The Bandwagon Syndrome and Polarization

[Sudsy]

True bandwagon syndrome would manifest itself in glomming on to whatever is new and wildly popular and winning at any given moment, and then abandoning it when something else came along.

A person can be fiercely loyal to a given political party or cause (which is what I think Ernie is describing) without having hopped on a bandwagon at all.

Having said that, while there are sometimes aspects of a given cause that are bad and others that are good, I have noticed that there are often persons who will attempt to separate inseparable parts of a cause in the name of discretion. This is not discretion at all. It is actually the epitome of indiscretion.

One must not bless Robinhood's "benevolence" to the poor when he stole what was not his to facilitate it.
Noble ends do not justify ignoble means.

'Glomming', now that is a word I had to look up. Learn something new every day.

I have some areas of major concern regarding what we Christians get involved in that I believe is 'worldly mindedness' of the wrong sort and I think many here know from my posts what these are. When I keep expressing these in various ways, do you think this is bandwagoning or is it the opposite to encourage others not to follow bandwagoning on trendy topics of unbelievers ?

[Sunbeam]

True bandwagon syndrome would manifest itself in glomming on to whatever is new and wildly popular and winning at any given moment, and then abandoning it when something else came along.

A person can be fiercely loyal to a given political party or cause (which is what I think Ernie is describing) without having hopped on a bandwagon at all.

Having said that, while there are sometimes aspects of a given cause that are bad and others that are good, I have noticed that there are often persons who will attempt to separate inseparable parts of a cause in the name of discretion. This is not discretion at all. It is actually the epitome of indiscretion.

One must not bless Robinhood's "benevolence" to the poor when he stole what was not his to facilitate it.
Noble ends do not justify ignoble means.

'Glomming', now that is a word I had to look up. Learn something new every day.

I have some areas of major concern regarding what we Christians get involved in that I believe is 'worldly mindedness' of the wrong sort and I think many here know from my posts what these are. When I keep expressing these in various ways, do you think this is bandwagoning or is it the opposite to encourage others not to follow bandwagoning on trendy topics of unbelievers ?

It's possible there is another metaphor that would describe this, but "bandwagon" isn't it.

[MaxPC]

Is it just me or is it a fact that people who generally more polarized than a few decades ago?
Is it correct to say that in general people less able to look at things objectively, and nuance the pros and cons compared to a few decades ago?
Or have there always been about the same percentages of people who are polarized in comparison with people who try to assess what is praiseworthy and what is not.

The bolded portion is my experience in my nearly 9 decades of life. The reason that today seems different is that we have social media and mass media to spread these sentiments more widely into the world's awareness.

[Sunbeam]

I wonder if we're really as polarized as we sometimes assume.
One thing I see happening constantly is the assignment of a package of positions to someone who expressed a certain belief.

For instance, someone might state they believe im an old earth, and they are instantly saddled with the "package" of the big bang theory, and evolution, and no Creator, by someone listening to them.

You may see someone routinely not wearing mask in public and assume all sorts of things about them, including that they don't take Covid seriously, and are calloused to the danger they pose to their fellowman, when nothing could be further from the truth, because you have subconsciously saddled them with a "package" of beliefs they do not hold.

The result of this is that we often perceive a blanket polarization that doesn't exist.

[Sudsy]

I wonder if we're really as polarized as we sometimes assume.
One thing I see happening constantly is the assignment of a package of positions to someone who expressed a certain belief.

For instance, someone might state they believe I'm an old earth, and they are instantly saddled with the "package" of the big bang theory, and evolution, and no Creator, by someone listening to them.

You may see someone routinely not wearing mask in public and assume all sorts of things about them, including that they don't take Covid seriously, and are calloused to the danger they pose to their fellowman, when nothing could be further from the truth, because you have subconsciously saddled them with a "package" of beliefs they do not hold.

The result of this is that we perceive a blanket polarization that doesn't exist.

