honesty required

Sarge

Ok,  I'm pished, so very very pished, and all I've had all night is tabloid racist bullshit from the inlaws, unbelievably backed up by the missus (God knows why as she always acknowledges how fucked up her mam and father in law is ) on how it's all the Romanians fault because "the last 3 rapes committed In Scotland were by Romanians" 
yet as far as Google will let me find the last 98% of crimes committed in Scotland were committed by Scottish people. 
And that perennial "you've had a few too many"  argument  seems to hold so much sway, ........ why can't people just admit that their only source of world  news is fed to them by A,  a government who needs you to think this particular way.. or B,  the media publications who also need you to think that way.? 
why can't people just be honest and admit they only form their opinions based on what their favoured media wants them to believe? 
I'm one of them(media fed)  but I'm willing to accept my opinions are wrong once proven otherwise! 


fuck,  I hope this makes sense! 

Sarge

shit,  where's the rum gone? 

paulnb57

Sarge said:

shit,  where's the rum gone? 

Did a Romanian steal it?

richardhomer

I've just read this sober.

I need a drink....

thumpingrug

Yes it makes sense.  I have similar arguments with my farther who's only news comes from a provincial newspaper.  He blames the Poles for all the ills in the world.  He has access to the internet but as "it only exists to steal the money from my bank account" he hardly uses it.    His view of the world comes from a very biased source and now that he's retired (he's in his mid 70's and disabled) he mixes with few people and has no other input.   Mind when he worked all he read was the Sun so his starting point was always very low.   

TheBlueWolf

Yeah some do blindly accept what they read/hear as gospel without looking into the story. As far as I'm aware pretty much all media is biased or plays to a certain angle or commonly held perception. Same applies to government.

I usually take every story with a pinch of salt until I've done some research.

Sambostar

Stuff like that would probably get me mad.  I don't mind theories based on nonsense but based on the media gets my goat and it can come from either end of the liberal-nazi spectrum.  The brainwashed channel 4 and BBC disciples are as bad as Fox News in my book.  My dentist is Romanian and I have bad teeth and she is great.  Although it's my understanding that they have a shortage of decent dentists in Romania these days.  I mean philanthropy doesn't really run high with the dental profession in general.

Iamnobody

Sambostar said:

I mean philanthropy doesn't really run high with the dental profession in general.

Paul Reed Smiths aren't cheap you know...

Myranda

Confirmation bias is a thing - once you get an opinion, you tend to gravitate towards things that enforce your opinion, and move away from things that contradict it...

Even smart people who have done research-based qualifications where they literally spend years trying to over-come their confirmation bias to make their thesis top notch enough to get their qualification can fall foul and wind up adamantly defending bullshit...

As to the whole "immigrants are the rapists and murderists" type argument - it's always been a reasonable estimate that 80% ish of violent crime is committed by people you know - friends, relatives, co-workers so, it would seem likely that most of the immigrant crime would be against other immigrants - so surely racists shouldn't be that upset, and violence against natives would be most likely by other natives ... now, if that supposition is correct then migrants account for what, 10% of people... so logically most of the violent crime is people born here... at least, that's my thinking - I'd love to see some actual statistics, but it's too sunday morning to bother with researching it properly

Roland

'Twas ever thus. We've always got our "information" from a limited number of biased sources. We selectively filter that information, and accept that which fits with our world view. We then discuss it with like minded individuals who reinforce our prejudices.

One of the things I like about this forum is that we get different opinions. Sometimes they are born out of hands on experience. Sometimes they come from a different perspective on life. Generally we're a pretty tolerant bunch, and this mixed community generates some interesting discussions. 

CabbageCat

Sarge said:

 why can't people just admit that their only source of world  news is fed to them by A,  a government who needs you to think this particular way.. or B,  the media publications who also need you to think that way.?  

Maybe because they use social media?

