I just think the Florida anti-protesting law is just disgusting. 🤮

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Citizens have the right to speak up, rally and have their concerns heard. Any attempt to silence dissent should be frowned upon. Protestors should not be labeled rioters or insurrectionists, but merely demonstrators. Sometimes protests get emotional, sometimes property is broken or damaged. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have protests.

Now I get that the Florida anti-protesting law is mostly a response to the Democrats labeling the unruly and rather asinine pro-Trump protests at the US Capitol insurrectionists, and the abuse of the law by federal agents to aggressively prosecute those who marched on and in some cases damaged the Capitol grounds is gross. But two wrongs don’t make a right. Republicans shouldn’t be enacting a law because Joe Biden’s administration is being unfair to the January 6th protestors. And just because a protest is completely asinine and insane, doesn’t mean people don’t have the right to be heard and not be taken seriously.

There is a lot of injustice in the world today. People have the right to be heard. Law enforcement should work with demonstrations to ensure that people have a chance to have their voices heard, while minimizing damage to property and injury to fellow protestors and people going on their businesses. But remember broken glass isn’t end of world. The government breaks a lot of glass and tears down a lot of buildings with eminent domain to build highways, office parks and “public” works.

Protests may be asinine, and the may be inconvenient to people trying to get through daily business, but that shouldn’t be a reason to allow people to have their voices heard.

A Sociological Understanding of Moral Panic

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A Sociological Understanding of Moral Panic

A moral panic is a widespread fear, most often an irrational one, that someone or something is a threat to the values, safety, and interests of a community or society at large. Typically, a moral panic is perpetuated by the news media, fueled by politicians, and often results in the passage of new laws or policies that target the source of the panic. In this way, moral panic can foster increased social control.

Moral panics are often centered around people who are marginalized in society due to their race or ethnicity, class, sexuality, nationality, or religion. As such, a moral panic often draws on known stereotypes and reinforces them. It can also exacerbate the real and perceived differences and divisions between groups of people. Moral panic is well known in the sociology of deviance and crime and is related to the labeling theory of deviance.

Been doing a lot of reading about moral panics today

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Been doing a lot of reading about moral panics today. I saw this really dumb Facebook post about the dangers of bumper stickers being passed around by some hick town police department and it reminded me how idiotic social media can be. I’m glad I don’t own a color television and have to see all this crap on television. 

The Definition of Deviance Amplification

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The Definition of Deviance Amplification

Deviant amplification usually starts when one act that is either illegal or against social morals that wouldn't normally be worth of media attention becomes newsworthy. The incident is reported on as being part of a pattern.

Once an incident becomes the focus of the media, other similar stories that normally wouldn't make the news fall under this new media focus and become newsworthy. This begins to create the pattern that was initially reported on. The reports can also make the action seem cool or socially acceptable, leading to more people to try it, which reinforces the pattern. It can be hard to prove when deviant amplification is happening because each new event seems to validate the initial claim.?

Sometimes citizens will pressure law enforcement and government to take action against the perceived?deviant threat. This can mean anything from the passage of new laws to harsher punishments and sentences on existing laws. This pressure from the citizens often requires?law enforcement to put more resources into an issue that it actually warrants. One of the main problems with deviance amplification is that it makes a problem seem much larger than it is. Which in the process can help create a problem where there was none. Deviance amplification can be part of a moral panic but they do not always cause them.?