5 ms·

I think a lot of this comes from the general movement of America towards a police state. I have heard several stories of people having the cops called on them f

I think a lot of this comes from the general movement of America towards a police state. I have heard several stories of people having the cops called on them for allowing their children to play unsupervised. Some places consider it neglect to do so. Pair that with the fact that we're giving kids hyper-addictive computer terminals with access to games and the internet and an endless landscape of different things to explore with an understanding of anonymity/privacy that they can't get anywhere else and no judgement because all the other kids are doing the same thing and you've created an environment where parents are more likely to try to keep their kids inside, and the kids distracted enough to accept their imprisonment.

smelendez 8y ago
Adults get the police called on them for walking in the suburbs, too. It's obviously worse for people of color, but it happens to white people as well. Maybe most famously to Bob Dylan about a decade ago: https://www.google.com/amp/s/abcnews.go.com/amp/GMA/jersey-homeowner-calls-cops-bob-dylan/story%3fid=8331830 https://www.google.com/amp/s/abcnews.go.com/amp/GMA/jersey-h...
- NLips 8y ago
  What's sad is that the focus of the article is how a young person didn't recognise Bob Dylan, and there's an implication that if the police don't know you're a famous musician, it's no OK to walk in the rain.
Clubber 8y ago
>America towards a police state. I think this and what the article discusses are symptoms of the same thing: constant fear of everything. I'm not sure if it's that Americans scare easily, or they are constantly barraged by hyperbolic worst case scenarios everyday by the news (current business model), or a mixture of both. When FDR said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself," he was keenly aware of this fear. Americans are easy to manipulate through this, there are many examples both current and historic. I'm not a big worrier about the boogieman; I realize chicken little when I hear him. The main thing I'm scared of with the kids is internet weirdos, so I tell kids never to put their real information online other than an email.
- mercer 8y ago
  I'd guess that the 'Foxification' of news definitely plays a role, or even just the deluge of clickbaity news stories that pour into our minds via social media (and especially the easy that smartphones offer in its consumption). Another thing that I think plays a big role, and is probably related to the smartphone/social media age, is the decreasing amount of interaction with 'others', which increases the fear you describe. I grew up in various multi-ethnic environments, sometimes even as a white minority. It's fascinating (and saddening) to notice to what degree people around me immediately distrust non-whites (other than the ones that for various reasons are non-threatening subgroups). Most of these people try their best not to be racist, and probably think they have little to no prejudice, but it's apparent in all sorts of ways, however small.
  - Clubber 8y ago
    Sure, Fox is a huge fear monger, but the local news is too. "If it bleeds, it leads," is a common phrase to describe what stations use to determine what to present. It's all over, local news, national news, newspapers, news websites, political speeches. Step back and observe this stuff as a scientist analyzing propaganda and you'll be shocked at how many news stories are ultimately trying to scare the reader. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_fear https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_fear
    - mercer 8y ago
      Oh, absolutely. And it's not just news. I have a strong suspicion that the 'weaponization'/professionalization of marketing/PR/propaganda is at the root of a lot of our problems, whether social self-marketing leading to depression and anxiety, spin-doctors in politics, 'organic' corporate marketing, and the massive amount of self-expression directly linked to the latter. I am uncomfortable with these kinds of statements, because they feel too vague and a bit too Adam Curtis/Gladwellian, and it's extremely frustrating to feel that there's some 'root cause' that I can't quite put my finger on, but I truly believe that David Foster Wallace managed to get closest to the root of the issue, as I see it, in his essay on television (E Unibus Pluram[1]). Despite my discomfort at being able to properly argue for a 'root cause', and my discomfort with the idea of root causes, I can't help but feel we've just gotten too far up our own collective asses when it comes to how we look at the world and interpret it. We have the Petersons of the world blaming 'cultural marxism', the Wallaces blaming irony, and large swathes of otherwise intelligent people wasting their time and creativity on reddit memes that mostly just refer other memes. Maybe this has been what young people have done throughout the ages, and I'm just getting old, but I strongly doubt that. [1]: https://jsomers.net/DFW_TV.pdf https://jsomers.net/DFW_TV.pdf EDIT: mostly I find myself often surprised at how irony, or perhaps some kind of 'recursive perspective' has infused so much of my surroundings. Everyone is skeptical of everything, and yet seems so susceptible to the media-induced panic of the moment. I really don't mean to sound arrogant, but I expect a certain degree of referential humor/perspective from my more academic or pretentious friends, but nowadays it's a central part of even the 'working class' in a way that I feel it wasn't before, or in a way that it isn't in many other cultures I've experienced. Apologies for being a bit ranty. It's been a long day, and recent personal developments have made me yearn for a kind of directness and honesty and non-irony I just don't seem to find in my surroundings.

