AS = Less vunerable to mob mentality?

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There's a big difference between mob mentality and group mentality. I think maybe "mob" wasn't really what you meant. I've never been in a mob, but I've certainly had no problem with standing aside from the group.

I try to ignore it as much as possible. Usually by pretending to be oblivious to it or immersing myself in something else. I have no desire to be a part of anything like that, especially if their goal is to be hurtful or do otherwise negative things.

I never parcipate in groups. I won't even get involved with kids. If I am in a group for a weird reason it usualy consists of me, and my parents and sometimes my brothers . We are not the Sopranos.

It's amazing what people would do because they get a rush from the group. Apathy can also be a mob mentality. I very much dislike mob mentality. Mass mentality is when the masses are brainwashed to like particular things and buy into commercialism. Then there is nationalism which causes people to become insane and condone murder in the name of war.

I think that chemicals in the brain fire off and thrills people to the point that they would do anything to keep it going, including killing and beating people. Think of all the public executions where people would gather and cheer like it was the Olympics.

That would be an "SEP," or "Someone Else's Problem."
In "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," an "SEP" is was cloaking device. You can land your flying saucer in the middle of the SuperBowl and no one will see it.

Can you say, "witchhunt?" I see it all the time now.
Being a victim is not very educational, because you don't get to hear all the background chatter and watch it build. As the victim, I don't catch on until after it starts to snowball.

Being an innocent bystander is very educational. It happens daily with unsupervised children and ignorant adults.

But even among mature, educated adults who normally have good intentions, it still happens once in a while. It's very frustrating and baffling. Their talk and behavior just disintegrate and they make no sense at all. Pointing out the logic flaws in their excuses doesn't help.
Person A will spew pure nonsense that is known by many in the group to be absolutely false, but no one will acknowledge it.
Person B, who knows first-hand that A's statements are simply incorrect, will just sit there and nod and smile.
Even when I don't personally like the victim, I can see it, as plain as day. But there's nothing I can do.

Something is wrong and is bothering the group, but they can't figure out what it is, so they look for someone to blame. When it happens one-on-one, it's called "scape goating." When they do it as a group, it gets completely out of control.

It's part of that whole bonding thing. As far as I can tell, it's not exactly required, but participating in a witch hunt definitely earns you huge membership points. Everyone gets the warm fuzzies except the victim.

In a mature group, if I stand up for the victim, they just shrug me off. (It doesn't help the victim, but it doesn't hurt me.) If there are any personal consequences, I can't see them. That could be just because I'm so clueless. I wonder if it earns me negative points, to be used against me later.

In an immature group, if you stand up for the victim, you're going down with him.

Last edited by Tahitiii on 15 Aug 2008, 12:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.

There was a guy at my old job. He did absolutely nothing wrong. He was always smiling, always said hello and tried to be friendly. He did his job perfectly. Objectively, there was nothing at all that you could say against him.

He was about middle-aged and I got the impression that he had spent his life floating from job to job, not knowing why it never worked. No one is ever going to tell him.

Even I found him “creepy.” I did not enjoy his company anyway, and I was conscious of the feeling that I can’t afford to be seen showing him any real respect. I forced myself to do it a little. I could have done more.

It’s ok to show fake respect, as long as everyone else knows that you are only doing it out of pity. Or if you turn around and say something nasty as soon as he’s gone. He will never know, so what’s the harm? One by one, everyone “votes” that he’s a looser. The fact that he has done nothing wrong doesn’t matter.

When I’m on the other side of this, and I catch someone in the act, I’m in trouble.

In a mature group, especially if it’s someone in authority, being caught is embarrassing to that person. His mind gets tangled up in a bunch of confusing defense mechanisms and he blames me for the discomfort. He does not understand his own motives. All he knows is that I have done something wrong and must be punished.

In an immature group, the person acts as though he doesn’t know that he has done something wrong.

Either way, it becomes an open war, and I lose.

“Hold still so I can hit you again. It hurts my feelings when you try to shield yourself like that.”

Last edited by Tahitiii on 15 Aug 2008, 3:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Aspies are individuals, they do not, and perhaps cannot, adopt the "I am we" formula. Hence the disinclination or unlikelyhood of getting involved in mob mentality or behavior of the herd.

I have a similar story.

In high school I was sitting at lunch with a group of people, and they all started accusing a guy who was not there of being gay. They all remarked on all the reasons they thought was gay and they were laughing about it. I was the only one who stood up and said, "You know what, maybe he is or maybe isn't, but I'm not going to sit here and laugh at him for it. And I won't accuse him of it until he comes to me and personally says that he is." He came out of the closet 5 months later or so, but still

I have to agree with you in general. Things like this tend to happen to me a lot.

Not to change the subject, but how did those same people treat him after that?

I agree, aspies are less prone to joining any kind of mob behavior, including bullying. Many of us are, or have been, outsiders, looking in. If we're not in the crowd, there's no need to follow it.

That doesn't mean we're all asocial. I, for one, am not. But I go with the crowd if I for some reason feel like it. The need for socializing, or staying accepted, (as if we are accepted in the first place), isn't that great so I'd do something I'd regret intensively afterwards. I hope I'll never join something like that.

Also, something i've thought numerous times: Many of us are bullied, or have been bullied. Many of us didn't know how to defend ourselves. (I'm talking about purely verbal bullying, that might get unnoticed through the system. )

Nothing would be more mean than placing someone else, who haven't done me anything bad, in a position where 1) i've been myself and 2) I know what that awful feeling is like.

I just hope I can follow the rules I've dictated for myself. Enough preaching for this time

Yes and no.

I think Aspies are less vulnerable to peer pressure, they're not necessarily going to follow the crowd in terms of taking up smoking when other teenagers are trying to look 'cool' or to wear certain clothes.

But then again, I think Aspies can be quite naive and impressionable and be talked into doing naughty stuff because they want to fit in, they might be told to say or do something they don't realise is rude or bad.

Probably,
I was raised in a Muslim Shiite family - by a fairly religious mother and in a very religious community ruled by fanatic zealots , yet I became Atheist while growing up and an extreme anti-Hezbollah.


Does this count?

That sounds like me.

i feel at complete loggerheads with society on MANY things...so i'm pretty much immune to mob mentality/pier pressure.x

The chicken or the egg?

I'm the opposite. I'm at "complete loggerheads with society"
because I'm immune to mob mentality.