Folk devils are similar to a scapegoat, society wants to bully and blame life events on someone or something to ease their own conscious. Society is too lazy to take action to solve a problem so people blame other people for the problem for the reason people then believe the issue is easy to fix; just banish those people from society.
Consequently, society tends to focus on the group a person stereotypically belongs to rather than that person as an individual. Targeting someone as a folk devil and scapegoating people makes it easier for people to pretend nothing will happen to them if we are mentally well, thin and pretty/handsome. In that mindset, morality is easy to achieve, being a "good" person is something we either born with or don't have at all, however, it is not that black and white. Good people do bad things, and bad people do good things, no one is 100% good for we all make mistakes, and vice versa. We all wear a mask of innocence and when someone interrupts that fantasy of ourselves being good and pure we need to blame a class of people. Instead of acknowledging that bad people exist and bad things happen to people, we must signal out groups of people instead of individuals.
We must believe an entire group of people are bad when someone bad does something horrible.It makes it easier for us to "stay safe." We just need to avoid goths, and crazy looking people when in reality when horrible things happen it involves people who are white, Christian and played for the football team as well. We can't face the truth that anyone can snap so we have to blame it on the "mentally ill."
We must believe an entire group of people are bad when someone bad does something horrible.It makes it easier for us to "stay safe." We just need to avoid goths, and crazy looking people when in reality when horrible things happen it involves people who are white, Christian and played for the football team as well. We can't face the truth that anyone can snap so we have to blame it on the "mentally ill."
Folk devils are the cause of moral panics and people panic over things that are rare or were a freak accident unlikely to happen to them. Sharks are a great example for shark attacks are very uncommon nevertheless, people are terrified of going into the water. As stated on Wikipedia, once a folk devil is targeted and labeled, everything they do, or anything people in that group will be because they are now seen as "bad" and evil. Also, people in the group of people being aimed as the folk devil will be thought of as classified as something they are not or have not done since other people in their group classification have done it. If someone who is fat is lazy, eats junk and has food-related diabetes, then everyone who is fat now has diabetes and is lazy and we must get them to exercise and eat healthy even if they already do.
We blame laziness, sedentary lifestyle choices, and binge eating on the obese, however people of all sizes, weights and shapes make sedentary lifestyle choices and binge eat.
Instead of blaming binge eating on eating disorders such as Anorexia and Bulimia and even dieting (which binge eating disorder is a cause and a symptom of), we blame it on "normalizing obesity" and being around fat people.
Instead of blaming AIDS for the deaths of thousands, gay people were blamed. As long as you stayed away from "the gays" you were safe is what people were taught. Pinning the blame for "obesity-related diseases," "gay-related diseases,"or any other diseases pinned to a set group of people is dangerous and irresponsible. Anybody gay, straight, obese, thin, muscular, ugly, beautiful, sane, insane, can suffer from any disease at any given point in life. Anyone can suffer from depression, and heart disease and anyone can snap at any time for everyone has their breaking point. The best thing to do is recognize that we can all be in someone else's shoes at any point in time, the best thing to do is take care of ourselves, recognize that life has its ups and downs and no one is perfect and no one is immured to suffering and diseases. Obesity is the cause of disease and all the starvation and poverty in the world,and mentally ill people are the causes of shootings and all the crime is what people want to believe.Instead of focusing on healthy eating and sedentary lifestyles which are the causes to numerous health problems people blame fatness. This is because it is easier to convince ourselves that only the outcasts can get sick and only bad things happen to them, not us.
The obese, insane, ugly people are the folk devils of our society for we unfairly place diseases and evil onto them when in reality, not all people who kill others are insane, and not all obese people are unhealthy (nor are all thin people healthy). Society has a need to survive, and in their mind, it is easier for us to stay away from those people and survive if we "look for the signs." Truth is, sometimes people are horrible people, sometimes people snap, and sometimes people's bodies just do not function correctly and there are no warnings
We blame laziness, sedentary lifestyle choices, and binge eating on the obese, however people of all sizes, weights and shapes make sedentary lifestyle choices and binge eat.
Instead of blaming binge eating on eating disorders such as Anorexia and Bulimia and even dieting (which binge eating disorder is a cause and a symptom of), we blame it on "normalizing obesity" and being around fat people.
Instead of blaming AIDS for the deaths of thousands, gay people were blamed. As long as you stayed away from "the gays" you were safe is what people were taught. Pinning the blame for "obesity-related diseases," "gay-related diseases,"or any other diseases pinned to a set group of people is dangerous and irresponsible. Anybody gay, straight, obese, thin, muscular, ugly, beautiful, sane, insane, can suffer from any disease at any given point in life. Anyone can suffer from depression, and heart disease and anyone can snap at any time for everyone has their breaking point. The best thing to do is recognize that we can all be in someone else's shoes at any point in time, the best thing to do is take care of ourselves, recognize that life has its ups and downs and no one is perfect and no one is immured to suffering and diseases. Obesity is the cause of disease and all the starvation and poverty in the world,and mentally ill people are the causes of shootings and all the crime is what people want to believe.Instead of focusing on healthy eating and sedentary lifestyles which are the causes to numerous health problems people blame fatness. This is because it is easier to convince ourselves that only the outcasts can get sick and only bad things happen to them, not us.
The obese, insane, ugly people are the folk devils of our society for we unfairly place diseases and evil onto them when in reality, not all people who kill others are insane, and not all obese people are unhealthy (nor are all thin people healthy). Society has a need to survive, and in their mind, it is easier for us to stay away from those people and survive if we "look for the signs." Truth is, sometimes people are horrible people, sometimes people snap, and sometimes people's bodies just do not function correctly and there are no warnings
References:
Wikipedia. (2017, March 20). Folk devil. Retrieved April 23, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk_devil
Richard Griffiths. 2000. The gothic folk devils strike back! Theorizing folk devil reaction in the post-Columbine era. Journal Of Youth Studies Vol. 13 , Iss. 3,2010. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13676260903448021
SliderBase. 2015 Dec 30. Folk Devils and Moral Panics'. [Video File] Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c7PQUFuZds
Wikipedia. (2017, March 20). Folk devil. Retrieved April 23, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk_devil
Richard Griffiths. 2000. The gothic folk devils strike back! Theorizing folk devil reaction in the post-Columbine era. Journal Of Youth Studies Vol. 13 , Iss. 3,2010. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13676260903448021
SliderBase. 2015 Dec 30. Folk Devils and Moral Panics'. [Video File] Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c7PQUFuZds