"Us vs Them": A Simple Recipe to Prevent Strong Society from Forming

Thiz is great thread imo
Random page review = + 1

What makes the topic so pointed for me is that i feel EXTREMELY confident that the solution is a matter of US realising the WE is all there iz. There is no THEM, really.

The problem with that obviously is that some of us actively work to hate harm and hamper us.

and i really want to drown that part of us like a bag of unwanted kittens.. THEM kittens

and thats how it spreads

every them is also an us

then when we get hurt or we see us get hurt or threatened unjustly we now have a new THEM

But i see the seeming intentionally vile nature of some of us

it appears that some of us will accept nearly any proposition or perspective if it offers us a chance to stand up against us and point our finger and say "THEM THEM THEM THEY THEY THEY YOU YOU YOU"

and i feel that my intellect understands even my spirit or heart or whatever word you wish
umderstands
that the solution is to always
in every situation
look at them and say "us us us we we we me me me"

yes i said weewee


but it is very difficult to look at certain situations and keep that mindset

i write my postz more to say things to myself really
every time i write it helps me organise and develop my thoughts on a given topic and it just occured to me that the US/THEM dichotomy could possibly be "resolved" by each of us accepting these.propositions

1) there is no us and them, only us and us

2) some of us are so full of inner distortions and turmoils that we will hurt the rest of us - almost to say a bloodletting to release the poison

3) that releasing our poisons upon ourselves only spreads it to new areas

4) since there is no THEM there is no one for us to change external to ourselves. thiz means that when we see us poisoning ourselves we do our best to A- add nonmore poison and B - offer some kind of medicine i.e. something that may console or instruct, so that the bloodletting act does not end up being nothing more than making space for more poison

5) make sure above all else that we do not F up the internet.
i do not belivee in suppression is a healthy answer to anything.
the most insidious and destructive poison one may encounter is
"vaccinated" by the light of analysis and open discourse

the internet or www allows us to shine that light virtually anywhere at any time.
every snuff film and hate speech article every lie and every dehumanization is ultimately its own executioner if only it can be brought to the foreground
but some of us would rather die or kill than give up our abberations and the thT means at some point the most infected of us will seek to become the gatekeeperz of the www
it is because there are so few gates that the web can "save the world"

5) even with the webnet it will take a very long time to heal
i'll say 4 generations just to throw out a number that keeps the task in perspective

i know im not saying anything new
but really understanding it like this is new to me

and i know im just as as guilty as anybody of US vs THEM -- or at least i have been. now im only as guilty as somebody, and thatis an improvement.

and if i can do it we all can

i've given up on trying to bridge the gap. presently, it seems absolutely pointless, because people want there to be an us them even when there is none. my recent experiences have proven it to me.

i belong to no groups and that makes people hate you the most, because they will use their imagination to put you in a group just to maintain their own comfort. it makes no difference what you say or do they are going to think whatever they feel like thinking. the only thing one can do is deal with reality.

i'm just going to be myself and make allies with those who are realistic, honest, reasonably sane and who are willing to share common ground.

The "Us vs Them" mentality is one ruled in hard black and white. In my opinion, for society to be able to overcome such views, individuals have to be able to recognise the Grey.

Using the article's example, the doctor from the Soviet Union was disregarded because he was "them" and not "us". If you can recognise that despite your views towards a group of people there are exceptions to the rule and someone from that group could be just as amazing as someone you consider s close friend then you've taken the first step in separating yourself from the pack mentality of "Us vs Them".

The "Us vs Them" mentality was actually brought up in an anime I watched titled Yu Yu Hakusho and the "Them" were demons and the "Us" were humans. In the show a character went insane when he realised that all the demons he killed by justifying it with the black and white view of Them=Bad, Us=Good weren't all evil and some humans were far worse than the demons he killed. The reason I'm bringing this up was when the character was dying he was answering a question about what made him hate humanity so he told them about his beliefs as a child that were shattered when he saw the horrors humans could commit. "...But I was a child and I never gave them a chance to speak... while I grew to hate them more and wanted them to die even more... [The Demons] told me that they are not like us therefore they must be against us. Their difference threatens our sameness. It is Us vs Them. Humans are good and Demons are bad. We are just and they are unjust. But I was an adolescent and did not even think to question such simple binaries..."

Therefore I think the most important part of the recipe would be to educate children in Grey because children all to willingly accept the Black and White views they are presented with and for society to change it has to start with the new generations.

(I hope this made sense...)

I i saw thismovie years and years ago-- VHS days

This guy got locked up and everyone said he was crazy.
eventually he got put in a psych ward.
One day he gets a pair oc scisors or some kind of knife object
Ct and he begins a killing spree in the ward. He somehow manages to get a shotgun and thats when the movie reay gets good
but he spares some people.

At a certain point you see that he has some kind of second sight and the people he kills are actually evil zombie from hell type creatures that LOOK like humans but arent.

And he uses all kinds oc things to kill them i mean i remembrr an axe and a hammer andthe knife and shotgun - i remember thinkin how the hll does a psychiatric institution have shotguns and axes just layin around - haha it was pretty hokey

Then near the end of the movie you see that in fact he doesnt have any special sight or power - he really was crazy. The people he was killing were exactly that - people

finally someone kills him and the madness endz

And that explains the proccess right there

first the movie introduces everyone as equal - that is all human-

then new information leads to the realisation that actually we have a human being in the situation of being oppressed / held captive and tortured by minions of evil

So we identify with him i his quest to free himself and rid the world of thiz evil

Then our perception is elevated yet again and we see the horror that was done as a result of the abberation - and how we as TAKE IT FOR GRANTED spectators were almozt spiritual accomplices to the abberation, and thus to the horror

The final scene of the movie is dialogue between the woman that killed him and one the doctorz where by the choice oc words she uses deliberately implies that she is. a minion of satan