A fad, and what are fads about?
Belonging to a social group.
When the need to belong is so strong that you'll eat laundry detergent in order to fit in.
This sort of behavior is fascinating to me. Obviously not all kids are eating Tide Pods. Most of them are going, "Are you effing crazy? I'm not eating a freaking Tide Pod. But I'll watch you do it and laugh at your sorry ass." But enough kids are participating in this asinine stunt that it's thing and has caught the attention of the media. You could make a political and religious parallel to this phenomenon: what makes people want to belong so badly that they'll act against their best interest, and drink poisoned soft drinks?
That's what cults are all about: zeroing in on those who want to belong. Give them what they want (acceptance) and they will reward you with loyalty even if it's destructive to them. The Manson Family - many of them were nice kids from good families. They didn't start out as murderers and sociopaths. One of the Manson girls, I forget which, said straight out that she was a nice college girl who wanted to belong to the hippie crowd because she thought they were cool. Charlie Manson came along and bingo - she was in.
Boy, was she in.
Tide Pod eaters and Manson girls - same same.
Then there's the ringleader. Some kid somewhere said, "Hey, I'll bet I can get a bunch of strangers on the internet to eat laundry detergent. And what's more, I can get them to get other people to do it." That's power, man. It's a talent to manipulate strangers into doing your bidding, even if it's against every grain of common sense they own and may literally kill them.
Anyway, that's what I'm thinking about today.
Belonging to a social group.
When the need to belong is so strong that you'll eat laundry detergent in order to fit in.
This sort of behavior is fascinating to me. Obviously not all kids are eating Tide Pods. Most of them are going, "Are you effing crazy? I'm not eating a freaking Tide Pod. But I'll watch you do it and laugh at your sorry ass." But enough kids are participating in this asinine stunt that it's thing and has caught the attention of the media. You could make a political and religious parallel to this phenomenon: what makes people want to belong so badly that they'll act against their best interest, and drink poisoned soft drinks?
That's what cults are all about: zeroing in on those who want to belong. Give them what they want (acceptance) and they will reward you with loyalty even if it's destructive to them. The Manson Family - many of them were nice kids from good families. They didn't start out as murderers and sociopaths. One of the Manson girls, I forget which, said straight out that she was a nice college girl who wanted to belong to the hippie crowd because she thought they were cool. Charlie Manson came along and bingo - she was in.
Boy, was she in.
Tide Pod eaters and Manson girls - same same.
Then there's the ringleader. Some kid somewhere said, "Hey, I'll bet I can get a bunch of strangers on the internet to eat laundry detergent. And what's more, I can get them to get other people to do it." That's power, man. It's a talent to manipulate strangers into doing your bidding, even if it's against every grain of common sense they own and may literally kill them.
Anyway, that's what I'm thinking about today.
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