I have have a few twitter accounts with news on very narrow topics, for example, machine learning news, and other niche technical topics. I just went through them all and anyone who mentions the Paris attacks gets unfollowed. If I ever want news about shocking violence going on on the other side of the planet with my Machine learning news I'll resubscribe. I get inundated every day with too much information. Getting the same shock news through 30 different channels is just ridiculous. Everyone thinks they're the modern day Paul Revere when really, I already know, and they're just being annoying.
Paris Shootings and Explosions Kill Over 100, Police Say
351–360 of 672 posts
Re: Paris Shootings and Explosions Kill Over 100, Police Say
#352Earlier quoted context omitted.
Terrorism is usually a rational act. It is terrible, but it has political goals. This, for instance, may be aimed at ending the European involvement in Syria and their taking in refugees.
It has had a 0% success rate of achieving political goals http://www.gwern.net/Terrorism%20is%20not%20about%20Terror
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Re: Paris Shootings and Explosions Kill Over 100, Police Say
#353Earlier quoted context omitted.
A way to let others know you're safe even if you can't get through to them personally.
Does that have any value beyond reinforcing people's irrational fear of mass deaths? What if you let your family know you're not one of the 100 killed in this attack then die as one of the 600 murdered in France each year by common crime? I saw this happen with the London bombings. A colleague was almost in tears because her son lived in London and she couldn't contact him on the phone. It turned out he was fine, as…
You answered your question without even realizing it. It is always ok to care about your loved one, and it is always ok to reach back out to let them know you're ok, no matter the medium, no matter the circumstance. It is not irrational, it is human.
A college classmate on 9/11 died in the Windows of the World restaurant. Her death may be a statistic to you, but it is not to me.
I remember trying to call friends in NYC that day, all the exchanges were overloaded. I'm grateful that we now have ways to connect without worrying about possibly preventing emergency calls from going through.
Re: Paris Shootings and Explosions Kill Over 100, Police Say
#354Re: Paris Shootings and Explosions Kill Over 100, Police Say
#355Earlier quoted context omitted.
What do people think the refugees were running away from? Exactly these people.
Not European but travelling in Asia at the moment. Have had a couple of discussions with run-of-the-mill Europeans concerned that the refugees areproportionally made up much more of young men than women/children with the implication that these guys are up to no good. I'd say the subtleties of the humanitarian crisis is going to be lost on the average European Joe in the wake of this
The refugees who have travelled to Europe to seek asylum are disproportionately young and male. Because if you have a family group in a refugee camp in Turkey, you don't send your grandmother to take a dangerous boatride across the Med and then traipse around the countryside of the Balkans trying to find a way to get to talk to a German government official about the possibility of making an asylum application for your family.
Re: Paris Shootings and Explosions Kill Over 100, Police Say
#356Earlier quoted context omitted.
There has been plenty of communist-inspired violent terrorism. Germany's RAF, Italy's Red Brigade, Japan's United Red Army, Peru's Shining Path, Columbia's FARC, Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers, etc. etc. Saying these are not real communists is just a No True Scotsman. As soon as people start believing in utopias there's a danger that they will cross a line.
Pan-Americanism and Capitalism are both utopian ideas.
Not sure why the downvotes, I voted you up.
Re: Paris Shootings and Explosions Kill Over 100, Police Say
#357Earlier quoted context omitted.
Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao Zedong, Kim Il Sung - just to name a couple of famous exponents of communism. Perhaps you are mistaking the ideal of communism with the actual practice of it, which has proven to be just as genocidal as anything else in history.
Sure, be we could name the famous exponents of non-communist states too, and amass a huge blood toll that rivals and surpasses these people. Heck, there were 2 world wars in which communists countries were only involved in the second, and only on the allies side. How many people were killed there, including civilians? And let's not get started in the 18th-19th century history, before marxism was even invented... War,…
Your comment is irrelevant to the point being discussed, which was specifically about communism. It's akin to saying, "We excuse X for doing something bad because Y (something to which we are ideologically opposed) did the same bad thing". In other words, it's the "side", not the "principle" you are arguing. If you take that position you can be an apologist for practically anything that happens.
Re: Paris Shootings and Explosions Kill Over 100, Police Say
#358Earlier quoted context omitted.
There has been plenty of communist-inspired violent terrorism. Germany's RAF, Italy's Red Brigade, Japan's United Red Army, Peru's Shining Path, Columbia's FARC, Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers, etc. etc. Saying these are not real communists is just a No True Scotsman. As soon as people start believing in utopias there's a danger that they will cross a line.
Pan-Americanism and Capitalism are both utopian ideas.
Could someone who downvoted this elaborate? I'd love to hear why you don't consider Pan-americanism and capitalism(!) to be utopian
Re: Paris Shootings and Explosions Kill Over 100, Police Say
#359Earlier quoted context omitted.
Equating this with a cold virus is the height of imbecility. Governments have a responsibility to protect their citizens. The scope of this protection is up for debate, but ignoring it is not a choice that most citizens will tolerate.
I thought the metaphor was clear - society, as a whole, is not threatened by this sort of thing, and it is not even particularly dangerous from an expected value perspective. The point is not that nothing should be done - as I mentioned with my reference to hygiene precautions. Washing your hands and encasing yourself in an antiseptic bubble are two very different things , and the fact of the matter is that not all d…
I think attacks like this are absolutely threatening to society, besides the obvious direct impact on everyone personally scared by their experience tonight, they likely increase islamaphobia and racism, cement negative prejudices in minds of average citizens, and yes likely lead to many "wrong" reactions by the State.
But it's completely wrong to conclude that the right thing to do is therefore nothing. As we learn more about who, what, why, and how this happened the first goal is to hunt down, arrest, put on trial, and if found guilty imprison for the rest of their lives (or execute) anyone who contributed to this attack. Every angle must be criticized to understand what effective countermeasures could have been in place to detect, disrupt, or kill the attackers sooner. There should be a tremendous outpouring of support for all the people and families impacted.
The most sickening is the celebratory response from various camps, and I wonder if that's happening anywhere inside France.
Particularly if this turns out to be a home brew attack, the Islamic communities bear a tremendous responsibility, not for the attack, but going forward, in significantly strengthening and mobilizing all their resources towards preaching nonviolent protest and leading the efforts to root out radicalized groups in the community. Where are the Islamic MLKs to rally the community against radicalization? The fear-and hate-fueled backlash against French Muslims may only be stemmed by a disproportionate response against the violence from within the communities.
And just a pedantic point, we actually do spend a reasonable sum on detecting flu trends by "surveillance" of hospital visits and even monitoring Google searches to identify and better respond to possible outbreaks.
Re: Paris Shootings and Explosions Kill Over 100, Police Say
#360Earlier quoted context omitted.
How has it failed as a platform for meaningful communication? Aren't you reporting its success in this area?
People expressing something (sympathy, judgement, whatever) are crowding out the messages of people trying to co-ordinate requests for support and offers of support. It's cool that the twitter user in Australia has a message of sympathy. But if you urgently need a safe place to stay in Paris, and you can't find the people making that offer, in a place meant for that offer, because the non-parisians are making too muc…
Ah. I misread OP's comment.
Yeah, that's bad situation.