Fucking this. Can we all just take a minute to marvel at the cognitive phenomenon. The only thing I can figure is that this sort of behavior provided an evolutionary advantage at some point in the long distant past, but as human populations scaled up beyond small tribes and villages it becomes a malignant adaptation instead.
Rapid onset collectivism in the face of a large external threat is actually highly useful when confronting solitary predators.
If a Bird of Prey attacks a bird, the whole flock starts freaking the fuck out and basically sniping the Bird of Prey. They will follow it for quite some time as well.
If a single lion attacks an ape, all the other apes start to lose their shit and start (again) taking shots at the lion.
It's all basically a prey/herd response to a single outside threat.
Because humans have an incredible capacity for abstraction, some highly cognitive humans are clever enough to frame an abstraction in the exact same way you would display a solitary predator attack, in order to generate the same collectivist response. That collectivism temporarily modifies everyone's behavior. However, humans are social animals, but they are not herd animals. So, in order to be controlled, you have to have perpetual attacks that keep the collectivism going for as long as possible. You have to actually try to imbue the collectivism into their sense of self, so that they are too afraid to be without it. If you turn that collectivism into a dependency, then you've got a slave.
The evolutionary tool of mobilized temporary collectivism (effectively: marshaling), is still useful. You see it a lot, nowadays, when people try to hijack planes. Random people just all temporarily act in unison to attack a significant external threat that endangers each individual. The problem is that the human capacity for abstraction (a newer evolutionary tool, maybe 40,000 years old) is mingling with this absolutely ancient evolutionary tool (probably older than 40 million), and it gives us a giant mental exploit that other humans can create.
This is why "self-discipline" & "reasoning" is one of the most recent and advanced evolutionary tools we have to patch this exploit. Conscious effort to control emotion, and skeptically analyze a problem (once no longer burdened by immediate emotional stimuli) allows humans to resist such provocations. But it requires genuine emotional and mental fortitude through conscious training. Our modern authoritarian societies despise such things, and promote the opposite of that. This is why emotional incontinence is promoted and why stoicism is seen as evil.
This is not hysteria. It's orchestrated and there are very important differences. Hysteria is ultimately irrational and you have to respond to it based on the fact that it is not something that can be rationally assessed or predicted.
BLM is a tool used by several distinct groups in society to achieve more power. The fact that many of its cannon fodder are clueless idiots is beside the point. This is the nature of most large-scale political movements. Usually the grunts appear more rational but they still tend to have no idea what the actual goals of the people pulling the strings are, this applies to warfare too.
In this case there are four main factions who have rational reasons for causing absolute mayhem:
Black Supremacists: Feed on the system of white guilt and know they can get more social and political influence from promoting racial disharmony.
Marxists (including intersectional SJWs and Antifa): Hope to destabilize the capitalist, liberal democratic system and replace it with their alternative and fuck the cost to the common people. We all go up against the wall before they turn on each other.
The Democrats: Hope that the mayhem will cause a backlash against Trump. They've screwed themselves but utter stupidity is not the same as irrationality.
Soros and Co: Why Soros and his kind are funding these activities is harder to gauge. Maybe it's the Zionist element hoping that increasing 'white guilt' is good for Zionism/Israel. Maybe its something related to Trump. Maybe it's about destabilizing the economy so they can make a killing in typical vulture capitalist fashion. Again, I don't know but they seem to be a distinct faction.
Soros and co provide funding. Democrats provide political and legal cover for rioting. BLM and Antifa organisers (who understand their end goals aren't actually about police violence or systemic racism) provide the clueless idiots who go out and smash things up.
The fodder might be succumbing to hysteria but if you overlook the people playing this as a political game, you're not going to give them the response that's required.
Largest Scale Mass Hysteria?
That would be Wuflu lockdowns.
Fucking this. Can we all just take a minute to marvel at the cognitive phenomenon. The only thing I can figure is that this sort of behavior provided an evolutionary advantage at some point in the long distant past, but as human populations scaled up beyond small tribes and villages it becomes a malignant adaptation instead.
Rapid onset collectivism in the face of a large external threat is actually highly useful when confronting solitary predators.
If a Bird of Prey attacks a bird, the whole flock starts freaking the fuck out and basically sniping the Bird of Prey. They will follow it for quite some time as well.
If a single lion attacks an ape, all the other apes start to lose their shit and start (again) taking shots at the lion.
It's all basically a prey/herd response to a single outside threat.
Because humans have an incredible capacity for abstraction, some highly cognitive humans are clever enough to frame an abstraction in the exact same way you would display a solitary predator attack, in order to generate the same collectivist response. That collectivism temporarily modifies everyone's behavior. However, humans are social animals, but they are not herd animals. So, in order to be controlled, you have to have perpetual attacks that keep the collectivism going for as long as possible. You have to actually try to imbue the collectivism into their sense of self, so that they are too afraid to be without it. If you turn that collectivism into a dependency, then you've got a slave.
The evolutionary tool of mobilized temporary collectivism (effectively: marshaling), is still useful. You see it a lot, nowadays, when people try to hijack planes. Random people just all temporarily act in unison to attack a significant external threat that endangers each individual. The problem is that the human capacity for abstraction (a newer evolutionary tool, maybe 40,000 years old) is mingling with this absolutely ancient evolutionary tool (probably older than 40 million), and it gives us a giant mental exploit that other humans can create.
This is why "self-discipline" & "reasoning" is one of the most recent and advanced evolutionary tools we have to patch this exploit. Conscious effort to control emotion, and skeptically analyze a problem (once no longer burdened by immediate emotional stimuli) allows humans to resist such provocations. But it requires genuine emotional and mental fortitude through conscious training. Our modern authoritarian societies despise such things, and promote the opposite of that. This is why emotional incontinence is promoted and why stoicism is seen as evil.
This is not hysteria. It's orchestrated and there are very important differences. Hysteria is ultimately irrational and you have to respond to it based on the fact that it is not something that can be rationally assessed or predicted.
BLM is a tool used by several distinct groups in society to achieve more power. The fact that many of its cannon fodder are clueless idiots is beside the point. This is the nature of most large-scale political movements. Usually the grunts appear more rational but they still tend to have no idea what the actual goals of the people pulling the strings are, this applies to warfare too.
In this case there are four main factions who have rational reasons for causing absolute mayhem:
Black Supremacists: Feed on the system of white guilt and know they can get more social and political influence from promoting racial disharmony.
Marxists (including intersectional SJWs and Antifa): Hope to destabilize the capitalist, liberal democratic system and replace it with their alternative and fuck the cost to the common people. We all go up against the wall before they turn on each other.
The Democrats: Hope that the mayhem will cause a backlash against Trump. They've screwed themselves but utter stupidity is not the same as irrationality.
Soros and Co: Why Soros and his kind are funding these activities is harder to gauge. Maybe it's the Zionist element hoping that increasing 'white guilt' is good for Zionism/Israel. Maybe its something related to Trump. Maybe it's about destabilizing the economy so they can make a killing in typical vulture capitalist fashion. Again, I don't know but they seem to be a distinct faction.
Soros and co provide funding. Democrats provide political and legal cover for rioting. BLM and Antifa organisers (who understand their end goals aren't actually about police violence or systemic racism) provide the clueless idiots who go out and smash things up.
The fodder might be succumbing to hysteria but if you overlook the people playing this as a political game, you're not going to give them the response that's required.