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The day I accidentally killed a little boy

bbc.co.uk

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Re: The day I accidentally killed a little boy

#281

Post by mitsubishi77 »

danvasquez29 wrote: post #182
jordanmoconnor wrote: post #2

I once worked a summer job at a state park in Western, NY. One of the employees there was a leather-skinned rough type that mostly kept to himself. One day, I'm not sure how it was brought up, he remarked to me that he once killed a 22 year-old man in a construction accident when he was operating a large crane. It rocked his world, and he was never the same. I can't imagine living with that amount of regret and anxie…

I really enjoyed (maybe not the best word...appreciated) the film "Manchester By the Sea" for reasons that this story reminds me of. My wife and some friends who have seen it said it was 'boring' and that 'nothing happened'. To me, the fact that 'nothing happened' was a very much the point; There was no grand character arc because for most people you just don't ever come back from an event like that. There is no majo…

Beatifully put.

Re: The day I accidentally killed a little boy

#282

Post by alien_at_work »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #29
oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #3

You have to feel terribly sad for everyone involved here. The only place the blame can rest is humanity's desire to mix very fast, solid vehicles with very slow, squishy pedestrians in the same spaces. We're way too far down that rabbit-hole to address it, but hopefully self-driving cars (and less polluting cars, too) will start to reverse the damage done by the automobile, in the not-too distant future.

> but hopefully self-driving cars Think more boldly: public transportation.

That's not bold, that's meek. Self driving cars are the bold. Public transport means travelling to somewhere I don't want to go, so I can be taken somewhere else I don't want to go but is closer to where I do want to go.

I want to walk out my front door, get into an "auto Uber" or whatever, and be let out at the front door of my work.

Re: The day I accidentally killed a little boy

#283

Post by amysox »

This reminds me so much of Genesis' "Dreaming While You Sleep."

  All my life, you lie silently there
  All my life in a world so unfair
  All my life and only I'll know why
  And it will live inside of me
  I will never be free all my life
  Trapped in her memory all my life
  Till the day that you open your eyes
  Please open your eyes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMEhTI-jko8

Re: The day I accidentally killed a little boy

#284

Post by MollyR »

I'm a mother with a young child. I don't think the childless and males can ever really understand the process of being pregnant for 9 months and then giving birth.

I empathize with her, but if she killed my child. I could never forgive her.

Re: The day I accidentally killed a little boy

#285

Post by [deleted] »

gkya wrote: post #241
joosters wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On a very cynical level, autonomous cars will still help. If the person in the article had been a passenger in the car when they hit the child, they would undoubtedly feel far less guilt about the incident, and their life would have been far less affected as a result.

Is this a question that has a legal answer, at least in the US where autonomous vehicles seem to be most in vogue, that what party is guilty in an autonomous vehicle accident? Because in an autonomous vehicle every person is a passenger. The only person that can be blamed at all is the pedestrian victim of the accident, no? Also, in an accident which involves two vehicles, on whom will the damages be? Certainly none…

[deleted]

Re: The day I accidentally killed a little boy

#286

Post by sandebert »

Pigo wrote: post #7

I can barely bring myself to read stories like this now. I never really thought about it before my son was born, but there's always this dread you live with in the back of your mind. This little helpless person has your life in it's hands. The world and fate is trying to take them out, and if they succeed you'd never recover. You can learn to live with pain, but I don't believe you ever get over something like that.

I don't really have anything to add other than I completely agree. I won't read the story. There's also certain documentaries I won't watch for the same reason.

Re: The day I accidentally killed a little boy

#287

Post by Xeoncross »

nkrisc wrote: post #201
Xeoncross wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> half the Old Testament is one tribe murdering another That hasn't changed, it's only gotten worse. A huge percentage of this world kills, riots, and is violent. Is God supposed to handcuff everyone? God's primary purpose isn't to keep everyone safe in a little sealed box where they can't hurt anything. However, one day he will put an end to to sin and evil once and for all. The reason he doesn't is that he continue…

A huge percentage? I reckon the vast majority of individual people alive today are pretty peaceful. God's primary purpose is as a tool for the religious ruling elite to exert control over the followers. Do Man's desires align with God's will, or does God's will conveniently align with Man's desires? Seems we always have only Man's word on the matter.

It is impossible for men to have written the bible. It was written over ~1,500 years by about 40 different people across multiple empires and contents - yet it's unified in the story. It's over 20% prophecy, much of which was has already come to pass about nations or events (some of which features Israel).

There is no book that even comes close to the complexity required for the bible to have been written.

Re: The day I accidentally killed a little boy

#288

Post by dreamcompiler »

pixl97 wrote: post #195
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Horses had a habit of not trampling people if they could avoid it, regardless of the driver’s own intent. They were in many ways like self driving cars. These things (safety) aren’t binary. Just because it wasn’t absolutely false before doesn’t mean it was much more true after.

Horses are evil creatures that will stop your head in. The difference between now and then is we dont have an agency that keeps track of horse related deaths then.

I grew up around a lot of horses and this was not my experience. But then those horses were all geldings and mares; stallions have a reputation for being mean bastards but I don't know if that's true or an urban legend.

Re: The day I accidentally killed a little boy

#289

Post by ajuc »

Xeoncross wrote: post #186
ajuc wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, half the Old Testament is one tribe murdering another, and God either doesn't care, or support one side (usually the victorious one - if it's Jews it's because they were nice, if it's not Jews it's because Jews were sinful at that particular moment :) ). He tells Saul (if I remember correctly) to murder subjugated people, women and children included, so at that moment to any sane person God is actually acting a…

> half the Old Testament is one tribe murdering another That hasn't changed, it's only gotten worse. A huge percentage of this world kills, riots, and is violent. Is God supposed to handcuff everyone? God's primary purpose isn't to keep everyone safe in a little sealed box where they can't hurt anything. However, one day he will put an end to to sin and evil once and for all. The reason he doesn't is that he continue…

More than 99% of all people alive today never murdered anyone, nor participated in any war. Slavery is very rare. In most of the world there are at least partly objective court system, with the possibility to appeal.

In what way exactly things got worse according to you?

And the important thing about Old Testament is - it portraits wars of Jewish states/tribes as either having the support of the God (because they were doing what God said to them, so they deserve to enslave/kill the pagans and take their land), or going against the God and thus - losing (so the pagans got the support of the God in the murdering or enslaving the Jews as a punishment).

God's purpose is whatever he chooses, but if you do such things you aren't "good" and "loving". You're basically playing Starcraft with people as units. It's evil.

Re: The day I accidentally killed a little boy

#290

Post by fjsolwmv »

christophilus wrote: post #244
somebodyfree wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This did not actually happen: http://reason.com/archives/2017/10/23/ye-olde-ikea-sex-traff...

I'm glad to hear that this story was fake! I never looked it up, just heard her retelling of it. Regardless, the story wasn't the point of my comment. The reaction I have as a dad vs pre-parenthood is the point. Where I live is the sex-trafficking capital of my state, which probably heightens my reactions, too. The problem is real and pervasive, fake news not withstanding.

If it's so pervasive, then why are the top of mind stories fake?

Because it's not pervasive, it's a false panic.

Trafficking is a problem that impacts runaways and immigrants. If you want to help, help them, don't get hysterical over imagined babysnatching.

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