Branding

"Branding" is when a person or thing's image, appearance, and sound has been made to fit with your personal bias issues, and so you automatically like it, or listen to and believe the person, without actually knowing anything about it or them.

In this age of extreme BRANDING, people who are not famous, or who don't have a "brand" get ignored and dismissed by most people.

This goes for music, art, tv shows and restaurants as well as various products. Most people get it about CERTAIN things, but they tend not to get that they do it with human beings too, just as much if not MORE. (If your brother, sister, or friend says something it's probably silly, if the guy on TV says the same thing you take it seriously and believe that it's true, and give him the credit for "coming up with the brilliant idea and insight" ... same one that your sister or friend said last week.)

Doing What's Right Is Not About Reward Or Popularity

If you're doing "what's right" in the midst of those who regularly try to get out of doing the right thing, what do you expect? A parade?
They're going to at the least, dislike you, and at the worst, turn on you viciously. Those who stand up for others are not called "heroes" or "good" or "strong" when the majority of the crowd are the ones doing the bullying or manipulating, or corruption. They're called much worse, and often by those whom they trusted, who they had thought were friends.
That's why it's a "sacrifice" to stand up and keep doing the right thing, and why it takes so much strength.
It also takes a rather large amount of strength to keep checking one's motives and one's beliefs, and keeping an open mind, maintaining genuine humility; one is no longer doing "the right thing" if the motive is one's ego and stubbornness, or if it's to oppress or bully others.
Standing against the tide gets exhausting, and it never stops, and it never helps you to stand, it keeps trying to pull you under.
So you make a choice, either keep standing up, or give up and let them pull you under.
What you can do when it gets too exhausting is walk away and take a break.
But don't expect anyone who doesn't already get it to "come around' or "wake up", the tide is much too strong for most people.

Scapegoating Is The Purposeful Damaging Of A Human Being

"Scapegoating" usually begins during childhood. It's a process of methodical targeting of an individual that increases over time. An growing circle of people are encouraged to believe various negative things about a person, most of which is greatly exaggerated or completely made up. Others are encouraged to see the person in a negative light, often as  unstable, burdensome, self-centered, or aggressive. They are encouraged to treat the person poorly, and discouraged from treating them properly or giving them positive attention.

The target is nearly always a child whom a person has resentment, jealousy, or envy toward, or whom they feel guilt or shame for something they've done to them, or because they failed to protect them from someone else. Sometimes a scapegoat has been deemed a "burden" because they have chronic physical illness or disability, and sometimes it's because they're physically different in some way than the majority of the group, but neither of these are the actual reasons; the real motivation still lies in the emotional issues of others around the person.

When a new person comes into contact with the group, they are often immediately guided to believe negative things about the scapegoat, and they are usually blocked, especially at first, from getting to know the scapegoat directly, WITHOUT the influence of one of the controllers in the group, or the main controller, who makes themselves into a social "gateway" between the target person and everyone else.

New people are told in a sideways, innocent-sounding way that the person is someone not to be trusted, not to be believed, and not to be liked, not to be helped, and not to be respected, and not to be included, and this is done before others get a chance to form any kind of bond with the person, or form their own impression and opinion of the person. More distant friends and relatives are also told, and often encouraged to spread the negative beliefs about the person in their respective groups.

~~
It's a sinister, terrible, genuinely damaging thing to do to a person, especially a child, and yet it's not uncommon at all. It's done by people all the time, in families, community groups, religious groups, school, businesses, and "friendship" groups. Those who do it usually MINIMIZE IT drastically, and will deny causing any harm or damage, and then will often blame the targeted person for anything negative that's happened, ironically, apparently unaware that doing so reveals the scapegoating tactic.

Those who do it also often deny that it happens at all, or that it causes any "real damage". Since the goal of Scapegoating is to diminish a targeted human being in all ways, they will CONTINUE trying to do it when they're called out about doing it, often saying the target is "just crazy" or "oversensitive", or is really as "bad" as they said they were and therefore apparently deserve (?!) to be a Scapegoat/ bully target.
~~

Scapegoats are also usually blocked from participating in things that other children in the community are doing, and their friendships are often either sabotaged or taken over (the controlling person tries to get the friend to be closer to them than to the target.)

Scapegoats are often blocked from doing things to build their academic or work career, or projects may be directly sabotaged or stopped. The motive behind this is both an immediate "fix" feeling of control, which is the fuel for the effort, and preventing or stopping the scapegoat from achieving goals or making progress, which would build their reputation, success, and confidence, and also make them more attractive to others (in various ways). .

