Sweeping Generalisation

[Derek Hardballs]

Before anyone gets upset and defensive this is clearly a sweeping generalisation and there will be lots of exceptions, but why do these disparate subjects seem to bind a certain group of people together? 

Think Brexit is great
Dislike Meghan Markel 
Dislike face masks, and very anti-lockdown
Think Covid 19 is a hoax or just the flu
Support the Conservative’s without question 
Have British, US, Israeli avatars 
Want to ‘Defund the BBC’
Refuse to trust mainstream media but trust random blog and dubious social media links / ‘facts’
Think the climate change is a hoax or not that bad 

Just an observation from SM, radio and tv.

[Birdman1811]

Before anyone gets upset and defensive this is clearly a sweeping generalisation and there will be lots of exceptions, but why do these disparate subjects seem to bind a certain group of people together? 

Think Brexit is great
Dislike Meghan Markel 
Dislike face masks, and very anti-lockdown
Think Covid 19 is a hoax or just the flu
Support the Conservative’s without question 
Have British, US, Israeli avatars 
Want to ‘Defund the BBC’
Refuse to trust mainstream media but trust random blog and dubious social media links / ‘facts’
Think the climate change is a hoax or not that bad 

Just an observation from SM, radio and tv.

Don't think your wrong. I subscribe to some of that.

1. Think brexit is a disaster.
2. Couldn't care less, abolish the monarchy.
3. No issue with masks, but anti-lockdown.
4. It's certainly worse than the flu, however it has been overplayed in the media.
5. Certainly not. Think the current Tory government is one of the most inept ever.
6. Nope.
7. I do indeed.
8. Don't trust anything at first read, listen or watch, I always read further.
9. Oh Climate Change is very real.and as a species we are fucked already.

Problem is, too many just hold the positions you mention because they believe in one or more of the others, join a social media echo chamber and thats it.

[The liquidator]

Brexit and covid and backing what you believe in goes hand in hand ......and that goes for both sides of the divide .....

[Sliced]

Not that you've said this but I find the idea that if you don't like Meghan Markle it's only because you're a closet racist to be completely ridiculous. I find the fact that she simultaneously complains about being in the limelight while shoving herself back into the limelight whenever she's out of it to be disingenuous.

Also happy to defund the BBC, don't really trust it. Disagree with every other point on the list

[fuzzbox]

Before anyone gets upset and defensive this is clearly a sweeping generalisation and there will be lots of exceptions, but why do these disparate subjects seem to bind a certain group of people together? 

Think Brexit is great
Dislike Meghan Markel 
Dislike face masks, and very anti-lockdown
Think Covid 19 is a hoax or just the flu
Support the Conservative’s without question 
Have British, US, Israeli avatars 
Want to ‘Defund the BBC’
Refuse to trust mainstream media but trust random blog and dubious social media links / ‘facts’
Think the climate change is a hoax or not that bad 

Just an observation from SM, radio and tv.

Somebody once posted a link on here from a comedian who explained about how the democrats let in Trump. I think this post brings up elements of it. I'm paraphrasing, but the opinion was that the left assumed they were self-evidently right and the intellectual argument was already won. Therefore, people who believed in Trump were either stupid and racist and so not worth engaging with respectfully. Unsurprisingly, trump voters didn't like to be labelled as stupid or racist and took it personally. They were now emotionally invested in Trump and so rather than drifting away as Trump got even outrageous, they 'double-downed' with him.

I may be getting this completely wrong and making assumptions but to imply a section of the community are stupid and have a common belief in stupid ideas just polarizes opinions and only entrenches views.

Although, I've got no evidence for this, I do believe this was a large reason we lost the vote for Brexit. We thought it was 'obvious' that we should stay in and only a racist or an idiot would want to leave. Funnily enough leavers didn't like that and stopped listening to the 'obvious' reasons.

Taking your examples as an..erm...example, I don't agree with any of them (except maybe one), but I accept there's valid reasons to believe all of them.

P.S Megan Markle? Really?? I didn't have you down as a royalist, dh! I struggle to have any opinions about her personally, but I suppose I 'dislike' what she represents. On the other hand she weakens the royal family so maybe I like her...