smelendez 8y ago

Adults get the police called on them for walking in the suburbs, too. It's obviously worse for people of color, but it happens to white people as well. Maybe most famously to Bob Dylan about a decade ago: https://www.google.com/amp/s/abcnews.go.com/amp/GMA/jersey-homeowner-calls-cops-bob-dylan/story%3fid=8331830 https://www.google.com/amp/s/abcnews.go.com/amp/GMA/jersey-h...

NLips 8y ago
What's sad is that the focus of the article is how a young person didn't recognise Bob Dylan, and there's an implication that if the police don't know you're a famous musician, it's no OK to walk in the rain.

Clubber 8y ago

>America towards a police state. I think this and what the article discusses are symptoms of the same thing: constant fear of everything. I'm not sure if it's that Americans scare easily, or they are constantly barraged by hyperbolic worst case scenarios everyday by the news (current business model), or a mixture of both. When FDR said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself," he was keenly aware of this fear. Americans are easy to manipulate through this, there are many examples both current and historic. I'm not a big worrier about the boogieman; I realize chicken little when I hear him. The main thing I'm scared of with the kids is internet weirdos, so I tell kids never to put their real information online other than an email.

mercer 8y ago
I'd guess that the 'Foxification' of news definitely plays a role, or even just the deluge of clickbaity news stories that pour into our minds via social media (and especially the easy that smartphones offer in its consumption). Another thing that I think plays a big role, and is probably related to the smartphone/social media age, is the decreasing amount of interaction with 'others', which increases the fear you describe. I grew up in various multi-ethnic environments, sometimes even as a white minority. It's fascinating (and saddening) to notice to what degree people around me immediately distrust non-whites (other than the ones that for various reasons are non-threatening subgroups). Most of these people try their best not to be racist, and probably think they have little to no prejudice, but it's apparent in all sorts of ways, however small.
- Clubber 8y ago
  Sure, Fox is a huge fear monger, but the local news is too. "If it bleeds, it leads," is a common phrase to describe what stations use to determine what to present. It's all over, local news, national news, newspapers, news websites, political speeches. Step back and observe this stuff as a scientist analyzing propaganda and you'll be shocked at how many news stories are ultimately trying to scare the reader. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_fear https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_fear
  - mercer 8y ago
    Oh, absolutely. And it's not just news. I have a strong suspicion that the 'weaponization'/professionalization of marketing/PR/propaganda is at the root of a lot of our problems, whether social self-marketing leading to depression and anxiety, spin-doctors in politics, 'organic' corporate marketing, and the massive amount of self-expression directly linked to the latter. I am uncomfortable with these kinds of statements, because they feel too vague and a bit too Adam Curtis/Gladwellian, and it's extremely frustrating to feel that there's some 'root cause' that I can't quite put my finger on, but I truly believe that David Foster Wallace managed to get closest to the root of the issue, as I see it, in his essay on television (E Unibus Pluram[1]). Despite my discomfort at being able to properly argue for a 'root cause', and my discomfort with the idea of root causes, I can't help but feel we've just gotten too far up our own collective asses when it comes to how we look at the world and interpret it. We have the Petersons of the world blaming 'cultural marxism', the Wallaces blaming irony, and large swathes of otherwise intelligent people wasting their time and creativity on reddit memes that mostly just refer other memes. Maybe this has been what young people have done throughout the ages, and I'm just getting old, but I strongly doubt that. [1]: https://jsomers.net/DFW_TV.pdf https://jsomers.net/DFW_TV.pdf EDIT: mostly I find myself often surprised at how irony, or perhaps some kind of 'recursive perspective' has infused so much of my surroundings. Everyone is skeptical of everything, and yet seems so susceptible to the media-induced panic of the moment. I really don't mean to sound arrogant, but I expect a certain degree of referential humor/perspective from my more academic or pretentious friends, but nowadays it's a central part of even the 'working class' in a way that I feel it wasn't before, or in a way that it isn't in many other cultures I've experienced. Apologies for being a bit ranty. It's been a long day, and recent personal developments have made me yearn for a kind of directness and honesty and non-irony I just don't seem to find in my surroundings.