~~
Targets are often abused or neglected before the actual scapegoating occurs, which can be the catalyst for the targeting. It's a primitive reaction, but common; if the group destroys the credibility, reputation, and self-confidence of the victim, then the "problem" goes away, without anyone having to be accountable, and without the victim being given proper care or protection to recover (which would expose what was done to them, and also would take effort.)

When a favored person in the group was the abuser or neglector, the victim is usually scapegoated so the favored person is not held accountable. 

Only an adult person with tendencies toward control and insecurity instigates scapegoating, or allows children to do it. Those with certain mental illnesses may do it as well, often due to having very weak boundaries, or skewed perception, they may actually be misinterpreting things that the target does and says, and then "reports" these misinterpretations as complaints to others (who apparently don't check up on the reality of the situation, or who are also mentally ill so they happily believe these "reports".)

Adults can be scapegoated as well, however the damage to the person's life and wellness is usually more profound when it's done to a child since it's a direct attack on a person's sense of self, self-esteem, self-image, and feeling of belonging in the world.

~~

It's important to note that Scapegoating cannot occur in a emotionally and mentally healthy group. The high number of occurrences of it reveals a disturbing trend of mental unhealthiness in modern cultures. It's not surprising in regions that are obvious with oppressive and abusive behaviors toward certain members, but it's very common in so-called "free" and "wealthy" cultures as well, causing destruction of the culture person by person from the inside. 

 

Sexual Assault Against Boys And Men: Read About Human Issues Like This One WIth The Thinking Part Of The Brain



VERY TRUE.

VERY, VERY TRUE.
SICK that no one wants to do anything about it or talk about it in a real way.
The main reason behind the STIGMA for both girls and boys who are sexually assaulted (and adults as well) is because so many people want to protect the perpetrator.
WHY? Another messed up societal creepshow, aside from the fact that "bullies protect bullies", it's because of the way perpetrators get treated by others, horribly, and also because people will attack the entire family of a perpetrator as well.
If you didn't know it, you do now, even victims will protect perpetrators from the way people are in the society around them, and they know they're protecting themselves as well from the horror show when they stay silent.
SICK AIN"T IT! BLAME EVERYONE, because it's EVERYONE'S FAULT. .
If you've never seen it for yourself, you should keep your trap shut and your eyes and ears OPEN.
Either the victim gets DESTROYED by the people around them, OR the perpetrator gets DESTROYED.
BECAUSE OF THE FACT THAT HUMANS DO NOT COMPREHEND THEIR OWN MENTAL AND EMOTIONAL ISSUES, AND LOVE TO DENY THAT THEY HAVE ANY, they attack and destroy other people instead,
BOTH perpetrators and victims.
And that "destroy one or the other" crap includes A LOT of people who are supposed to be working in a protective, caregiving, humanitarian "professional" capacity.
Can't DO ANYTHING, or TALK ABOUT ANYTHING, without DESTROYING someone. (Apparently destroying another person indicates righteousness in those doing the destroying....? ...? Pretty sick all by itself.)
Those who molest children have a mental illness, period. There's nothing to argue about. So OBVIOUSLY they need treatment. Apparently this is WAY TOO HARD for most people to understand, but they want all the OTHER emotional and mental issues that result in SERIOUS HARM TO OTHERS to be "OKAY", no one should EVER TALK ABOUT how much DAMAGE those OTHER little sick behaviors cause, like doing illegal drugs with your buddies when there are children in the home. (OH we would never do that....!!!!) (OH we do it in the basement, he's upstairs asleep! That' makes it all okay, there are no consequences whatsoever to the child!)
Or how about just straight up ABUSE?! That's apparently not HORRIFIC because it's not sexual???? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

HOW did humans even survive for this many millennia?!?

SO MANY PEOPLE blame the VICTIM, and then SCAPEGOAT VICTIMS, and BULLY VICTIMS, because no one wants to be BLAMED for not protecting them and not caring for them... SORRY there's NO MORE TOLERANCE for hearing any more B.S. about how "OH SO HORRIFIED" people are at perpetrators. SORRY NOT BUYING IT, B.S ALERT!!

So go rescue some victims off the street, the ones who are only there because of what happened to them if you're so OFFENDED! Sure you are.
Or how about NOT TREATING VICTIMS LIKE THEY'RE CRAZY OR STUPID IN YOUR OWN COMMUNITY OR FAMILY!
OR PRACTICE! OR CLASSROOM!
Ohhhhh... that never occurred to me, boss!!!


(And don't even go there if you're one of the ADDICTS on the internet who just HAS TO FLIP OUT even though they don't know what they're talking about, because it SEEMS LIKE an OPPORTUNITY TO BE HISTRIONIC OR PSYCHO OR MEAN, or if you're thinking of doing that asinine "I'm OFFENDED" thing about this one because your ego feels snapped. You might want to GO BACK AND READ IT AGAIN with the comprehension side of your brain.)

