Would a robbery by any other name smell as wrong?
Today I look at the spate of “flash mob” (according to the media) daylight robberies (some involving hammers and assorted weapons), the latest of which hit a Nike store in California.
Now, these brazen help-yourself robberies whole bystanders (and hapless “security” gaurds), well, stand by are indeed a growing trend in the wild WEIRD west where law and order is being delegitimised where it’s not being outright “defunded”. We can talk about that. And we should.
However, what struck me is the language used to describe this outright thuggish criminality - the media and social media coverage I read up on this issue almost universally refers to them a “flash mobs” (which are, as anyone who lived through the naughties knows is something quite different - activism / brand activations organised stealthily online to culminate in a, usually well choreographed moment of attention-grabbing IRL).
This language begs the reader to dismiss the breakdown of civil society as just “kids today”, more “gen z shenanigans”. This is not that.
Even the nihilistic Luh Twizzy, which does indeed meet the online to offline activation definition should not be confused with good old fashioned multiple offender gang crime.
Language shapes stories and directs narratives - towards or away from the core issues at play.
How else are we being distracted by the words directed at us?
Where else do you see elders blaming societies on youth culture at large rather than general social malaise and specific antisocial criminal elements?
Where else is the big picture being obscured by semantics?
Read more :
Not a flash mob : https://themessenger.com/news/nike-store-flash-mob-thieves-ransack-california-location-watch
Semantics, semantics : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_rob#:~:text=The%20term%20often%20used%20by,is%20known%20as%20%22arrastão%22.
The kids today : https://www.capetalk.co.za/articles/478639/how-to-handle-gen-z-and-the-particular-way-they-re-disrupting-the-world
Not a flash mob