Could someone convince you their intentions were good at gunpoint?

[NNN0LHI]

Poll question: Could someone convince you their intentions were good at gunpoint?

I don't think we are going to be able to convince the Iraqis either.

[TahitiNut]

1. Of course. It's called the "Stockholm Syndrome"

Like most folks (the "Lake Wobegon effect"), I'd like to think I'm somehow "better" than most -- those whose behavior is predicted by the Stanford Jail Experiment and Milgram's experiments, or characterized by the Stockholm Syndrome. I'd like to ... but I can't.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment

To better understand this in the context of today's political polarization, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_Wing_Authoritarianism

[kansasblue]

2. yes.... how about a cop?

[NNN0LHI]

4. No when a cop points his gun at me I don't think his intentions are good

But thats just me.

Don

[Dunvegan]

3. Like I said in another thread...

...As little as I care for the hijacking of our government as it stands, I'd certainly become a Minuteman in a second if another superpower...lower case "s"...tried to land on our shores and help us in a "regime change."

[whatever4]

5. Pointing at me and my family and anyone that looks like me? No

All for no reason at all? No way

[Oeditpus Rex]

6. It would depend on how they presented their intentions

and what their intentions were.

A 1983 TV movie, "Special Bulletin," used a "War of the Worlds"-style breaking-news theme to depict domestic nuclear terrorism. A TV reporter and cameraman are taken hostage by a group led by a former DOD think-tanker and a nuclear scientist who use the TV feed to broadcast their cause and their demands from a tugboat in the Charleston, S.C. harbor. On the boat, they've placed a nuclear weapon built by the scientist and set to explode if the warhead detonators kept in the harbor aren't delivered to them for disposal.

Gradually over the course of the 20-something-hour hostage situation, it's apparent that the reporter comes to agree with their cause. Anyone who's anti-nuke would likely do the same.

I know it's "just a movie," but it's one that really makes you think. Too bad it never got the notoriety of "The Day After," as it presented the same message in a different way, and better IMHO.