Help Talking-up Scotland keep going

Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going

Or by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421

You can listen to what they have to say at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0030l7g?at_ptr_name=twitter&at_campaign_type=owned&at_medium=social&at_campaign=Social_Flow

I have a weak stomach and an aversion to rats, wee ones especially, so I won’t be.

Anyhow, I, none of us, need to hear their unconvincing lies. We already know:

Researchers have found that heavy consumption of negative news triggers the release of stress hormones and consequent increases in anxiety [i], [ii], [iii]. Studies of voting patterns have found that those with a ‘negativity bias’ derived from fear and anxiety about the world they live in, have a tendency to vote for conservative political groups promising to prevent change [iv], [v], [vi].

The implications of this for Scotland’s independence vote are clear to me and, I feel sure, to BBC Scotland’s senior staff. The lesser staff who made the ‘documentary’ are unlikely to consciously have this clear underlying purpose articulated but, under pressure to please those who have control over their income and their careers, semi-consciously make choices of what to include and how to present it, and ‘work toward them.’ Lesser mortals in Communist Russia, Nazi Germany or in Trump’s USA, did/do the same.

Sources:

[i] https://patient.info/news-and-features/is-watching-the-news-bad-for-your-mental-health

[ii] https://www.apa.org/monitor/2022/11/strain-media-overload

[iii] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9135112/

[iv] https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/mind-in-the-machine/201612/fear-and-anxiety-drive-conservatives-political-attitudes

[v] https://www.apa.org/news/apa/2020/fear-motivator-elections

[vi] chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/158607199.pdf

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Help Talking-up Scotland keep going

Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going

Or by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421