You must log in or # to comment.
Real talk, we have to figure out how to handle this kind of chronic fear and paranoia, because this shit ain’t normal, but it is frighteningly common.
Like yeah this is a hilariously over-the-top example, but the amount of people you and I both know who go through life genuinely thinking that they’re going to be the victim of a kidnapping or worse at any given time is astounding. And it’s not without impact either, because this is exactly the unfounded sense of fear that conservatives/fascists seize on to manipulate the population.
I don’t know the solution, but a world where everyone is afraid of their own shadow is a literal hellscape.
If I were a betting man, I’d wager this woman spends a lot of time scrolling through right-wing posts on Facebook about the “invasion” of Britain. A Brexit type, if you will.
That’s just speculation in this specific case, but the amount of fear-mongering right-wing content on social media is absolutely a contributor to this kind of worldview more broadly.
A contributor? I would call it a primary source, tbh.
There were people who went out and shot at water towers during the radio airing of War of the World’s. Floridians will routinely try to make hurricanes go away by shooting at them. Police get hundreds of calls about Venus every year.
There’s no fixing this type of stupid. All we can hope for is to keep it from spreading too far.
God damnit, stop making the case for eugenics already. Let RFK’s absurd health advice do its thing, weed them out, and we can hand out the Darwin awards in a few years.
That’s still eugenics, just as side effect
When I said no fixing I meant it. Not even genetic manipulation can fix this kind of stupid.
The solution is multi-factorial and will take a generation to implement. Expand the social safety net, expand public education to encompass critical thinking skills and researching skills, restrict private media monopolies that hold public consciousness in a deathgrip.
The way to handle it is to find the “The Architects of Fear”, getting rid of them, and making sure no new ones take their place.
I don’t think you’ll ever be able to get fully rid of religion and terrorists
for a second I thought this was a fucking onion article lol
How deep do you need to be in the propaganda to think like that?
I remember the early 2000s when basically 90% of all Americans were absolutely certain that jihadists were going to attack their local supermarket any minute now because Power Cable, Nebraska was such a strategic target.
Heck, there was a bomb scare because of an advertisement campaign for Aqua Teen Hunger Force that involved placing PCBs with LEDs on them that would display characters from the show. Because surely Al Quaeda would put conspicuous LED displays on their bombs.
News media want people to panic so they keep tuning in. Panicked people tend to come up with remarkably stupid scenarios like “Al Quaeda have unlimited resources and can show up anywhere to shoot people at random” or “Hamas want to take Dorcester as a strategic location to strike at Israel from”.
I remember in 2008 when Putin was invading Georgia (the country) there were some confused and scared people from Georgia (US state).
Ah the 20 upvotes to 14 down. Good ol’ reliable internet.
In Nate Bargatze’s recent standup special he talked about how he, a water meter reader at the time, was tasked with protecting his town’s water tower after 9/11. With a flashlight. He did a much better job making it funny than I can, but I remember that level of fear. “It’s called terrorism because they make you afraid they can hit anywhere!” I remember hearing.
Which is silly in retrospect, Al Qaeda only hit major, symbolic targets in the US and never did “hit anywhere.”
I was working for a company that was renovating and upgrading the water filtration system in the ass end of nowhere and we had some official show up to ask us what we were doing b/c someone called us in thinking we were terrorists sabotaging the water system.
That’s reasonable I think, if people are messing with infrastructure, it’s good it’s being verified they are doing legitimate work. Though don’t call them on a hunch terrorists obviously…
Don’t forget that in WW2 UK civilians were taught to pay attention to other peoples’ shoes because of rumours of hairy-handed nuns in Fallschirmjäger issue boots. This kind of shit is nothing new.
There genuinely were German spies in Britain though.
I literally had an old lady tell me that black lives matter was going to take over destroy the UK and take over Britain. Like the organisation. There are some people that are so deep in right-wing newspaper and Facebook shit that they will unironically spout something like that.
That is literally frightening. I honestly feel bad for her. That is not a good life. Pushing hate like that requires a lot of internal suffering.
Don’t do social media, kids.
I mean, we’re also using social media but can still recognize that she’s delusional. There’s a lot of different factors contributing to people’s delusions.
Do you know what else terrorists use all over the world? Cars! How long will we allow these dangerous contraptions to be freely available?
So that’s why the US banned Toyota Hyluxes.
It’s not. The real reason is so much stupider. IIRC it happened partially because of eggs.
Ahh that’s right. Chickens not eggs.
Removed by mod
Don’t the chickens come on the eggs?
That’s fish.
TIL. Flying fish or…? How do they reach the chicken eggs?
Cars have legit gotten somewhat popular as a rampage weapon in Europe. I think knives are still number one but there’s a trend for sure.
Knives are still number one because some of us can’t afford a car!? Mass murder isn’t the cushy gig it once was, between enshittification, inflation, corporate greed, etc.
That picture is not Doncaster, It’s Devils Dyke in Sussex, UK. It is facing East toward Chanctonbury Ring (furtherest hill in the distance). Behind the photographer will be a pub and a carpark. Its a drive of about 230 miles between there and Doncaster. #justsaying
Well, duh. The photo isn’t of Doncaster because it’s already fallen to Hamas.
So you’re #justsaying that the chickenshit woman is also full of regular human shit?
More likely the ‘journalist’ just grabbed a stock image (it even credits Getty Images) of paragliders.
Holy propaganda victim
deleted by creator
For one, there’s journalists picking the dumbest tweets and pretending it’s news. Then screenshots of the “news” article of a dumb tweet getting propagated on other fora.
It’s ragebate, conditioning us into a default distrust in and condescension of others.
victim of mass media brain rot
These are the same types of idiots that think they’re going to be targets of a terror attack in some small backwater town.
These types of propaganda methods really resonate with boomer types.
I remember someone that thought that they were going to be mailed anthrax back when they had the anthrax scare in the US.
-
How much anthrax do you think terrorists have that they could afford to mail it to you, a random person in the US?
-
Why do you think you’re so important that you’re going to be targeted?
You need to either be clueless or really full of yourself to think these scenarios apply to you.
The only time you’re possibly going to be caught up in something is if you’re going to an important or significant place, or you’re interacting with people much more important than you are.
-
Stupid ass
“AAAHHH! Hamas are attacking… Doncaster?”
Odd woman yells at
cloudparagliders.
sauce?
Gyo, it’s the same guy who created Uzumaki
They found a photo of the leader
Dont u dare conflate hg for pg >:[
Sorry to Americans, but at first I thought this must have been from the US.
Dont worry. The Brits are dumb as fuck too.
sLaMs
Ah yes, because paragliders obviously are a very good invasion method. How indoctrinated do you have to be to think this???
also before i clicked the imagine i thought it was the flag of estonia of a sec
tbf,
the fact that a handful of paraglider managed to overcome one of the most advanced and well financed military on the world, through one of the most militarised and surveilled borders in the world, into one of the most militarised countries in the world, is quite impressive.
There is a trick to bypassing the Israeli defenses. Just make sure what you’re doing will be giving the unhinged leader of the genocidal regime a casus belli to launch a war of conquest that they can sell as a defensive war, and suddenly you’ll find you can do anything.
AFAIK It did happen in brittain… in ww2.
