Who will society say it is fine to pick on next?

I don’t know as I don’t pay too much attention to that.I make up my own mind as to what I think of an individual.

@lucillelucillelucille I agree with you, we should each make up our own minds. What I was asking, sorry if it wasn’t clear, is what do you think society in general will say is the new ‘group to get’ or ‘fix’.

Catholics are next.

@gemiwing -Your question was clear,it’s just that I don’t like to speculate or spend time thinking about those things.:)

Most of the country still feels free to vilify queers. And antisemitism is cyclical.

ME.

@Cruiser Because of the molestation scandal?

People from the city already make fun of suburbanites.

We vilify whatever group we use as the scapegoat of the moment. Right now it’s immigrants from south of the border. America is so cliche.

In the UK, it’s either becoming, or has already been for a while, totally acceptable to pick on the following groups:

- Tories, and anyone who votes for them
– Wealthy Guardian-reading lefties/champagne socialist types who gush about the gastropub they visited at the weekend, the sorts who talk about “spaces” rather than “rooms”
– “Posh” people and people who went to fee-paying schools, add 10 twat points if they don’t agree with the hunting ban and/or went on a “gap yah” and visited Borneo/Cambodia/Laos
– Americans, especially ones who are fat and/or conservative
– People who agree with wars
– Smokers (particularly since the smoking ban in public buildings)
– People who drive particularly large and un-environmentally friendly vehicles
– “Yummy mummies”, women who feed their children pureed organic vegetables and name them things like Tarquin and Saskia and send them to a Montessori nursery somewhere in an expensive part of north London
– Poor people (scrotes/scummers/doleys/chavs) – extra level of disdain if they are also fat/claim benefits/have more than 3 kids and/or a large, aggressive looking dog (if male, with balls still intact)
– Anyone who votes for the BNP/UKIP

Basically, although a lot of these things are just at opposite ends of the very same spectrum and it’s a matter of degree rather than a matter of kind, I think in the UK, there is an undercurrent of disdain for anyone who goes against the grain in a way that upsets the middle-of-the-road, uncontroversial sorts. If people do anything in particular that makes them stand out then that’s not so great, if someone overtly follows fashion, or decides not to follow it at all, both are equally uncool and worthy of derision. It’s ridiculous, but fortunately, I think most intelligent people in this country take this with a pinch of salt and find it funny rather than something to be seriously prejudiced about.

Maybe, in the great American egalitarian spirit, it will come to pass that everybody will be regarded as equally stupid, promiscuous, dishonest, immoral etc.

@reverie
I agree!! well said…. Chavs in particular!! ;-)

@gemiwing Partly that. Catholics are quickly becoming a minority in this country and the sex scandals will only enlarge the bulls-eye on their backs. I was raised Catholic in a predominantly (93%) Jewish community and know first hand the prejudice a kid with a German name would endure. Was not fun at all.

Great question. I’m just glad ageism has mostly run its course. I never can see the next one coming, so I have no idea who’s next. Everybody seems to get their turn in the barrel. I keep hoping that humanity is growing in wisdom and will someday set the whole ugly insanity of prejudice and emotional bullying aside. I won’t be holding my breath for that day, though.

I vote for Canadians. It’s their day.

I think highly religious people are next.

I think you are right about it now being acceptable to pick on and make fun of, the fat people, smokers, poor or from the South. I would also add to this list, people from small towns,
(“small town mentality”, how many times have we heard this?) soccer moms, (who are they anyway?)
Next? Maybe young adults who can’t make it on their own and depend on their parents for support? Christians? (it’s already acceptable to make fun of evangelical Christians.)

@wilma You forgot the John Deere driving hicks from the Midwest.

Oh right you are @Adirondackwannabe with their farmer tans and big belt buckles.
Just hope that you don’t run off the road in their neck of the woods and need them to haul you out of a ditch with their big green tractor. (I know that they would surely help you out.)

I hope it’s UFC and WWF fans.

