The Stereotyping of Terrorism

[Akainu]

Hello dear mangahelpers, members moderators and friends,

first of all let me, since the following observations are based on the media coverage of the terrorist attack in Oslo and Utøya, express my deep sympathy with the victims, their families and friends.

As for the thread's topic, it's about the following:
We live in a time of almost world wide media coverage and the worse the news the more coverage it gets it seems. One of these cases was the bombing and following massacre in norway last friday. In the german news the initial reports - aside from "a bomb exploded in oslo" almost all instantly and with only very little doubt or hesitation mentioned islamist terrorism.

not enough of it, there was wide and wild speculation about what the reason could be for al-qaeda or other islamists to attack Norway of all countries. The reasons ranged from norways engagement in Afghanistan and Libya to holding responsible Norway for having reprinted the Mohammed caricatures and islamists generally not distinguishing among the scandinavian countries.

Frankly, it is shocking how fast we already jump to the conclusion that terrorism has to be something islamist, imo. This has sadly and thoroughly shown "us" wrong - I can't really distinguish between the media and the people at this point since public opinion is formed by the media to a very high degree and it doesn't help that after all the speculation they add a commonplace like "we don't know who's responsible yet".

Hope some of you can shed a little light on local variations of the media coverage you get out of that and tell us how this broader social problem that it is imo, is handled in your homecountry.


last but not least thanks for helping with the title mil and ibra

[blai]

I will, just like you did, start by express my sadness and concern towards all affected of the Oslo & Utoya attacks. My thoughts and prayers are with the victims as well as the survivors and their friends & families.

Second of all, I must admit I jumped the gun myself. My initial thought was that it was some "Libyan Gaddafi-supporting maniac" who wanted to blow shit up in a country that participated in the war and that had low security (compared to UK, France, Belgium, Germany amongst others). The "terrorist experts", Swedish democrats and hungry blood-thirsty social media weren't the only ones thinking in those terms. I know many Green Party friends who feared it was another maniac fighting his holy war in the name of God, ruining something we've worked hard to build, enhancing something we've tried to prevent.

The headlines of tomorrow would've been "Increase border-security" "Decrease immigration" "Harsher terrorist-rules" "More crowd control". The domestic politics would've been more right-winged and we'd build some kind of humanistic protectionist shell... (Protectionism used not in economical terms but rather in regards to human resources). Experts would've said that Norway had it coming for participating in Afghanistan etc.

But instead silence erupted. The terrorist wasn't an Islamic maniac like the suicide-bomber in Stockholm but not only was he ethnic Norwegian, he was also blue-eyed, blonde haired and he had a strong Norwegian name, proud of his Viking heritage. A guy who decided to do something against "the ongoing sneak-islamification of his country, mass-immigration and the cultural decay."

Instead it was as if Norway suffered from a train-accident and the political debate grew silent.

Not surprised, as regardless of how disgusting and hateful fremskrittspartister or Sverigedemokrater (right-wing extreme parties) are, it's not enough for us to imagine someone committing such a terrorist-act. Yet, a maniac did. Just like a maniac shot John Lennon, shot Ronald Reagan, or blew himself up in Stockholm.

So, it wasn't the Norwegian society's fault that this guy committed a mass-murder on young Social Democrats. He could've been named Sven Svensson and committed the same act on Green Youth members in Sweden. The terrorist attack couldn't be explained with too relaxed terrorism legislation, too little phone-bugging, or too few restrictions in the Muslim people's human rights in comparison to the Christian.

Fair enough, seems like decent conclusions. But what if the name of the terrorist would've been Hassan al-Bakr instead?

Well, if the name of the terrorist would've been Hassan al-Bakr I can assure you our politicians and right-winged editors wouldn't be as sensible in their conclusions. All thanks to the "ten year war against terrorism" that poisoned our minds. And of course thanks to the Swedish Democrats, fremskrittspartister and not to mention Danish folkepartister that has been allowed to sail without any storms in the ideological sea called the war against terrorism.

If we could see what this giant ideological battle has, and still does to our western democracy, this threat that are several times larger than terrorist-attacks, and if we can take this debate seriously instead of hiding from it, Europe would become a better place to live in, regardless of origin or religion.


(Maybe I didn't stick 100% to the topic but meh)

[Roflkopt3r]

Actually I felt a strange kind of relief hearing that it was not islamistic bombings... because of that stereotyping you mentioned.

