Quote from: RE on Jan 05, 2024, 11:26 PM

Quote from: K-Dog on Jan 05, 2024, 08:17 PMGroups do not have a behavior.  Individuals in a group do.

Nonsense.  There are endless examples of group behavior, both in the animal kingdom and in homo sap.

What is the meaning of group behavior?
When in group settings, we are often influenced by the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors around us. Whether it is due to normative or informational social influence, groups have power to influence individuals. Another phenomenon of group conformity is groupthink.

RE

Semantically, a group may be no more than a collection of random things.  But that is not what we are talking about.  When we are talking about groups of people we are not doing math.

So.  People in a boat trying to find a new home do not a 'group' make. 

But that won't stop anyone ashore from defining refugees in a boat as members of any group that suits their American whim.

A group of terrorists, a group of Africans.  A group of fucking rice eaters.  A group of anything you wish.  But at the end of the day refugees are just people in a boat thrown together by circumstance trying to find a life.

Beware the assignment of groups where none exist.  A common language is a matter of circumstance.  That does not make a group.  Consider labels.  Rice Eater.  Is that a bad thing?  Of course not.  But a MAGA dude with an alcohol problem who can't get to work on time will call a 'group' of Asians who have smuggled themselves in by shipping container 'rice eaters' with racist intent.  He will add the fucking prefix.

A beginning of wisdom is to know that things may be called by wrong names.  When that happens thinking distorts.  Find the right name for a 'group' if you think you see one.  Remember you might be seeing something that actually does not exist.  Circumstance do not create groups.  Take care or group-think can suck you in.  Intelligence is not a vaccine against thinking like the herd.  Using intelligence is optional and emotions can prevail.

Winston's job in 1984 was to control language.  Orwell gave him that job for a reason.  Big Brother likes to control the names of things.

The names of things are gatekeepers of group membership when groups exist.  Codes to define who is in-group and who is out-group.  Who gets pie and who does not.

Quote"Your soul takes on the colour of your thoughts" — Marcus Aurelius

So pick good colors.  Emotions can generate a lot of bad names for things.  Blurring colors and making them run together ugly.