arm on a fence when climbing over it, another cut his finger while mending a car, and one "used leg to open door and next day had pain in lower back".

Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, the news reports about the violent policing of the demonstration, and the lies that had been told about injuries sustained by officers, were very low-profile, so the strategy of distorting the public's perception of what had happened was successful.

It does rather remind me of the press coverage of 'harrassment' of researchers by ME campaigners...except that we have not (yet) succeeded in getting any kind of explanation of who and what this claim was based on. Representing activists as aggressive and violent, and whitewashing the point they are making out of the press, clearly remains an effective tactic to prevent the general public from learning what the activists are actually protesting about...in the UK, at least...
 

Snowdrop

Rebel without a biscuit
Messages
2,933
Where were the journalists that reported on the event?
Could they not see for themselves what was what?

Any protest needs to have witnesses and lots of video coverage if this kind of manipulation is going to occur.
Intrenched groups with something to loose always come prepared. I think protesters need to up their game realise the stakes and be prepared for the evil intentions of the status quo.