Katie's New Face • Hacker News Board

Re: Katie's New Face

#91

Post by dbbk » Wed, Aug 15, 2018, 9:28 PM UTC

sDlEzAtyoNAz wrote: post #90

dbbk wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is where the argument always fails for me. "But having a gun means I can defend my family!" Against what? I just don't buy the premise that you're significantly at risk of a violent attack out of nowhere, for no reason, at any given time. I've never felt even remotely unsafe living in London, let alone felt the need to keep a weapon on me.

>Against what? In the US, that would be against the individuals who collectively commit millions of violent crimes per year (surveys indicate this number easily exceeds 5 million per year).

What are the odds of that happening to you though? I don't know what the actual statistics are but it seems highly improbable. And it doesn't seem logical to me that a criminal who wants to (i.e. rob you) is really going to actually shoot and kill you to do it.

Re: Katie's New Face

#92

Post by qiqing » Wed, Aug 15, 2018, 9:28 PM UTC

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Re: Katie's New Face

#93

Post by ItsDeathball » Wed, Aug 15, 2018, 9:29 PM UTC

throwaway987909 wrote: post #77

jonah wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair enough. I think we need to market images of badly disfigured veterans as a tragedy instead of an honor.

I hate the glamorization of the military. I don't understand how anyone would actually join. Sacrifice yourself mentally, and physically to fight political wars for the rich and powerful. No thank you. But the propaganda is soooo strong it preys on people who can't think for themselves.

Most people, in my experience, sign up to pay for college or because their parents kicked them out at 18 and they couldn't find a job. That's about all it takes; ideology doesn't really enter into it.

Re: Katie's New Face

#94

Post by ClassyJacket » Wed, Aug 15, 2018, 9:30 PM UTC

crescentfresh wrote: post #47

As a father to two so-far-healthy young boys, one soon to be a teenager I feel devastated at the thought of either of them having to endure the level of emotional chaos that Katie went through the moments leading up to her suicide attempt. My stomach goes into a knot at the thought. I mean gosh, it was a cheating boyfriend. I don't know what to do to protect them from such a path.

Live in any other country than America, I guess, so an emotional person can't get their hands on a gun in two seconds.

Re: Katie's New Face

#95

Post by SpikeDad » Wed, Aug 15, 2018, 9:33 PM UTC

That was a difficult article (pictures actually) to read. It shows (to me at least) how intimately our humanity is linked to a face that passes our own internal pattern matching heuristics.

I'm not proud to admit my initial thought was not how difficult life must be for her but rather how deformed her face was.

But then I was proud that my (our) inherent human intelligence and morality was able to put that thought aside and wonder what I could do to help her.

Re: Katie's New Face

#96

Post by gambiting » Wed, Aug 15, 2018, 9:34 PM UTC

40acres wrote: post #35

Jesus that was difficult. How the hell did she even survive the gunshot wound?

Human bodies are weirdly resilient. Sometimes you can trip while walking, hit the wrong bit of your head and die on the spot. Other times, someone shoots themselves in the fact and survives. I guess she missed all the absolutely vital parts, so she survived.

Re: Katie's New Face

#97

Post by eagsalazar2 » Wed, Aug 15, 2018, 9:35 PM UTC

throwaway987909 wrote: post #77

jonah wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair enough. I think we need to market images of badly disfigured veterans as a tragedy instead of an honor.

I hate the glamorization of the military. I don't understand how anyone would actually join. Sacrifice yourself mentally, and physically to fight political wars for the rich and powerful. No thank you. But the propaganda is soooo strong it preys on people who can't think for themselves.

It is disgusting to watch military recruitment videos in the US. They are clearly designed to prey upon the immature, ego-filled fantasies of 17yr old boys.

Re: Katie's New Face

#98

Post by forapurpose » Wed, Aug 15, 2018, 9:38 PM UTC

mynameishere wrote: post #81

forapurpose wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I understand correctly, plenty of research shows that it's an impulsive decision, and access to a tool that makes it easy greatly increases the likelihood of acting on it. The research shows that the presence of guns, in particular, in increases suicide. Killing yourself is hard; a gun makes it a push-button operation. However, it would be much better if someone could share the actual research with us.

If someone thinks about suicide for years and then "impulsively" picks up that gun, I'm guessing the researchers count that as an "impulsive decision". On the other hand, it does seem Katie's attempt was genuinely a spur-of-the-moment thing, and a proper gun cabinet might have been sufficient to stop her. As a PSA, don't ever try to kill yourself with a gun. The success rate is only 70 percent. The 30 percent who sur…

> If someone thinks about suicide for years and then "impulsively" picks up that gun, I'm guessing the researchers count that as an "impulsive decision".

Is there something you can point to that supports that theory? I appreciate that you say you are "guessing".

Also, I don't know what "thinks about suicide for years" signifies. Probably everyone thinks about it at some point, and probably at multiple points; thus we all 'think about it for years'. I thought about being a fireman for years when I was a child. There's a big difference between thinking and acting, or there would be a lot more startups in the world.

Re: Katie's New Face

#99

Post by azernik » Wed, Aug 15, 2018, 9:39 PM UTC

crescentfresh wrote: post #47

As a father to two so-far-healthy young boys, one soon to be a teenager I feel devastated at the thought of either of them having to endure the level of emotional chaos that Katie went through the moments leading up to her suicide attempt. My stomach goes into a knot at the thought. I mean gosh, it was a cheating boyfriend. I don't know what to do to protect them from such a path.

Keep them mentally healthy in general, and keep an eye out for latent problems. People deal with cheating boyfriends all the time, but when that's added to other mental health issues things can go very wrong very quickly. In this case, the sudden life changes seem to have left Katie off balance and vulnerable, and when the article refers to "perfectionism" I suspect that's a reference to some underlying mental health problem.

Note that there's a fine line between pathologizing normal personality variations, and missing real issues.

Re: Katie's New Face

#100

Post by realo » Wed, Aug 15, 2018, 9:39 PM UTC

Question: can the same organ be donated more than once?

Imagine a "face" that would exist for many generations, given from one to another multiple times...

Not sure what to think of that.