[HegemonKhan]

I don't find it shocking, terrorists from the middle east and/or of islam have been blowing up the world for decades.

Why would we not think it was them, as they have the track record of it being them?

When a sexual crime is committed, the police immediately first look to the sex offenders in the area.

what's the difference? they are both the likely suspects based upon their past history of actions.

past history and trends of same actions over and over again, is not stereotyping, it's common sense, rational, and logical. A history or trend of action, by a person or people is very real, there's nothing stereotypical about it. They created it, they have no one but themselves to blame for the suspicion directed upon them.

People do create patterns of behavior: you go to work everyday, you eat at these times, etc etc etc. These are real behaviors being repeated over and over again. The same is true with crimes or terrorism, so it makes perfect sense to immediately impose suspicion upon such people with such a pattern of violence and genocide as those of Islam and of the middle east.

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unfortunately, criminals/murderers have seen how effective bombs are from terrorists and now these "disgruntled" domestic "crazy" individuals are using bombs too, in their retaliation upon a society that they don't agree with or that has harmed them. Of course the more traditional "shooting sprees" with guns hasn't diminished either, they remain as prominant as this new era of bombings.

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my definition-distinction between terrorism and non-terrorism:

1. Terrorists are international criminals/murderers of the world committing Terrorism, whereas normal criminals/murderers remain domestic comitting Crimes.

or

2. Terrorism is a movement of individuals (Terrorists) engaged in a unified war upon the world and they engage in war by committing their war atrocities upon the world. Whereas, Crimes, with their Criminals/Murderers, remain domestic, doing their mayhem for purely personal reasons of their own upon their local society or guilty parties/individuals, they're not part of any unified movement of war upon the world.

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When you have a history of violence (or whatever crime or wrong-doing), it's your own damned fault that you're the immediate suspect, you got what you created, you're reaping what you sowed. The blame is yours alone. Also, again, coming from sports, if you got one bad apple year after year that commits rape on a female, everyone has a right to think negatively of the entire team, even if its only one bad apple. You're a team, you allowed the bad apples to do their rape year after year, the team is responsible and accountable, because they are a team, they are one, the innocent as well as the guilty bad apple. When one player messes up, the coach punishes the entire team, this is truly how it should be in all things and its what has stayed with me. All whites, even me who has no involvement in slavery, is still accountable for what our ancestors had done to blacks. Just as all middle easterners are accountable for what some of them have done to the world. This is my sports team outlook.

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as for our (the U.S.') media coverage:

unfortunately, I missed the initial coverage. though, I'm sure we immediately thought it would be Terrorists like everyone else, as should be the rational case, as they have a history of such violance and genocide.

however, afterwards, we are reporting it accurately (even Fox News) that it was a "republican-like" (not sure what the polical party/affiliation actually is in Norway of this murderer) Norwegian with no conversion/affiliation/attributation to Islam, doing this as a crime for personal reasons, to protest the spread of Islam into Norway and the contentment of Norway with it happening, or such stuff like this. paraphrasing, as I heard it reported here.

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The problem occurs when the "homework" isn't done, and you wrong an innocent person. You better verify they're guilty or innocent, or you've just committed a heinous crime if that person is innocent of your suspicions.

when you act upon those suspicions, before you "check up" (investage) on those suspicions of yours... wronging an innocent person, is comiiting the same heinous crime yourself that you're suspicious of in the other person, the wronging of the innocent, the very essence of what a crime is and what a criminal does.

[dark lord]

Anyways, condolences to all the families of the victims, may they rest in peace.

As for the subject matter, I have come to realise that there is nothing you can do to change it, islam will always be associated with terrorism. Resenting this will only make things more complicated, we should move on let time take care of it. in the end its all history, so why should we give a crap.

[blai]

Hege, I didn't react when I realised everyone thought it was a Muslim fanatic, because I thought so too, but I reacted at how the news stopped calling it a terrorist bombing or terrorist action after they found out he was, in fact, ethnic Norwegian.

"Common definitions of terrorism refer only to those violent acts which are intended to create fear (terror), are perpetrated for a religious, political or ideological goal, and deliberately target or disregard the safety of non-combatants (civilians)."

This, is exactly what happened. An anti-Semitic fanatic , made two, very violent acts to create fear for his ideological goal and he deliberately targeted young people who believed in a multicultural society and a world with open borders etc.

