Mob Mentality Takes Over In Oil Leak Crisis

In a sad turn of affairs recent recent criticism for BP and Obama has shown that we have not evolved at all as a human race.
We are still chasing down ogres with pitch forks and torches.
Sadly even here at ATS, a place where we believe are awakened and no longer part of the sheeple, even here the mob mentality rages.
I personally have been threatened to get "bitch slapped" and called a "whore" by those that do not agree with my point of view. Even mods seemed to have taken sides, I was told it was their word against mine and told to develop thicker skin.

The frustration, the anger and the delays all were taking their toll -- on Obama, Hayward, the residents and those working to plug the well...

...Concocting revenge fantasies has become a popular sport.

A Louisiana resident suggested in a letter to the Times Picayune newspaper that BP executives be tarred in spilled oil, rolled in blackened pelican feathers and sent to the guillotine so their severed heads could be used in a "junk shot" to clog the well.

The creators of the "B-Pee Day" Facebook page urged readers to urinate on BP gas stations, declaring "They leaked on us, it's time to take a leak on them." www.reuters.com...

Where was all this anger when Bush was taking away your rights with the patriot act? Where was all the anger when Obama shoved the health care law down your throats? Where were all he threads asking for boycotts? where were the Facebook pages screaming against the bribes behind the scenes to get laws passed?

I am embarrassed to be part of this generation.





[edit on 29-5-2010 by Just Wondering]

Is it remotely possible that this "anger" you are seeing over this leak, it is not a "spill" it is a free flowing leak of oil, is just the icing on the cake?

People were ticked off over Bush and his policies. That was evident in the way the Republican party took a beating at the polls.

People are fed up with Obama and witnessed the way the health care bill was rammed down our throats. They got a little more ticked off. As is becoming evident by the elections of people who are not towing party lines.

People are becoming aware of the bribes that take place and are watching how corporate interest is more important than the interest of the American people. They are getting angrier.

Now we are watching the destruction of the Gulf of Mexico and it's coastal region, while BP and the Federal Government drag their arses to get anything done about it, and we are saying enough is enough.

I'm not embarrassed by this generation. It's about time people get ticked off and angry. It's a great motivator to get things done.

Why are we not mad at them when they are killing thousands, if not millions of animals, and could potentially kill humans?

Sorry, I read this wrong.

Still, this applies.

[edit on 29-5-2010 by Phlynx]

reply to post by MrWendal

I stand corrected you're right it is a leak. I edited the title.
You could be right, it has steady been building up.
But to answer you and the next post below yours, I have to say that threatening violence against BP, me or any other person is NOT the way to get things done. MLK stressed this 40 years ago. I understand the anger I am also mad but lets do something constructive instead of "cutting off their heads" or "bitch slapping" people or "peeing" on gas stations.


[edit on 29-5-2010 by Just Wondering]

Some people DID complain & protest Bush's horrors,
namely Code Pink comes to mind.

WTF are you talking about?

MMS bureaucrats accepted sex, illegal drugs, bribes to dodge requirements of law. And this isn't even the first time they have been exposed at it.

How does it get any more blatantly dirty than that?
Human sacrifice?

At what point would it be acceptable to you to become outraged?

Both BP & the Goverment meat puppets have lied about the true amount of oil gushing from this hole,

which has been gushing 10s of millions of gallons, unending for more than a month?

BP threatens to fire any cleanup crew who wear, even their own, respirators, while workers get hospitalized from the fumes,
and just like 911 the government officials lie & obfuscate over the health hazards.

The US coast guard & local law enforcement are helping BP cover it up by keeping journalists out. That is UNCONSTITUTIONAL.

Do you not care about the constitution?
A free flow of information so you be informed rather than stay ignorant?

But YES, YOU are an embarrassment to your generation.

Luckily a lot of others of your generation have respect, regard & concern for their nation.

They aren't political meat-puppet backside lickers.

reply to post by slank

I am not against the outrage, I am against the violence that is so, so near the surface.

When the Environmental Protection Agency orders BP to use less of the toxic, Corexit 9500, and then it continues anyway www.wired.com...
When your wildlife is threatend with mass extinctions www.csmonitor.com...
When BP hides the extent of the splill www.abovetopsecret.com...
And it's raining oil in Florida www.abovetopsecret.com...
And all BP can do is figure out how to disband the "clean up men" after the presidents gone, and locals are being told there's no clean up work, for them... www.abovetopsecret.com...