I for one don't believe you are 'an old earth'.

[Sunbeam]

I wonder if we're really as polarized as we sometimes assume.
One thing I see happening constantly is the assignment of a package of positions to someone who expressed a certain belief.

For instance, someone might state they believe I'm an old earth, and they are instantly saddled with the "package" of the big bang theory, and evolution, and no Creator, by someone listening to them.

You may see someone routinely not wearing mask in public and assume all sorts of things about them, including that they don't take Covid seriously, and are calloused to the danger they pose to their fellowman, when nothing could be further from the truth, because you have subconsciously saddled them with a "package" of beliefs they do not hold.

The result of this is that we perceive a blanket polarization that doesn't exist.

I for one don't believe you are 'an old earth'.

I'm not meaning to discuss any given topic, I am just giving examples of subjects that are saddled with "package deal" assumptions. Uh

P.S. I grieve the typos in my last post. I should not try to post and shop at Bath and Body Works at the same time.

[temporal1]

I wonder if we're really as polarized as we sometimes assume.
One thing I see happening constantly is the assignment of a package of positions to someone who expressed a certain belief.

For instance, someone might state they believe im an old earth, and they are instantly saddled with the "package" of the big bang theory, and evolution, and no Creator, by someone listening to them.

You may see someone routinely not wearing mask in public and assume all sorts of things about them, including that they don't take Covid seriously, and are calloused to the danger they pose to their fellowman, when nothing could be further from the truth, because you have subconsciously saddled them with a "package" of beliefs they do not hold.

The result of this is that we often perceive a blanket polarization that doesn't exist.

Packaging is HUGE.
Via tech+social media, it’s become part+parcel of POLITICIANS, MEDIA, and mightily reinforced in gov schools.
There are high prices to be paid. It’s spread like wildfire. A wrong word, and you are OUT.

i’m very sorry to witness.
Packaging showed up regularly on this forum, 2016-2020. and continues.

[Sudsy]

I wonder if we're really as polarized as we sometimes assume.
One thing I see happening constantly is the assignment of a package of positions to someone who expressed a certain belief.

For instance, someone might state they believe I'm an old earth, and they are instantly saddled with the "package" of the big bang theory, and evolution, and no Creator, by someone listening to them.

You may see someone routinely not wearing mask in public and assume all sorts of things about them, including that they don't take Covid seriously, and are calloused to the danger they pose to their fellowman, when nothing could be further from the truth, because you have subconsciously saddled them with a "package" of beliefs they do not hold.

The result of this is that we perceive a blanket polarization that doesn't exist.

I for one don't believe you are 'an old earth'.

I'm not meaning to discuss any given topic, I am just giving examples of subjects that are saddled with "package deal" assumptions. Uh

P.S. I grieve the typos in my last post. I should not try to post and shop at Bath and Body Works at the same time.

I agree with the 'package deal' assumption' thoughts. I also, think hyperbole is used at times to extremely exaggerate what one thinks the other person is, in fact, saying perhaps to get a rise out of them. An 'in your face' confrontational type of communicating.

[ohio jones]

In addition to birefringence and dichroism in extended media, polarization effects describable using Jones matrices can also occur at (reflective) interface between two materials of different refractive index. These effects are treated by the Fresnel equations.

To put it more simply without involving the matrices, visual polarization of the sort used in sunglasses and photo editing involves filtering out the glare caused by vertical light and only allowing the viewer to see the horizontal rays.

Similarly, polarization in relationships occurs when we see things on a horizontal plane only and filter out the vertical illumination.

[Soloist]

I'm not meaning to discuss any given topic, I am just giving examples of subjects that are saddled with "package deal" assumptions. Uh

P.S. I grieve the typos in my last post. I should not try to post and shop at Bath and Body Works at the same time.

Well its well known that people who shop at bath and body works tend to lack grammar skills. What happened to me is unknown.