Serious Frog Metaphor and what does it mean?

[BronzeHeart92]

To quote EnryoAlpha from DeviantArt here:

Tyranny operates like one would boil a live frog.
If you put a live frog in a pot of boiling water, it would immediately jump out. Obviously.

One solution to this is to quickly put a lid on the pot- to keep the frog from escaping. This is the kind of tyranny that you understand, and believe me to be talking about when I talk about it.

The problem with this method however, is such that performing it requires very tricky timing, and everything laid out in place beforehand, for that one fell swoop that clamps down and immediately oppresses people. Obviously, if such a tyranny arose, you would notice it and realize what was going on, and understand the dire situation you are in. You pride yourself on being that aware of things. It clearly hasn't happened, and it won't happen, because you haven't been thrown in the water , and the lid is still on the counter.

The better way to boil a life frog, is to put the frog in a pot of nice cold water, and ever so very slowly, turn up the heat, so he doesn't notice and grows adjusted and accustomed to the heat. It's just business as usual. He doesn't notice the changing temperature- all the way up to the point where he finds himself boiled alive, and dead before he can react.

This is the tyranny I'm talking about. Slow, ever-steady encroachment on rights and freedoms. It's just a little taxes here, just a little gun ban there, just a stronger police force to protect you from yourself and crazy people. And then, before you ever realize it, you're living in a gentle tyranny you cannot escape, and a gentle tyranny, is only the sweet prelude to a cruel and corrupt state of despotic slavery.

--

Kinda sounds like he pulled that from nowhere doesn't it? At least it wasn't in ANY textbooks I've read so far... In any case, kinda wondering what's he's trying to tell here.

 

[Maedar]

Wait, wait, hold on?

Deviant Art?

You do know that Deviant Art is a fanfiction site, just with pictures. You're quoting a fanfic writer.

But I do think I know what he's saying, it's a common theory used by conservative conspiracy theorists who try to convince minorities that Democrats are keeping them dependent on the government, as a modern form of slavery. Government assistance, subsidized healthcare, affordable schooling, even Social Security - all of it "bait" to keep the lower class in line. This was the very scam the Walkaway "movement" was trying to pull.

It's bunk.

These cynical people think every act of charity and kindness has a sinister motive behind it, and don't believe anyone can ever truly desire to share. That's why they assume a rich philanthropist like Soros is some diabolical mastermind striving for world domination.

Not everything has an ulterior motive. Some things you gotta take at face value.

 

[mgriffin]

Hm. Maybe it's not a common idiom these days, but Wikipedia has an article on boiling frogs.

 

[gimmepie]

I've heard this before too, it's an interesting analogy. The thing here though, is that ignores another kind of tyranny, which is a lot more prevalent in the modern political landscape. The presentation of something as inherently positive to the nation ie: presenting hate speech as exercising freedom of speech, even though it in actuality has adverse and oppressive affect on the population.

If you ask me, a smart frog will notice the water temperature is rising to uncomfortable levels and hop out the pot but it's pretty hard to do that if it's been enticed in with bait and then absorbed a bunch of Rohypnol through osmosis and passed out. I wouldn't say that there is no danger of the boiled frog metaphor coming about, but it is a gross oversimplification of things in an attempt to undermine potentially beneficial liberal policies and it's generally put forward by the people dropping roofies in the frog pot.

 

[professor plum]

After doing a quick google or two, I've found that the Boiling Frog metaphor isn't necessarily anything new - it's been around since at least the 60s. It's been used to garner sympathy towards the Soviet Union, re: the collapse of civilization anticipated by survivalists in the 80s, and even used when discussing climate change in Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. It's an okay metaphor that can be applied to all sorts of situations - tyranny wouldn't necessarily be the only one.

I've also located articles on why it's a poor metaphor - (for example) - as:

It just isn't true. If you throw a frog into a pot of boiling water, it will (unfortunately) be hurt pretty badly before it manages to get out -- if it can. And if you put it into a pot of tepid water and then turn on the heat, it will scramble out as soon as it gets uncomfortably warm.

So...yeah. It's not necessarily the most effective metaphor overall.

