On Sunday, 25 May 2014 11:21:50 UTC+1, Joe Egginton wrote:
"Some time back, a reader drew my attention to the book in which, 40

years ago, a Yale professor of psychology, Irving Janis, analysed what,

with a conscious nod to George Orwell, he called �groupthink�. It is a

term we all casually use (which even he derived from another writer),

but he identified eight symptoms of groupthink. One is the urge of its

victims to insist that their view is held as a �consensus� by all

morally right-thinking people. Another is their ruthless desire to

suppress any evidence that might lead someone to question it. A third is

their urge to stereotype and denigrate anyone who dares hold a

dissenting view. Their intolerance of �independent critical thinking�,

as Janis put it, leads them to �irrational and dehumanised actions

directed against outgroups�.



[...]



"But another characteristic of groupthink that Janis doesn�t fully

explore in his book is that those caught up in these mindsets have never

actually worked out their thinking on the subject for themselves. They

have taken on their belief-system, and the reasons for supporting it,

ready-made and wholesale from others. That is why it is impossible to

have any intelligent dialogue with, say, zealots for man-made climate

change or the European Union, because they have not really examined the

evidence for themselves but have come to a set of opinions that are

skin-deep and second-hand. They can only parrot the mantras they have

picked up from others. "



[...]



"That is why, as we see illustrated on every side (not least in much of

the output of the BBC, or, for that matter, the online comments below

this column), they cannot tolerate or offer rational arguments, or

explore the three-dimensional truth of a subject. They quickly resort

just to dismissing anyone who disagrees with their beliefs as an

�idiot�, �hopelessly ignorant�, �wildly inaccurate� or �anti-science�.

Or they appeal to what Gustave Le Bon called �prestige�, citing

supposedly respected authorities, such as the reports of the UN�s

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which are only voicing the

�consensus� views of other adherents of the same groupthink. "



http://tinyurl.com/n8s66cf



Do these ideas ring a bell when applied to some members of this group?



Do not all political parties represent examples of group think tanks?



I think Dave and Dullish have eloquently immediately proved your link and Christopher Bookers points.

"Certainly do. Sounds just like climate change deniers like yourself to me!"