So again, what I reacted at was that he went from a muslim fanatic, possibly from some organized group, to being a lone, probably mentally disturbed, "attacker". The word terrorist was erased because of who he was.

Terrorism is defined upon what you do, not who you are.
Terrorism has no ethnicity.

[Akainu]

I don't even know where to begin with your texts without tearing you to shreds, but I'll try

I don't find it shocking, terrorists from the middle east and/or of islam have been blowing up the world for decades.

Why would we not think it was them, as they have the track record of it being them?

When a sexual crime is committed, the police immediately first look to the sex offenders in the area.

what's the difference? they are both the likely suspects based upon their past history of actions.

why would we not think about a certain group is the first part that is imo wrong. why do we actually think it is a certain group is the question.
it really pains me how you refer to one of many groups as "them" which is putting it against "us" even though both are fractured to no end.

the analogy doesn't really help there and I've been pondering whether or not to answer to it, but just so much to my knowledge sexual crimes are far more common inside families with high estimated numbers of unreported cases. so yh, same question as above, why look at the known sex offenders?

this I believe points to a bigger misunderstanding. by asking why we prejudge and stereotype Muslims as Terrorists doesn't mean that we should look away and turn a blind eye on the ones that do commit such crimes. on the contrary actually. but what it means is, that we are so busy to focus on those "bad bearded islamists" that we don't even think of other possibilities anymore and by linking terror so strongly to islam(ists) we also link it the other way somehow resulting in nothing else than causing desperation and violence among those muslims that are not violent to begin with.

past history and trends of same actions over and over again, is not stereotyping, it's common sense, rational, and logical. A history or trend of action, by a person or people is very real, there's nothing stereotypical about it. They created it, they have no one but themselves to blame for the suspicion directed upon them.

again your pattern of "them, them, them" reveals more than you probably want. no it is not "them" it's some singular people or groups of people that do not even amount to what, maybe a full percent of the muslim people. no, if there is something like "the muslims" which is even doubtful, then it's clearly not "them" or "their fault" just as much as it is not your fault that there are americans burning books or shooting at people, no?

People do create patterns of behavior: you go to work everyday, you eat at these times, etc etc etc. These are real behaviors being repeated over and over again. The same is true with crimes or terrorism, so it makes perfect sense to immediately impose suspicion upon such people with such a pattern of violence and genocide as those of Islam and of the middle east.

so now you're saying that it's a behavior to (suicide) bomb - wow, just wow.
going by that you'd have to fear every black person because there's 50 years of war in africa and even more those with the cross that have a history of violence for the past 2000 years.

unfortunately, criminals/murderers have seen how effective bombs are from terrorists and now these "disgruntled" domestic "crazy" individuals are using bombs too, in their retaliation upon a society that they don't agree with or that has harmed them. Of course the more traditional "shooting sprees" with guns hasn't diminished either, they remain as prominant as this new era of bombings.

why not call it terrorism then? oh wait, you're getting to that ...

my definition-distinction between terrorism and non-terrorism:

1. Terrorists are international criminals/murderers of the world committing Terrorism, whereas normal criminals/murderers remain domestic comitting Crimes.

or

2. Terrorism is a movement of individuals (Terrorists) engaged in a unified war upon the world and they engage in war by committing their war atrocities upon the world. Whereas, Crimes, with their Criminals/Murderers, remain domestic, doing their mayhem for purely personal reasons of their own upon their local society or guilty parties/individuals, they're not part of any unified movement of war upon the world.

exactly that is not the case. what you describe in this definition is taylored to fit al Qaeda, but there is still political terrorism like the R.A.F. did in germany. they were not even committing any massmurders and still are terrorists. or other prime examples that speak against your thesis: the ETA in spain is a terrorist group fighting for secession, much alike the IRA in northernirland (which somewhat ran out of support).

