Mob Mentality

I just finished reading s book called The Killer of Little Shepherds by Douglas Starr.  One of the interesting things about this book is how this serial killer was so good about killing and then leaving the area quickly.  The townspeople would, in a panicked rush, zero in on someone else as the suspect.  Whoever seemed the most logical killer.  A neighbor.  A parent, spouse, or other relative.  A particularly grouchy townsman.  And the police were so anxious to have someone - anyone - to focus on as a suspect so they could look like they were doing a good job, they often accepted whomever the public had decided must be the killer.

The point is, once a few people agreed on a suspect, everyone else in town and the newspapers jumped on the bandwagon and the suspect was convicted by the court of public opinion.  He might have had a good alibi, but once the townspeople decided someone was a killer, they'd form a mob and end up running the poor sap out of town, along with his family, destroying his life.  Years later, after the real killer had been found and had confessed to the murder, many of the townspeople still refused to accept it.  The family of the victim was also unpersuaded.  No one would believe that they had been wrong in whom they blamed.  It was kind of unreal, and showed how dense people could be.

The innocent original suspects lives were ruined.  They were never forgiven for a crime they didn't commit.

It just reminds me a little of what happened with the Zimmerman trial.  I'm not saying George Zimmerman is innocent and was falsely accused - not at all.  Obviously he pursued Trayvon, and shot him.  Please don't put a whole bunch of comments here telling me I'm crazy for thinking he's innocent.  I don't think that at all.

But a whole bunch of people who weren't in that courtroom and didn't hear any of the evidence have convicted and sentenced Zimmerman to a lifetime of hiding and looking over his shoulder.  He's guilty - he did what he was on trial for.  They just couldn't make the particular crimes the prosecution chose to focus on stick to him.  But I'm not going to run around saying that justice wasn't done, because that's not up for me to decide.  What do I know?

It's just interesting to see the parallels between this true story I just read that took place a little over 100 years ago in France, and what happens in the news right here today.  Some things won't ever change.

The more I know, the more I realize there is that I don't know.  And that nobody else knows.  It's just that most of the nobody elses don't realize what they don't know.  Follow?

All this social media just makes it easier for word to spread through the masses quickly, and for conclusions to be made without details or even correct facts.  Take the vaccination debate, for example.

Jenny McCarthy has been hired to cohost The View next fall, and everyone who believes she spreads untruths about vaccine damage is all up in arms.  Honestly, I'm one of them.

Individual observations of one's own child's disability onset do not discredit scientific study.

I know that so-called scientific studies are found to be flawed all the time, but in this case, I'm going to accept the word of several professionally done studies over the word of a few individual moms, who are basing their views on what they think they saw in their own kids.

The more you know, the more you don't know.  And everyone is at least a little biased in one way or another.

It's not the first time The View had a somewhat controversial cohost.  Rosie O'Donnell didn't work out well for them.  It'll be interesting to see whether Jenny McCarthy is able to make it.