PPS I've just realised, you included Megan because she's partly black heritage? I think you're stretching there to be honest....there's plenty of reasons other than that! To infer someone is a racist because they don't like MM is exactly my point. That really doesn't help race relations. I always try to look for other reasons before I label or imply someone is a racist. Even then, I'd look at why before I judged them.

[Derek Hardballs]

Before anyone gets upset and defensive this is clearly a sweeping generalisation and there will be lots of exceptions, but why do these disparate subjects seem to bind a certain group of people together? 

Think Brexit is great
Dislike Meghan Markel 
Dislike face masks, and very anti-lockdown
Think Covid 19 is a hoax or just the flu
Support the Conservative’s without question 
Have British, US, Israeli avatars 
Want to ‘Defund the BBC’
Refuse to trust mainstream media but trust random blog and dubious social media links / ‘facts’
Think the climate change is a hoax or not that bad 

Just an observation from SM, radio and tv.

Somebody once posted a link on here from a comedian who explained about how the democrats let in Trump. I think this post brings up elements of it. I'm paraphrasing, but the opinion was that the left assumed they were self-evidently right and the intellectual argument was already won. Therefore, people who believed in Trump were either stupid and racist and so not worth engaging with respectfully.  Unsurprisingly, trump voters didn't like to be labelled as stupid or racist and took it personally. They were now emotionally invested in Trump and so rather than drifting away as Trump got even outrageous, they 'double-downed' with him.

I may be getting this completely wrong and making assumptions but to imply a section of the community are stupid and have a common belief in stupid ideas just polarizes opinions and only entrenches views.

Although, I've got no evidence for this, I do believe this was a large reason we lost the vote for Brexit. We thought it was 'obvious' that we should stay in and only a racist or an idiot would want to leave. Funnily enough leavers didn't like that and stopped listening to the 'obvious' reasons.

Taking your examples as an..erm...example, I don't agree with any of them (except maybe perhaps one), but I accept there's valid reasons to believe all of them

P.S Megan Markle? Really?? I didn't have you down as a royalist, dh! I struggle to have any opinions about her personally, but I suppose I 'dislike' what she represents. On the other hand she weakens the royal family so maybe I like her...

Fuzzy, I did say it was a sweeping generalisation but having spent way too much time since lockdown on Social Media, listening to the news etc you do notice trends, patterns of behaviour and subjects that seem to unite disparate groups. I’m not looking to change hearts and minds if I was I would be going about things in a very different and more constructive way. It’s just an observation. I can equally make one for the flip-side of the coin and here it is...

Palestinian avatars and are obsessed with Middle East politics Zionism etc
Still lying to themselves despite the last election that Corbyn was the answer 
Obsessed with slating the centre of politics even more than the right. 
Constantly criticising Kier Starmer
Obsessed with gender politics 
Hate Brexit 
Defend bad behaviour dependent upon whether they believe in the cause 
Dislike the Conservative’s with a passion
Can not comprehend pragmatism and expect absolute purity of cause 

Some of those latter I fall into like Brexit, and the Tories the rest nope. Which therein lies the problem in this country currently two extremes getting heard whilst those in the middle squeezed out of the discourse. Until we as a country move back to the middle the country will continue to circle around the plug hole.

---

Before anyone gets upset and defensive this is clearly a sweeping generalisation and there will be lots of exceptions, but why do these disparate subjects seem to bind a certain group of people together? 

Think Brexit is great
Dislike Meghan Markel 
Dislike face masks, and very anti-lockdown
Think Covid 19 is a hoax or just the flu
Support the Conservative’s without question 
Have British, US, Israeli avatars 
Want to ‘Defund the BBC’
Refuse to trust mainstream media but trust random blog and dubious social media links / ‘facts’
Think the climate change is a hoax or not that bad 

Just an observation from SM, radio and tv.