Red Flag: Including Themselves, But Excluding You

Flag for Narcissism, or Narcissistic leanings:
Including themselves with anyone whom you're connected with, but excluding you from their own "connections". Including family.
They make sure to be connected with those who are your friends or relatives. They include themselves as part of your "WE" and "US" with nearly anyone whom you are affiliated with, especially with anyone they LIKE or admire, are attracted to, or see as "important".
But they exclude you from THEIR personal connections.
This is related to codependency.
The person will reveal this both in language and action.
They will refer to others as people they are exclusively connected to, such as "my friend Diane", even if you have known Diane for fifteen years.
They will refer to relatives as "my brother Steve" even if Steve is your uncle.
(It won't be "Uncle Steve", or "Steve", or "Your Uncle Steve", it will be "MY brother, Steve".)
Some will even refer to their children as "my daughter Susan" or "my son John" while talking to ANOTHER one of their children. This is especially disturbing when the child they are speaking TO is a stepchild or an adopted child.
They will often invite only certain relatives to family functions or even big gatherings, but exclude others, JUST to try to control and influence who is included in "the group" and who isn't. Controllers will often do this to try to CREATE a certain Clique-version of the family that only includes certain members, exactly like clique-making children in school.
NOT because someone often acts out and makes a scene at gatherings, NOT because someone has done something heinous, and NOT because someone has repeatedly done and said hurtful things to them, but JUST to be in control.
(Self-righteous pontificating and rationalizing can often be heard in "defense" of this behavior.)
~In fact, they are MUCH more likely to exclude people who THEY have done mean, cruel, or manipulative things TO, and very often those who have been scapegoated by the family.
(In other words, the abusive relative will often get invited and included but not the child they neglected or abused. Just like bullies and cliques in school. And just like a true bully/Narcissist, the abusive relative will NOT question why the child was not included, nor stand up for the child, or whoever the person was who was obviously excluded; their partner or other relative. Narcissistic people LIKE IT when they get included but someone who they're associated with gets excluded, or disrespected.)
~
Facebook is a prime place for this behavior to show. They will "friend" friends (or relatives) of yours whom they have perhaps met once, or never met at all, which is not all by itself weird, it's common on FB.
But the OTHER side of this coin is what makes it Narcissistic, they act like it's weird when you friend THEIR friends or relatives. They could friend 20 people from your friends list in a row, but when you friend someone from their friends' list, they might say something like "How do you know so and so?"
Narcissistic people, especially if they have codependency or enmeshment issues, tend to want to be the "HUB" of relationships between people they know, so they can keep an eye on them, control them, and orchestrate them, and so they'll always be connected and never get left out, kicked out, scapegated, or bad-mouthed behind their backs.
(Since THEY do all those things to others (and usually so do many of their "friends"), they are always making sure they aren't a victim of the same maltreatment.)
Also, if you do try to friend some of their friends, you might find that they have a lot of "friends" who are also Narcissistic, so they won't accept your friend request, even if they know you are their spouse, child, or close friend.
This is also a flag for infidelity. If your partner has several friends of the opposite sex who seem to be cold-shouldering you, (or the same sex for homosexual couples obviously), then you have to wonder what that's all about.
REAL friends, and healthy family members (excluding kids) don't cold-shoulder a partner or spouse of their friend or family member, OR someone's child, or a child in their family, unless there's a very real reason for it, and that isn't based on rumors or hearsay. Whether it's in real life or on Facebook. Especially if there is no negative history with the person.
This behavior is evidence of many things, and it could be just that the person doing the cold-shouldering is mentally ill or is a drug-user.
But it's more often due to slander and rumor-spreading, or infidelity.
Either someone has been smearing the spouse, partner, or child's reputation, and there are a lot of gossip-believers and drama-mongers in the group, or the partner or spouse is cheating, so of course those he or she is cheating with, or flirting with, won't want to "friend" their partner, child, or close friend.
It can ALSO be in many cases, that those "friends" are very immature and they themselves want to "OWN" the person, they may have codependency/control issues themselves, or they may have a crush on the person, or are stalking them, so of course they would not want to include the person's partner, child, or close friend in anything.
The latter is very common in the entertainment business, whatever the genre. Groupies don't want their crush to have a partner at all, (remember being 11 or 12ish and having a crush on some music star? He or she was not supposed to have a spouse or partner, by gosh! You were the "one"! Lol) never mind want to include or acknowledge the partner. And those groupies CAN EASILY be real-life friends of the person that they've known for a long time. They're still 12.
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