OFFICIAL POLITICAL CARTOONS/PIC FREAD.

[Cain]

It's also inaccurate because the drones are slaughtering people in Pakistan.  Beyond looking cheap as fuck as an image.

However, I don't agree the comparison is misplaced at all.  I suggest you look at just how much coverage collateral drone damage gets in the US media, RWHN.  I would be willing to bet a significant sum of money the school shooting yesterday got more air-time coverage than every drone strike for the past year.

And the only reason I can conclude for that to be the case is that news organizations believe Pakistani lives to be inherently worth less than the lives of white people.

Furthermore, while the actions of an armed individual are hard to predict and thus prevent, the drone program could be stopped tomorrow, if there were significant political will.

It's not that the loss of life in the US is any less tragic.  It's not.  But the drone program is by any ethical standard, a far greater evil.  There is therefore the issue of moral hypocrisy or cowardice, especially on the part of the media, but also on the part of politicians like, well, Obama, who shed tears for slain children in America while working towards the steady production of slain children elsewhere in the world.

[Elder Iptuous]

i'm sure they would be willing to slaughter white children if it were deemed militarily or politically necessary expedient, too.

what is curious to me is why the image is WOMPed rather than using one of the many GIS results of 'drone strike' that don't look like a 3rd grader cobbled it together...

[Cain]

Yeah, but there would be far greater media backlash and political costs if, say, drones were attacking suspected terrorist safe houses in London.

[AFK]

Well, shit, of course this is going to get more coverage, and it will quickly become obscene infotainment pornography as the news media does with school shootings, hurricanes, celebrity murder trials, etc.  Yes, the US media is broken and pathetic, yes.


Okay, now that we have that out of the way.  Evil is fucking evil.  You were saying yourself in the other thread that one should not discount the idea that a perfectly sane and rational human being can carry out such evils.  That image puts across the idea that the loss of life should be viewed or ranked on some kind of continuum or scale, which I think is patently offensive to the loved ones of those poor kids and staff.  So they lost lives at the hand of a crooked individual instead of a crooked government.  In the end, evil snuffed out very, very young lives and it matters not a shit, for the victims and their families, who's hand(s) were on the trigger. 


By all means we should be having the discussions about the drone program, it should be in the news, it should be on the national agenda.  But I think it is wrong to shoe-horn it into this tragedy.

[Salty]

Well, shit, of course this is going to get more coverage, and it will quickly become obscene infotainment pornography as the news media does with school shootings, hurricanes, celebrity murder trials, etc.  Yes, the US media is broken and pathetic, yes.


Okay, now that we have that out of the way.  Evil is fucking evil.  You were saying yourself in the other thread that one should not discount the idea that a perfectly sane and rational human being can carry out such evils.  That image puts across the idea that the loss of life should be viewed or ranked on some kind of continuum or scale, which I think is patently offensive to the loved ones of those poor kids and staff.  So they lost lives at the hand of a crooked individual instead of a crooked government.  In the end, evil snuffed out very, very young lives and it matters not a shit, for the victims and their families, who's hand(s) were on the trigger. 


By all means we should be having the discussions about the drone program, it should be in the news, it should be on the national agenda.  But I think it is wrong to shoe-horn it into this tragedy.

Of course, that image is completely stupid. It reduces a very complex problem into a typical internet soundbite. I also agree that it is bad form to shoe horn the issue now while people are still emotional, instead of having forgotten about this completely. Which I give six months.

However, I am perplexed at how deeply people are shocked that such a thing could happen. And I am slightly disgusted that people absolutely do not give a shit about THOSE kids, but their whole worldview is shattered because of THESE kids.

Why do we do that? What can we do to bring attention to these other children?

I mean, hell, I brought up the double amount of drones Obama sent out to a Discordian who was gushing and got the response, "Well, hell, here kids get killed for holding skittle and tea."

We've just shut ourselves off to one type of horrific murder because, well I don't know why. Maybe it's because this is something we can imagine happening to ourselves and our children, and we can't imagine getting blown up in some sand-ridden hovel.

It's not just media coverage, it's what people pay attention to. And people only pay attention when it has something to do with their own precious selves.

[AFK]

It's called human nature and it's happening on that side of the Atlantic as well.  In some cases, it is callous heartlessness, for others, it's simply out of sight out of mind.  Not everyone is able to constantly and consciously maintain a global concern and empathy for everything bad that happens all of the time everywhere.  We simply aren't wired to be able to do that.  But we are wired to get upset and traumatized when it hits close to home.  NIMBYism.  It's a very human trait. 


But if course, it isn't an either/or.  We should be upset at both and want to fix both.  It shouldn't be a contest.

[Salty]

It's called human nature and it's happening on that side of the Atlantic as well.  In some cases, it is callous heartlessness, for others, it's simply out of sight out of mind.  Not everyone is able to constantly and consciously maintain a global concern and empathy for everything bad that happens all of the time everywhere.  We simply aren't wired to be able to do that.  But we are wired to get upset and traumatized when it hits close to home.  NIMBYism.  It's a very human trait. 


But if course, it isn't an either/or.  We should be upset at both and want to fix both.  It shouldn't be a contest.

No doubt, but specifically concerning drones, they are not a random global event that Americans have no control over.

The trouble is we aren't going to fix either.

I definitely agree with your last sentence.

[Salty]

In the end, the way people are reacting is wholly natural.

I just wish people would react that way every time children are murdered.

[AFK]

But I don't think that is an American problem, or a first-world problem, it's a human problem.  Or, human nature. I don't think any human has the capacity to be fully aware of all the atrocities happening everywhere.  I mean, fuck, when you have kids, you barely have time to keep up with your local news, let alone being fully aware of all global atrocities.  I mean, I'm a pretty intelligent, aware, and educated person but even I don't know about all of the bad shit happening everywhere.  I don't have the TIME. 

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

In the end, the way people are reacting is wholly natural.

I just wish people would react that way every time children are murdered.

People do, if they hear about it.

They don't usually hear about it, and kids aren't usually murdered en masse (in the US).

[Cainad (dec.)]

And for teh Nigel:

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

And for teh Nigel:

[Telarus]

 

[Bu🤠ns]

[Cain]

One map, two nuclear warfare scenarios:



Triangles are a 500 warhead scenario, black dots are a 2000 warhead one.