University of Michigan fans

@silverfly you took the words right out of my mouth

@wilma As fast as they move I might have better luck with a Southerner.

@Adirondackwannabe. a big tractor goin’ down the road, that’s as close as we come to a traffic jam. They take up both lanes.

@reverie
I think you forgot one in your list: National team football players.

Just for the record, I hope the rest of the world understands when we make fun of the various regions of the US it’s just that: Fun. Midwesterners are some of the best people you will ever find, same with the South. And New Yorkers aren’t all that bad either. New Jersey is another story, but we will leave that for a new thread.

Which “society” is this? Northern liberal middle-to-upper class society? I’m sure what’s acceptable in the South differs from that as does what’s acceptable in lower-class areas.

Unfortunately, with growing Christian right power and ongoing economic strife, History would predict yet another round of blaming the Jews for all that is wrong in the world.

Most people won’t speak out, because they are not Jews and they are grateful it is not them.
Many won’t actively support it but they sure won’t oppose it either.

No Jews in your town? You can blame the ones in New York, or Hollywood. You know the ones that run the banks, control the media and support the communist attempt to destroy the Christian way of life.

There are countries in Europe, where virtually no Jews survived WWII and where no Jewish community has existed for 60 years, that have rampant hatred of the dirty Jew who is responsible for their problems!

Paranoia on my part? No, just a sad and wary recognition of the history of Western “Civilization.”

I do not see it yet. I sure won’t be the among the last to notice! I do see strong shifts in related attitudes. I am watching. I am not the only one watching. Being an integrated, non-practising, even intermarried Jew will not protect you when the tide turns again against Jews. Being a convert to some other faith will not protect you either!

Clowns. Fucking clowns.
and their damn red noses

The Belgians?

@Dr_Lawrence
For what it is worth: antisemitism down in the Netherlands.
Just this day in the news.
I hope that is welcoming news for you?!

I had no idea there was such a anti-Jew sentiment that was so widespread, I thought that was just a Nazi thing.

@rebbel I take no comfort in a doubling of physical attacks against Muslims mentioned in the same article. Muslims and Jews are both Semites. Despite political tensions in the Middle East and Islamic extremism that promotes extreme hatred of Jews, I would and do stand up and resist blind hatred directed at Muslims which is based mainly on ignorance.

@Dr_Lawrence I take no comfort in a doubling of physical attacks against Muslims mentioned in the same article
Neither do i, of course.
I wasn’t aware, to be honoust, that Muslims and Jews are both Semites.
And i am against any form of violence directed at whoever.

@DominicX I’m speaking of greater society at large- not regional affectations.

Bad economy brings out the worst in people. Anyone who’s too far away from 50th percentile is a target: blacks, Jews, Catholics, homosexuals, atheists, etc. The demagogues will latch on as usual. It’s cyclical.

Redheads wait, they already are Mormons oh again eyeglass wearers oh wait Ah, I got one, newspaper subscribers yeah, that works

People who enjoy knitting.

Damn…sorry @YARNLADY

don’t hurt me

@cprevite The question is “in the future” not current, old ladies in rockers, knitting is apparently very funny. I can’t imagine why.

Ha, I agree with @tinyfaery – was gonna say I already make fun of the suburbs ( I don’t, always ~)...anywho, I don’t know who’s next..

Yes, let’s make fun of the suburbs for a change. Us rural types have taken heat for too long.

Hasn’t everyone been picked on already?

I just thought of another one – we will be picking on Loonies or Martian colonists.

@YARNLADY Oooh- newspaper subscribers- nice one! Definitely a good pulse on changing culture, that one.

@YARNLADY just reminded me of something…it’s not quite related to this, but in a way it is. I always imagined that if we managed to colonize the Moon, or Mars maybe, eventually, people would be born there. So you’d have earthlings, lunarians or martians all hating each other cuz they weren’t born on the same planet…

@Symbeline With the different gravities, the Loonies may be 8 feet tall and have muscles too weak to withstand earth’s gravity.