 

[EnglishALT]

It's an interesting although incorrect metaphor that seems to have gained relevance in pop culture and political culture over the decades, I can remember hearing it countless times from both sides of the political aisle. It's similar to the parable about the Frog and the Scorpion which seems to becoming more popular as well. I guess as humans it's easier to convey a situation by anthropomorphizing it.

 

[Noblejanobii]

Oh I know this metaphor well! We studied it in my political theory class. It's often used as an analogy to things like dictatorships, obviously, but specifically in reference to Nazi Germany, North Korea, and other such similar situations. And while it isn't correct to the actual reactions of a frog, it's a very effective metaphor often used in similar references to the ostrich in the sand metaphor (which is also false) or in reference to a slippery slope.

Specifically, in my class, we discussed it in reference to "The Third Wave" experiment, in which a teacher had trouble explaining how the German population was so accepting of Hitler's actions and rulership. There's a movie called "The Wave" that, while dramatized, does an excellent job of portraying the experiment and some of its results. But in short, to summarize, over the course of five days, this teacher turned his class and many people outside of it into a fascist regime. He did this through limiting their responses to his questions to three to four words and having them end every sentence with "Mr. Jones". He gave them a name for their movement and created a salute they had to address him with every time he entered and exited the room, as well as address each other with it even outside of class. The movement ended up taking a life on its own after this (on the third day), with people outside the class wanting to join the group and going through initiations, receiving member cards, and even reporting other students who weren't following the rules. What started as a group of 30 ended up as a group of 200 by the end of the third day. Over the third and fourth days, students were extremely loyal and obedient to the group, explaining they felt a sense of compelling community and duty to one another. By this point, the teacher realized it was out of control, and ended the experiment on the fifth day, explaining to everyone that they had just fallen victim to what the population of Germany had back then.

So the boiling frog metaphor, while inaccurate, is a reference to this exact situation. The students, or citizens, are given small individual instructions that aren't much different than their daily lives. They're told its the norm and accept it as such. The teacher has the authority to keep introducing new rules and as long as it is done slowly, he can maintain control and gain new members to his group. The students all willingly became a part of the experiment. They could have resisted the teacher's instructions outside of class at the very least. But they didn't, for one reason or another. They accepted the new norm and were boiled as a result.

 

[twocows]

To quote EnryoAlpha from DeviantArt here:

Tyranny operates like one would boil a live frog.
If you put a live frog in a pot of boiling water, it would immediately jump out. Obviously.

One solution to this is to quickly put a lid on the pot- to keep the frog from escaping. This is the kind of tyranny that you understand, and believe me to be talking about when I talk about it.

The problem with this method however, is such that performing it requires very tricky timing, and everything laid out in place beforehand, for that one fell swoop that clamps down and immediately oppresses people. Obviously, if such a tyranny arose, you would notice it and realize what was going on, and understand the dire situation you are in. You pride yourself on being that aware of things. It clearly hasn't happened, and it won't happen, because you haven't been thrown in the water , and the lid is still on the counter.

The better way to boil a life frog, is to put the frog in a pot of nice cold water, and ever so very slowly, turn up the heat, so he doesn't notice and grows adjusted and accustomed to the heat. It's just business as usual. He doesn't notice the changing temperature- all the way up to the point where he finds himself boiled alive, and dead before he can react.

This is the tyranny I'm talking about. Slow, ever-steady encroachment on rights and freedoms. It's just a little taxes here, just a little gun ban there, just a stronger police force to protect you from yourself and crazy people. And then, before you ever realize it, you're living in a gentle tyranny you cannot escape, and a gentle tyranny, is only the sweet prelude to a cruel and corrupt state of despotic slavery.

--

Kinda sounds like he pulled that from nowhere doesn't it? At least it wasn't in ANY textbooks I've read so far... In any case, kinda wondering what's he's trying to tell here.

So here's the thing about the frog metaphor: it's actually a hoax! A frog will pretty consistently jump out at a certain point well before it boils alive even if the temperature changes slowly.

More on point, what he (she?)'s saying seems pretty clear to me. He's saying that since our rights are being eroded slowly and in little bits, people don't really notice or care much about it. In some respects he's right, but you still see people step up when they think it has gone too far (as it should be). I think it's a bit alarmist and I think you'll still see plenty of people fighting to preserve our rights out there.