Somebody once posted a link on here from a comedian who explained about how the democrats let in Trump. I think this post brings up elements of it. I'm paraphrasing, but the opinion was that the left assumed they were self-evidently right and the intellectual argument was already won. Therefore, people who believed in Trump were either stupid and racist and so not worth engaging with respectfully.  Unsurprisingly, trump voters didn't like to be labelled as stupid or racist and took it personally. They were now emotionally invested in Trump and so rather than drifting away as Trump got even outrageous, they 'double-downed' with him.

I may be getting this completely wrong and making assumptions but to imply a section of the community are stupid and have a common belief in stupid ideas just polarizes opinions and only entrenches views.

Although, I've got no evidence for this, I do believe this was a large reason we lost the vote for Brexit. We thought it was 'obvious' that we should stay in and only a racist or an idiot would want to leave. Funnily enough leavers didn't like that and stopped listening to the 'obvious' reasons.

Taking your examples as an..erm...example, I don't agree with any of them (except maybe one), but I accept there's valid reasons to believe all of them.

P.S Megan Markle? Really?? I didn't have you down as a royalist, dh! I struggle to have any opinions about her personally, but I suppose I 'dislike' what she represents. On the other hand she weakens the royal family so maybe I like her...

PPS I've just realised, you included Megan because she's partly black heritage? I think you're stretching there to be honest....there's plenty of reasons other than that! To infer someone is a racist because they don't like MM is exactly my point. That really doesn't help race relations. I always try to look for other reasons before I label or imply someone is a racist. Even then, I'd look at why before I judged them.

I was trying to show how certain subjects seem to attract disparate audiences and bring them together no matter how incongruous the subjects. I haven’t said anything about Meghan Markel’s race I could and should have equally added Greta Thurnberg to the list as well because they both get heavily criticised disproportionately to anything they have done.

[fuzzbox]

"I may be getting this completely wrong and making assumptions"

I did say I may have jumped to the wrong conclusions!

1) You've grouped together a group of opinions that are all 'contentious'.

2) The viewpoints also happen to be the opposite of yours

Are these coincidences? Is there some relevance?

If your observation is true, why do you think certain people agree on all these things? Do you have a theory?

A genuine question - If you're not looking to 'change hearts and minds' what's your motivation for making these posts? Aren't you making things more tribal? If the middle is being squeezed out it's because the middle ground is letting that happen by not engaging. Doesn't it make it all the more important that the middle acts as a bridge between an increasingly polarised society? The only way that can be done is by understanding the opposite viewpoint, respect it as valid and take the emotion out of the equation.

FWIW, I think you're probably right that these people get more airtime, editorial and social media prominence.

Here's my theory. Aren't they more prominent because their 'provocative' views promote more clicks/readers and reaction? Are they picking the opinions that they know are going to be divisive, provocative and therefore either more lucrative or just plain create more attention for themselves?

I don't think it's representative of the majority - most people just want to get on with their lives. They are not passionate enough to sound off about politics and why should they be? Anyway, who would promote their boring mainstream views anyway? There's no money in it!

I really hope there will be a backlash against such cynical attention seeking/marketing.

But, as you said, I think you've spent far too much time reading this crap and maybe, you're taking it too seriously!

I remember listening to night time radio phone-ins when I was a kid. If I took those viewpoints as normality, I probably would have jumped out of my bedroom window to the ground 8 floors below!

PS your point on another post about 'untruths' is far more worrying. Why the media and the public accept this is beyond me. I was even more dismayed when Labour and the Liberals jumped on the bandwagon as well. Morality aside, it was bad strategy and they were never going to beat this set of conservatives at that game!

[baggy1]

The comedian was Jonathon Pie Fuzzy - he is generally worth a watch, some good and insightful stuff.

[fuzzbox]

The comedian was Jonathon Pie Fuzzy - he is generally worth a watch, some good and insightful stuff.

Apologies, I forgot who it was that posted it, but at least I remembered your point! 

Thanks again for the link - I spent quite a lot of time going through his stuff. A lot of it was excellently done. That particular one made me realise just how badly I was getting things wrong. It was so obvious, yet I missed it completely. It was quite uncomfortable viewing, but hopefully I learnt something!

[baggy1]

I’m not certain it was me that posted it but I definitely follow him and love his stuff.