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Do you think the tabloids/media have brainwashed Britain?
Musicman103
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Over the decades we've seen more and more sensationlist tripe in the newspapers. It occurs to me now that a lot of the British public are on "paedo alert". The media has successfully convinced large swathes of the public that there is a paedophile lurking on every street corner. Parents have become paranoid about letting their kids wander off. They must be driven to school in armoured vehicles etc
I wondered today what I would do if say a little girl fell off her bike and I took her back to her parents house. I don't think I'd want to get involved, I'd probably just walk on by and let someone else sort it out.
I think the media and the tabloids especially have a LOT to answer for. Yes, we have disgusting creatures lurking around, but they are NOT COMMON. You're probably more likely to get flattened by a bus or crash the car on the school run, than bump into a child molestor, but I don't notice people getting especially worried about that.
Of course now with the Jimmy Saville allegations, anyone who wears a track suit or smokes a cigar is going to rouse suspicion.
I wondered today what I would do if say a little girl fell off her bike and I took her back to her parents house. I don't think I'd want to get involved, I'd probably just walk on by and let someone else sort it out.
I think the media and the tabloids especially have a LOT to answer for. Yes, we have disgusting creatures lurking around, but they are NOT COMMON. You're probably more likely to get flattened by a bus or crash the car on the school run, than bump into a child molestor, but I don't notice people getting especially worried about that.
Of course now with the Jimmy Saville allegations, anyone who wears a track suit or smokes a cigar is going to rouse suspicion.
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There are just as many paedo's as ever there were. We are just more aware of their presence now. That's the only thing that has changed.
As for the Jimmy Saville thing; yes, what he did was very wrong. But it's more interesting how this wasn't stopped when he was alive. Once again though, there's nothing new here. Persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany. A whole country turned a blind eye then. Are we really so surprised about Saville?
The thing that turns my stomach is how many lacked the courage to act on behalf of the victims back then, but now scream to the rafters. Cowards, one and all.
Mobs of Sun readers carrying flaming torches and pitchforks are going to be patrolling the streets looking out for tracksuit wearing cigar smokers ?
the print what sells in the sector they have chosen
eg lefty liberal Guardian rightwing hang'em and flog'em Daily mail
facts are secondary
Plenty of scandals in this country follow that pattern..Hillsborough, the MP's expenses...there's evidence there all along, but nothing is done until the story breaks in a big way, at which point you have to ask why those who knew all along needed a storm of public outrage to force them to act.
BIB Sorry a whole country turned a blind eye?
I don't get the paralels with Saville and Jews Germany or other incidents of ethnic cleansing.
I'll leave it there don't want to get into Saville again, just got out.
Well plenty say they don't believe what they read in the papers, then in the same breath repeat some barely remembered article as if it's fact.
I suspect people 'believe' what they chose to because it suits them.
I've stopped discussing tabloid articles with people, I get highly unreasonable when I start picking at the article and the person has no or little come back.
Then again I can be quite aggressive in real life, so maybe it's me
I had a kind of similar incident when driving through my village a few months back. There was a young boy, probably about 6, sat on a grass verge crying his eye out. My first instinct was "what will people think if they see me talking to him". But then decency took over, I stopped to ask him what was the matter and it turned out he had lost his mum. I called a local bobby to come and help him
What else can you attribute the relative hysteria over paedophilia in recent years? Why are parents so worried? There are no more attacks than there ever were.
Yes, there were always sickos, but the media didn't report and people weren't worried.
Most people don't have independant thought or opinion, they latch onto something that most closely matches their fears/prejudices. All a trashy newspaper needs is to identify key character traits and then target that audience. They can convert you from say being mildly cautious of foreginers to assuming that they're all terrorists.
Another example is mobile phone masts. Why are so many mothers worried about them? I've never met a 'yummy mummy' who knows anything about electromagnetic radiation and the inverse square law, yet they are claiming that the mast on the school causes all sorts of problems with their child (whilst they spend half the day with a phone strapped to their head!)
If it wasnt for Kate and Wills flying the flag for us who knows what would have happened.
I don't really trust those who claim to represent the views of the silent majority. If they're silent how are people supposed to knkw what they're thinking of if they even have an opinion at all?
Well some people have gained fame/stardom via talent shows and reality shows.
Used to be Variety theatre, then Opportunity knocks and probably other shows I've forgotten, now this current round of talent shows.
'Enhanced reality' shows, is low wattage acting as far as I'm concerned, they're playing a version of themselves.
That said, I don't watch any of them.
I disagree - the tabloids have long prided themselves on making or breaking, for example, political parties' chances at elections. Of course, it depends on how naive or trusting the individual is, or how much they access other media, but a cursory look at some threads here will show just how much of an influence the redtops are in shaping opinion. How many threads are started with a link to a Daily Mail article which gives a skewed or incomplete story and invite consequent hand-wringing about 'immigrants' or 'the EU' (depending on who the paper's current bogeyman is)? There are people out there who take stories at face value and form opinions accordingly.
If anyone thinks the tabloids simply reflect social attitudes, they need only consider the name 'Rupert Murdoch'.
A country/government involved in ethnic cleansing is not a conspiracy to cover up/ignore one bloke molesting girls/teenagers.
Ethnic cleansing and Jimmy Saville (shakes head).
I'm guessing this is some form of sarcasm/humour.
So stop complaining!
Ha, good point.
I dare say that the rest of this post is a bit of ego-stroking based on the premise that other people aren't as intelligent or independent as you.
So do you think 'the liberal media' is brainwashing people?