[LINK] NetAlert Campaign 'truth' finally coming out

[Stilgherrian]

Scott, cutting to a couple key points...

On 15/12/07 11:56 AM, "Scott Howard" <scott at doc.net.au> wrote:
> The jump from "stranger" to "danger" is a little more subjective, but when
> we're talking about kids is it necessarily the wrong one to make?

Should it be the default position, though? Given that most strangers are NOT
dangerous, my gut feeling is that we should not be teaching children that
MOST strangers are dangerous.


>> you suddenly have "half of the kids have been
>> approached by a dangerous paedophile". Hardly the same thing.
> 
> I'm sure that you're just about to cite your reference for where the
> ex-government said anything that looked even remotely like that? Or are you
> just putting words in their mouth?

My point is that the government doesn't *have* to say it explicitly like
that. The chains of word-association already in our minds make the link for
us. That's how "good" (as in "well-crafted") propaganda works.

This is also how "dog-whistle" politics works. Choose the right key-words
which will trigger a long-ish chain of word association. If anyone tries to
accuse you of stirring up the link, there's plausible deniability because
you didn't directly say the words at the other end of the chain, and you
just claim your critics are paranoid.

(See the report "Under the Radar" at
http://www.tai.org.au/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=36&func=select&
id=2 for more...)


> Of course if another 11 to 15 year old came up to them at the bus-stop and
> started talking to them you'd probably be OK with it - but what is a 50 year
> old man did it? 

As a man who in not too many years will be 50, I find it truly disgusting
that saying hello to a fellow human being, of whatever age, is immediately
treated with suspicion. That kind of paranoia can't be good for society.

It also demonstrates a completely inaccurate stereotype of what "risky
people" look like.

If you go for a walk, and you're over 45 and male, don't *dare* pause to
smile with joy at the sight of kids playing in the park, and especially dare
not ask "How's the soccer going?".

Is that really the world we want to live in?

Of course this has nothing to do with the Internet, only how threats are
blown out of proportion by a tabloid shock-horror media and globalisation,
so that every single time one of these freaks gets arrested anywhere on the
planet, we're barraged with the imagery.

Stil


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Stilgherrian http://stilgherrian.com/
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