Sambostar

People can't handle the truth




There is a slight point to be made though that life is basically what you believe, so the question is, if you don't actually believe in anything, are you actually alive?  mmmm

Cirrus

I wrote a song about these kind of people, it's going to be on my unknown failure of an album. I've had conversations with my own family that anger me, you'll get some bullshit about how immigrants are causing all the crime and no amount of hard statistics will convince them otherwise. Then there's my grandad who was so incensed by the idea of the Calias migrants being helped by the French to cross the channel that he was ranting about shooting them.

This one's dedicated to Katie Hopkins, anyway;

Measure of a Man

You cannot satisfy them, they creep across the land, they want to be the only way
Green fields are built upon, black towers rise above you, tinted windows darken every day
So now we lock our doors, and though we carry phones, isolated sheep don't understand
Clubs replaced by media, society's been put on hold, suckling at the state they hold out hand

It's not your place to have a care
To decide what makes the measure of a man
To see the world as black as you do
I'd hoped that given time you'd understand

I hope you're listening, don't ever let them in, at the borders just turn them away
And as they stand before you, they've given everything, just to give you the chance to say
You're not welcome here, your kind are just rapists and thieves
We need the balls to say it's not OK to get in here, think you're the same as me?

It's not your place to have a care
To decide what makes the measure of a man
To see the world as black as you do
I'd hoped that given time you'd understand

That by the time they get here, they've carried the weight of the world
Can't you see you're parcelling dirt to sell to the dregs of the earth? You sicken me
Shouldn't be so quick to judge, but you said to me;
"I'd let them crawl from the globe or drown at sea, I don't care where they go when they go from here
I struggle to see why I'd care if they die, it's not like their problems are mine if you let me decide."

There's a place where they go that you can't see
In the back of a truck where they can't breathe
And you lay the blame

Sarge

I've just reread this sober,  I'm not sure if it's a good thing that I'm just as coherent sober as I am drunk! 

ourmaninthenorth

Doesn't the in-laws house have doors?

At the first sign of such nonsense I'm gone....out through the door marked out. Funnily enough the invites dry up eventually, a blessing of which I'm eternally thankful for. 

Moe_Zambeek

They're probably responding to the story from this week of the Romanian man who dragged a schoolgirl aged 14 into the bushes outside a supermarket in Barrhead and raped her. Big story.

He's also playing to other racial stereotypes by also being charged with theft!

Sarge

@ourmaninthenorth they're staying with us, plus we don't have a spare room so I even have that racist biggot wanker sleeping in my bed! 

Sarge

Moe_Zambeek said:

They're probably responding to the story from this week of the Romanian man who dragged a schoolgirl aged 14 into the bushes outside a supermarket in Barrhead and raped her. Big story.

He's also playing to other racial stereotypes by also being charged with theft!

Exactly this! 

Drew_TNBD

Moe_Zambeek said:

They're probably responding to the story from this week of the Romanian man who dragged a schoolgirl aged 14 into the bushes outside a supermarket in Barrhead and raped her. Big story.

Nah. It never happened. Immigrants and non-British never do anything wrong. Rotherham was a flase flag operation too.

Cirrus

Drew_fx said:

Moe_Zambeek said:

They're probably responding to the story from this week of the Romanian man who dragged a schoolgirl aged 14 into the bushes outside a supermarket in Barrhead and raped her. Big story.

Nah. It never happened. Immigrants and non-British never do anything wrong. Rotherham was a flase flag operation too.

FINALLY some sense from you

Nah, obviously that's bollocks and immigrants DO commit crimes, even at a disproportionate rate due to human nature being what it is when people are down and out, have nothing to lose, and are from poorer areas with worse education, more poverty etc. As usual I'm not entirely clear what your point is because you usually obfuscate it behind sarcasm/ dry wit.

Gassage

On the flip side, imagine a kid in a village in Afghanistan, who only has maybe one TV in his region, with only local news, who just lost his parents jn a US raid.

Can you imagine how you'd feel in his shoes?