Public Hysteria and Hypocrisy

Public Hysteria™ (defn.): The process by which calm and reasoned voices are drowned out or shouted down by a barrage of crazy talk and hysteria - often seen in the media.

Hypocrisy (defn.): The practice of claiming to have higher standards or more noble beliefs than is the case.

A saying in the media/reporting industry: "If it bleeds, it leads." Note the lack of the words "accurate reporting" in there. Bad news sells, that's all they care about these days.

Here is an interview with Penn & Teller, the guys who made the show "Bullshit!" (amongst others). In here they talk about various things.

One of the interesting takes from in here is their reasoning behind the way they presented the show "Bullshit!" - here it is summarised and paraphrased (by me, you don't have to watch the whole damn 1-hour interview to find the relevant bit somewhere in the middle):

You can call someone a liar or quack, boom, instant lawsuit. Call them a dipshit, you're pretty safe. We put together Bullshit! the way we did for two reasons: we didn't want to be sued and we wanted to show that we could use the same bouncing hysteria to expose their bullshit for what it is. The hysteria overwhelms the more calm and reasoned voices, when it's the calm and reasoned voices that you should be listening to.

Make what you want of that. Here's my take on things:

We are exposed to a hell of a lot of Public Hysteria™ in this world.

Television, politics, newspapers, radio, advertising, the people you talk with who swallow that bullshit whole and parrot it. We can't avoid the crap, it's everywhere. (Here I am, peddling Public Hysteria™ of my own flavor - how hypocritical of me.)

Here are some things which have a lot of Public Hysteria™ going on in them:

• anti-vaccination - the former-doctor who published that study had it completely retracted by Lancet Magazine and was struck off the medical register for life
• rape culture - the FBI stats show that this is actually less than 0.1%
• global warming - just one instance of hysteria misrepresenting the data gathered and released by the calm and reasoned voices
• male violence towards women and children - no mention of the female violence towards men
• Greenpeace - Patrick Moore (the founder) left after it was taken over by politico's with an anti-corporation agenda

You get the general idea. There's a lot of Public Hysteria™ going around out there - in many cases it's very hypocritical as well. As men, we get walloped by the female double-standard lots and lots, all the time being told that we are hypocrites for being men. We are misogynists by default because patriarchy.

Yeah. Right. Way to go, your Public Hysteria™ claiming that we are misogynists actually turns us men into misogynists through angry backlash against the slander and hatred. Which of course leaves us men in the cleft-stick of Catch-22 because hey, hate is responded to with hate. Rub anyone's face in hate and it will be returned. Often with interest compounded - hey, revenge is a dish best eaten cold.

An example of hypocrisy. It has been medically proven that if a man has prostate cancer, it makes no difference if it's cut out (with attendant problems) or left alone and kept on watch. Big whoop in the media: nope. Yet if it were medically proven that mammograms do not detect for breast-cancer and in fact could contribute to the problem: the three-ring media circus goes WHEEEE!!!!

Here is my Public Hysteria™ announcement:

Feminism = Public Hysteria™

Leftism = Public Hysteria™

I'd say "suck my dick you overblown feminist pieces of shit" - only you're unfuckable and I'd rather you didn't get anywhere near my dick.

This PSA brought to you by 2am insomnia. Time for me to have some Grand Marnier to wash down the black poison that I've just exposed.