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Re:A Year of Tech Solidarity by Mountain_Skies on Wednesday November 15, 2017 @02:55AM (#15702162)
Has there ever been a study on the effectiveness of "you're either with us or against us"? My sense is that forcing everyone to pick a side, even if by declaring the silent or fence sitters as an opponent by default, brings one's side a short term increase in supporters as those who are fearful of being seen as the enemy are pushed into tepid support while the vast majority who had been keeping their heads down either openly become the opposition or continue to keep their heads down while silently agreeing with the opposition out of resentment for those who forced them into making a choice.
Re:A Year of Tech Solidarity by js8 on Wednesday November 15, 2017 @04:47AM (#15702642)
Interesting question. I don't want to claim I have an answer, but I am reminded of an experiment that Bob Altemeyer mentions in his book https://theauthoritarians.org/.

They tried some United Nations simulations with people who he calls authoritarians (of which one trait could be described as subscribing to either with us or against us mentality), and the result was always a total nuclear war.

Re:A Year of Tech Solidarity by kiliantics on Wednesday November 15, 2017 @05:59PM (#15708813)
I think you're making a false equivalence, to a degree. No one has said that you're "with us or against us". The point is more that "if you remain silent, you stand on the side of the oppressor"

Here's an MLK quote better to that effect:

"First, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can't agree with your methods of direct action;" who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a "more convenient season."