When you have a history of violence (or whatever crime or wrong-doing), it's your own damned fault that you're the immediate suspect, you got what you created, you're reaping what you sowed. The blame is yours alone. Also, again, coming from sports, if you got one bad apple year after year that commits rape on a female, everyone has a right to think negatively of the entire team, even if its only one bad apple. You're a team, you allowed the bad apples to do their rape year after year, the team is responsible and accountable, because they are a team, they are one, the innocent as well as the guilty bad apple. When one player messes up, the coach punishes the entire team, this is truly how it should be in all things and its what has stayed with me. All whites, even me who has no involvement in slavery, is still accountable for what our ancestors had done to blacks. Just as all middle easterners are accountable for what some of them have done to the world. This is my sports team outlook.

you're not serious are you? if there's one in a team who is oh so good and sniffy I expect the audience to boo at this person alone (like it happend in womens football worldcup to Marta). if there's someone committing rape on the other hand - they are still allowed to play? what a wonderful system you have. but in all earnesty, hating the whole team for what one player did in private is just retarded, sorry.

as for our (the U.S.') media coverage:

unfortunately, I missed the initial coverage. though, I'm sure we immediately thought it would be Terrorists like everyone else, as should be the rational case, as they have a history of such violance and genocide.

well it was a terrorist *duh* now your analogy of "history of violence and genocide" is really going too far labeling the whole middle east as terrorist - indirectly but still.

however, afterwards, we are reporting it accurately (even Fox News) that it was a "republican-like" (not sure what the polical party/affiliation actually is in Norway of this murderer) Norwegian with no conversion/affiliation/attributation to Islam, doing this as a crime for personal reasons, to protest the spread of Islam into Norway and the contentment of Norway with it happening, or such stuff like this. paraphrasing, as I heard it reported here.

right, he was a christian conservative. still a terrorist.

The problem occurs when the "homework" isn't done, and you wrong an innocent person. You better verify they're guilty or innocent, or you've just committed a heinous crime if that person is innocent of your suspicions.

exactly that. when all of the media puts muslims into suspicion before the least bit can be verified it is plain wrong. I'd rather have them not report on it too much - they've become some kind of vultures anyway - than suspecting innocent for hours.

Anyways, condolences to all the families of the victims, may they rest in peace.

As for the subject matter, I have come to realise that there is nothing you can do to change it, islam will always be associated with terrorism. Resenting this will only make things more complicated, we should move on let time take care of it. in the end its all history, so why should we give a crap.

yh right, why should we give a crap, the terrorists have already won. each time there's an explosion, bomb or not, the first thing we think is "al qaeda". they succeeded in planting a seed of fear that has grown for the past decade or longer without much notice.
but don't you think life could be changed for the better getting rid of this focused fear? I believe in a globalised world with so many risks and dangers we can't allow ourselves to focus on that so much ._.

Blai liked this post ~Blai

[benelori]

Hmmm...we didn't have that kind of problem here...I mean the jumping to conclusion part...of course there were some speculations, and the deathtoll was so great that it never occurred to people, that it could've been one person behind it.
So there were some assumptions, but most people said that it's too early to conclude and the assumptions were pretty much questions really.

And then the bastard was found...

---------- Post added at 05:35 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:34 PM ----------

Our news channels are pretty objective when it comes to international problems, so...we are in a different world, from this POV, even though in some cases not that different

[Akainu]

oh? that's quite interesting. so there are actually possibilities to go a diffrent route!

this article describes just what we are discussing (it's german sry ^^). Anyway, it describes reactions of newspapers which were really harshly against multicultural and open societies, as well as the readers reactions of another paper which was quite the same.
I guess google translator already does a good enough job to get the gist of it =) (poke me if not - or any other german speaking)

[blai]

Actually, the KDU (Christian Democrat Youths) spokesperson said that he bet his monthly salary + OB that it was "those muslims again".

Fail.

[3c]

In Norway the press handled it quite well if I may say so. In the few hours between the bombing took place until the maniac got caught, we were very careful with pointing fingers and voicing strong opinions. First of all I must praise our Prime Minister, the guy stood forth as a prime example and really did great during such a terrible disaster. He kept saying that "we have too little information to draw conclusions, and speculating won't help us". Our press went by the same agenda for the most part. Of course many (me included) thought that it was an act of terrorism either from al-Qaeda or Gaddafi, but to be honest I don't think that is so strange. It's a shame that terrorism is being directed towards Islam. The actions of few have painted the picture of a whole religion.

Like I said our press carefully kept away from speculating too much. A few speculated a bit, but only in the sense of voicing possibilities not point fingers. After a few hours our questions were answered anyway, and yet we kept calling it terrorism and still do, because it fucking is. Terrorism is terrorism, the color of your skin and religion doesn't matter, only the action and the motivation behind it. Now, after a few days it's basically "A norwegian commited terrorism and a horrible, disgusting, unforgivable and utterly pointless massacre." It's the brutal truth. One of our own did it, he betrayed our nation. To be honest I don't know what I think would be worse, al-Qaeda or one of our own.