Then people are going to be angry. Mob mentality is when you burn a witch, because someone says she's a witch. What are you saying? BP has isn't a corporate witch, -that it's really being both reasonsable & responsible? And that there's no need to bash Obama "just because" he's the guy who can lobby or change, U.S environmental laws?

Originally posted by Just Wondering

Where was all this anger when Bush was taking away your rights with the patriot act? Where was all the anger when Obama shoved the health care law down your throats? Where were all he threads asking for boycotts?

If you only you searched these things on ATS (instead of producing propaganda) you will find there was plenty of Bush bashing going on. You may find ATS is opposing Obama far less, most of years of Bush's terms.

I am embarrassed to be part of this generation.

Have you ever wonderd if many are "embarrased" to have someone you in it? (Just a retort!)

[edit on 090705 by Liberal1984]

I'm sorry to say that what we're all observing is precisely what happen in 1989 with the Exxon Vadez spill. Nothing has changed in the last 21 years ... I can't stress that enough.

reply to post by Just Wondering


Violence is all that some people will respond to. For sure it is all that the corporate elite ever respond to. Peaceful protests have come and gone in their tens of thousands, boycotts, letters, calls to congresscritters...all of that is ignored, brushed aside, lobbied away until people get violent, then suddenly the corporate world pays attention.

BP has been insultingly cavalier about their entire approach, transparently overreaching their abilities, and have wrought a multigenerational disaster because they wanted to save a few bucks. And still they refuse to acknowledge or accept personal responsibility for it.

There are times when violence is the correct response.

If the people who are causing the amount of damage that has been done continue to lie about everything associated with it instead of manning up and saying:

"We screwed up because we overestimated our abilities. Here is our resignation and we surrender ourselves for judgment."

Then just as the SWAT sniper is justified in taking out the person who is directly threatening others, violence against them could be justified too.

I'm not saying that there should be, but they are certainly courting it with their arrrogance and incompetence. The entire top three or four echelons of BP should be removed and tried for crimes against humanity, for surely they are guilty of them. My preferred punishment is life at hard labor physically cleaning the mess without safety gear.

What about eating meat &/or vegetables isn't violence?

Breathing disrupts the pre-existing state of air, violence.

The passage of time is a violence on a potentially forever frozen past instant.

How the hell is the cataclysm for all those struggling, suffocating, dying birds, turtles, dolphins NOT violence?

How about workers gotten sick, because BP told them they would fire them if they put on respirators?

How about the 11 already known dead, due to BP rushing & cost cutting?

Violence was how this nation unloaded tyranny once.

Time to unload corporate tyranny by what ever means necessary.

But usually you can't talk tyrants out of their tyranny, but if you can manage it, i am all for it.

reply to post by Just Wondering


I have to admit it, but I dont have a problem with people wanting to pee on BP gas stations. I dont take issue if people decide to storm the Capitol and scream "Off with their heads". I do not take seriously the talk of cutting off BP employees heads and using them to fill the hole... that really just comes off as a way to describe your anger. Much like saying I am so angry I could eat nails. Of course I wouldn't actually do that, but it is said as a way to describe your anger.

I don't agree with someone saying they would "bitch slap" you simply for disagreeing on a topic, however it is just words on a computer screen and comes off as Internet Tough Guy talk. That is not something I would take very seriously at all.

In any event... it's about time people got mad. The should be mad. Quite frankly, if you are not outraged yet, you have not been paying attention

I agree with this. We should screw PB any and every chance we get.. They have lied about and covered up rig problems, got TPTB to look the other way, and this oil spill is what we get for it.

They deserve some needed payback. If the Government is in bed with them and not going to do anything about it the private sector needs to send this message loud, strong and clear.

Perhaps if enough people damage PB's stuff they will change their corrupt ways knowing the people won't stand for it.

Just please no body don't harm any individuals. That would be wrong.

[edit on 29-5-2010 by JohnPhoenix]

reply to post by Just Wondering


Maybe the anger comes from the proximity and tangibility of the problem to almost everyone. Most can relate to a toxin messing up the beach and killing wildlife.

When we have just as serious issues to our well being such as rigged capitalism or compromised representatives that is harder to get our heads around. It is distant. It is vague. It is truly unsexy. It is an idea floating around out there versus a suffering Pelican covered in oil in front of our eyes.

Not being a scientist by any stretch of the imagination, mob mentality is always there. It is how humans react in large groups. If the group is threatened (as with the oil spill) they react violently. Heck, our revolutionary war was in a way mob mentality. A lot of POed people not going to take it anymore.

The posters disagreeing with you however is the reaction of an individual masquerading behind the veil of group think.

Still I vote for peeing on the BP gas stations.