Election Year or Fear!

[swaledale]

...all of which IMO relate to a negative human trait of 'following the herd'. That first anecdote rings so true to me (in business settings which I accept are a bit different), I've sat amongst colleagues where the majority will either go with the opinion of a senior/subject 'expert' or won't speak up against same, despite diagreeing with them, either for fear of being accused of an 'ism' of some sort, or having a 'marker' against them for job retention/career progression, or just for being made to look foolish around peers. Then its resident gob****e AF (or notable others) who speak up at risk, with later slaps on the back from the cowards in the room. Having followed the grooming issue a bit and more so over the last few days I find it unbelievable that so many 'professionals' (police, social workers etc) could independantly decide that community harmony mattered more than protecting vulnerable females, there MUST have been a significant amount of 'follow my leader'/herd mentality going on

There was also a fair degree of prejudice by the Police and other authorities towards the girls involved, viewing them as cooperating with their abusers, being nobody's who were not worthy of attention rather than treating them as victims of both life and their abusers.

Over 2 decades ago when I worked in the social housing arena, I encountered much the same attitude from Police and Social services towards domestic the victims of domestic abuse. Often the victim would after being placed in a safe house or relocated to another house, then get back in touch with their abusive partner and invite them back to live with them, many times they would refuse to press charges or give evidence. All immensely frustrating, but those who walked away from such cases saying it was the victims fault, singularly failed to understand the nature of these relationships, matters ahve improved, but the same prejudice is shown towards victims of crime who happen to be of lower economic or social status by the authorities.

Its also worth noting that the vast majority of serial child abusers are white!