My thoughts go to all those affected.

[HegemonKhan]

in response to Akainu's post:

I'll just respond with giving a source, that addresses on some of the issues (Islam/Middle East) that I talked about (as it would take forever to explain all of my thoughts in detail that I mentioned in my post):

Sam Harris explains Islam (as well as other religions too) very well:

3. http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/295992-6
(~32:00 is when he starts to talk about Islam, but please watch the entire vid, as it is very educational, there's tons of good information throughout the vid and not just the part about Islam, as he's very smart)

5. http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...3379993458418#
(~15:00 is when he starts to talk about Islam, but please watch the entire vid, as it is very educational, there's tons of good information throughout the vid and not just the part about Islam, as he's very smart)

--------------------------------

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Harris_(author)
(see bottom of wikipedia for more links of vids of him speaking/discussing/debating)

he's a philosopher = immediately I know he's very very very very smart, lol. (HK has extreme respect for philosophy after taking just philosophy 101, as prior to it, I had no idea what philosophy was, it and the prof. greatly impressed and interested me, hehe)

he's a neuroscientist too... backing up his statements with actual scientific study of the brain

etc...

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2. http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&h...w=1016&bih=563
4. http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...1663903762676#
6. http://www.ajula.edu/Content/Content...766&u=7037&t=0
7. etc...

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I'm probably not typing this right (my apologies), but what I learned from my university history class:

?daius/darius-Islam? way back whenever (pure guessing: ~1000 AD), WAS about peace and peaceful.

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but modern Islam, is not, as Sam Harris aptly calls it: (modern) Islam is a DEATH CULT (HK: of senseless/delusional/pyschotic/crazed/madness mass-worldwide genocide and geocidal maniacs).

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about my football team example:

I didn't make it clear what I meant in my previous post, my apologies.

if some football team, has a history of having players over the years (different players over the years) comitting crimes (rape, violence, domestic violence, theft, DUI, or whatever crime you want to use), then people have every right to look at and treat that footbal team with scorn and disgust or whatever...

same with News Corp, or whatever Mudock's company's name is, as if the unlawfulness is found to be more wide-spread, we do have every right to be "condescending" of his company and him and/or his son.

same with goldman sachs, enron, freddie and fannie mae, banks, government, the tea party or other republican-conservative groups, democrat-liberal groups, and etc... the individual members are a group or make up the group, and thus they're guilty along with their group, they share the responsibility/accountability/guilt for what their group had done (as their is NO actual entity as a group... there's no such thing as a group, but there are such a thing as people, multiple people, more than one person, hehe. the people are real, they are responsible. a "group" is not real, so how can "it" be repsonsible. A "group" doesn't commit a crime, nor do wrong, but people do), even if they're personally innocent of any wrong doing, which they're not, as they allowed the criminal or wrong behavior by their coleagues to occur. But, this gets into sociology... it's a very deep and difficult subject to grasp or understand.

that's the point I wanted but lazily failed to make in my previous post.

I AM responsible/accountable for what my white ancestors did to blacks in the U.S., as I am apart of the group that enslaved blacks, whites. It is MY WHITE BURDEN/SHAME

just as all middle easterners are responsible for what their fellow group members (the TErrorists) are doing, genocidal mass murder of the entire world. IT IS THEIR MUSLIM/ISLAMIC/MIDDLE EAST BURDEN/SHAME

just as all Germans are responsible/accountable for what their ancestors did to the Jews, gypsies, and homosexuals at the end of WWII. It is YOUR GERMAN BURDEN/SHAME.

just as all Japanese are responsble accountable for what their ancestors did to the chinese and other asians in the Rape of Nanking event as well as the rest of their actions in WWII. (the japanese aren't that innocent... don't just criticize the U.S.' dropping of the nukes... research what the Japanese had done to others too please)

etc etc etc...

[blai]

What? No. You can't hold an entire group of people accountable for something that a vast minority is doing. If I'm in a class of one hundred students, and one of them rapes someone, you can't blame the entire class for it. That's absolutely ridiculous.

Even more so when you're talking about events that took place hundreds of years ago. You're not, in any way accountable for the slavery, although you should keep it in mind and learn from it.

You can't seriously, SERIOUSLY, hold _EVERYONE_ who happens to reside in the middle east accountable for a very, very vast minority that joins terrorist organizations or in one way or another commit such crimes. Why in earths name would they be held accountable? What have they done?

It's not my fault that there are racist pigs in Sweden, neither is it my fault that some guy in Umeå (northern Sweden) decided to mass-rape, or that a guy outside of Sundsvall decided to murder a child.

Get some perspective, please...

[HegemonKhan]

Should we make a sociology thread ?? (well, the Life Sciences thread would be where this goes, instead of making a new thread, unless you want one for specifically discussing sociology by itself)

Get some perspective, please...

Already acquired perspective: Sociology (Human Behavior) and Biology, thanks...

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as the hyper social animals that we are, every action we do is determined by OTHERS, we live as slaves in an "Iron Cage" to OTHERS ("society").

if I steal a car from someone, I am looking to others if this is acceptible or not. The police arrest me, I got my answer, no it is not acceptible. I don't steal cars anymore, as OTHERS have spoken to me.

if I assualt ("bully") someone, abusing them and beating them up at school, I am looking to my friends whether it is appropriate behavior or not, and my friends just watch, doing nothing. I'm being told by OTHERS (my friends) to GO AHEAD, it's perfectly alright to do these actions, they're giving me the GREEN LIGHT. I continue to do so, as I've been informed that this behavior is perfectly fine and acceptible.

the converse is true too, if my friends turn on me, saying NO/STOP, and shove my bum to the ground, pinning me, and calling the cops reporting my crime, I'm being informed that my behavior/actions are NOT alright. (sadly, this never happens).

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"PEOPLE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR PEOPLE!" -HK
(as who else is there besides ourselves? otehr animals? God/gods? machines? other human-like beings, aliens?)


Terrorists are commiting senseless genocide, because what is the rest of the population of the middle east doing? NOTHING, they're giving the GREEN LIGHT to the Terrorists. The Middle East allows for their people to be taught in their madrasses to hate and become terrrorists, they're directly responsible. People in the middle east aren't born as terrorists (nor anyone around the world are, not as terrorists nor criminals nor murders, nor rapists, nor anything), they're TAUGHT to be terrorists and they're ALLOWED to be taught to be terrorists, and they're ALLOWED to be terrorists. All people of the middle east ARE responsible!! "Nurture" is KING and "nature" is dead. Everything that makes us who we are is from what others have made us into. Almost nothing that we are came from ourselves. We are molded, shaped, destined, and planned 99.9999999% by others, we are taught to be what we are or what we will become, we are MADE by others, we don't make ourselves. Nearly nothing that is us is from "nature".

because what do we have at birth? Who/what are we at birth?

1. the ability of basic body functions to live (including reflexes and such, as well as respiration and such systems, and whatever else we do that we need to do to be and stay alive, lol)
2. the ability to suck
3. the ability to cry

we literally start out as "blank slates", being able to do nothing but suck and cry (the most dependant of all animals), waiting for OTHERS to "Write" who we are to become, and we'd literally-physically die without others (parents, especially our "mommy's' mammas' milk or another mammal's milk, like cow or goat, for nurishment), as we are that ineptly dependant as babies, we can't live without others (parents), unlike most other animal babies. HOWEVER, as "blank slates", we can also learn to do almost anything. No other animal is capable of this to the vast extent like humans so profoundly are.

just as Germans gave the GREEN LIGHT to Hitler and his S.S., heck they even helped point out the Jews/Gypsies/homosexuals to the S.S. to be put on the "trains". They weren't passively giving the GREEN LIGHT to Hitler and his S.S., they were aiding the S.S. in the mass murder of millions of innocent people

just as whites gave the GREEN LIGHT to hate and/or enslave the blacks (BOTH south and NORTH hated the blacks, Northerners: ~"free the slaves, but don't you damn niggers come up here to the north!") in the U.S.

just as the friends, gave the GREEN LIGHT to their friend to "bully" (assualt) the poor victim.

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all human action awaits judgment by others, we await and look to the approval or disapproval of others, for our actions/behaviors, because we are slaves of the iron cage of sociology, of OTHERS ("society").

we live as the SLAVES OF OTHERS, and there's nothing we can do about it, as it's an unbreakable cage, so long as we remain social animals (especially the hyper social animals that we are) anyways...

[Roflkopt3r]

The thread reminds me of this meme: