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Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

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Re: Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

#501

Post by wavesounds »

tbrooks wrote: post #422
dhimes wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As pg tries to explain, it's not a YC company but a charity he supports (and therefore knows about) and it's also one that he thinks can help people get (afford) medical treatment.

It doesn't matter whether its a non-profit or for-profit, charity or business, or whether pg personally benefits from Watsi flourishing. He's using the events in Boston as a way to promote a service that has nothing to do with the horror occurring in Boston. I'm not saying Watsi isn't great -- it is. But this isn't the time or place to call attention to Watsi. It's tasteless and rude.

Its 'tasteless and rude' because those people aren't on CNN?

Orders of magnitude more people will die or be injured today from gun violence, car accidents or disease but 99.9% of them will not make the news, a reminder of this is anything but tasteless and rude.

Re: Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

#502

Post by darkarmani »

RivieraKid wrote: post #453

I'm quite astonished by the disproportionate media attention and hysteria. For comparison 55 people died today in an Iraq bombing and about 80 people die every day on the U.S. roadways.

> disproportionate media attention and hysteria.

What is disproportionate about it? Large bombs don't go off in US cities every day. Are you surprised that there are bombings in Iraq? Is that something you don't expect?

Re: Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

#503

Post by RivieraKid »

darkarmani wrote: post #502
RivieraKid wrote: post #453

I'm quite astonished by the disproportionate media attention and hysteria. For comparison 55 people died today in an Iraq bombing and about 80 people die every day on the U.S. roadways.

> disproportionate media attention and hysteria. What is disproportionate about it? Large bombs don't go off in US cities every day. Are you surprised that there are bombings in Iraq? Is that something you don't expect?

Disproportionate to how many people died. And calm down please.

Re: Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

#504

Post by darkarmani »

no2empire wrote: post #179
stevenameyer wrote: post #48

It's horrific to see this happen. I hope that people make it out of this ok, and they get to bottom of who did this. Seeing these kinds of senseless attacks on the innocent is just disgusting.

Drones are flying over Afghanistan and Pakistan right now, atatcking innocent families. A Zionist invasion of Palestine in the 1940s is pushing into Gaza, the West Bank, southwest Syria, and innocent Palestinians are being killed daily - with US backing. The US is doing this all over the world, or enabling it. It's a laugh to see the people who invaded Iraq and tortured prisoners in Abu Ghraib getting on their high h…

So, how does that make it ok?

Re: Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

#505

Post by RivieraKid »

chadillac83 wrote: post #481
RivieraKid wrote: post #453

I'm quite astonished by the disproportionate media attention and hysteria. For comparison 55 people died today in an Iraq bombing and about 80 people die every day on the U.S. roadways.

I tried explaining this to someone earlier... apparently it's not a numbers game because of assumed risk. There is little to no risk to watching a marathon, whereas living in Iraq or speeding on the highway there is implied risk. I'm not trying to discredit what you're saying, just pointing out why people (my friend and probably a lot of others) go into hyper sensitive reactionary mode.

I would say it's surprise factor combined with sensitivity to terrorist attacks.

Re: Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

#506

Post by narrator »

narrator wrote: post #234
noonespecial wrote: post #138

The worst part for me (and I really am feeling bad about this) is that I should be concerned about the victims right now, but I can't stop thinking about what freedoms I'll be losing as a result of this.

The first thought on my mind was what mysterious 1000 page bill is going to show up and get rushed through congress because of all this?

My second thought is how weird it is that for the next couple of days the attention and focus of a 100s of millions of people's will be directed at the circumstances surrounding the deaths of perhaps 20 people of no particular notability. It's as if these are the only 20 people that died lately. The attention and focus of the public in this modern era of global communications is a strange thing.

Re: Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

#507

Post by darkarmani »

icebraining wrote: post #435
illuminate wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see the point in imagining a world without psychopaths. It'd be lovely, but no amount of societal structure will ever remove them, we can only try to reach them whenever possible and lessen their influence on others.

It should be noted that multiple studies indicated that terrorists don't have a bigger share of psychopaths than the general population. Average people can convince themselves and/or be convinced to maim and kill if they believe their cause is just. This does not in any way mean we should excuse them, any more than I would let a rabid dog attack me just because I recognize it can't be expected to follow ethical behav…

That's a scarier prospect than the opposite.

Re: Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

#508

Post by darkarmani »

RivieraKid wrote: post #503
darkarmani wrote: post #502

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> disproportionate media attention and hysteria. What is disproportionate about it? Large bombs don't go off in US cities every day. Are you surprised that there are bombings in Iraq? Is that something you don't expect?

Disproportionate to how many people died. And calm down please.

Do you know how many people die in hospice care each day? Do you expect heavy coverage of them?

Re: Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

#509

Post by wavesounds »

ralphleon wrote: post #63

Why do the top links on reddit stop leaving the front page? This link was #1 for about 10 minutes: http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/1cen7i/explosion_... and now has vanished, along with all other sponsored links. A horrible tragedy like this seems leagues more important than the current top link: http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/1cebz2/spotted_cookie...

I think its because the threads are getting too much traffic. It seems like reddit first will make a thread read only then will remove it from the front page, this all seems temporary. This is all from observation though Im not sure the actual algorithms involved here.

Re: Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

#510

Post by mhandley »

kevinmchugh wrote: post #428
tbrooks wrote: post #379

Really PG? https://twitter.com/paulg/status/323909260826259457

"[R]andom acts of benevolence are a good reaction to random acts of violence." I find some kind of beauty in that. It might just be the phrase "random acts of benevolence", which I've never seen before, but I intensely respect this position. https://twitter.com/paulg/status/323914172528197632

My first reaction was that pg's original tweet was really tasteless, but after mulling it over, I went and donated anyway. Perhaps at least a tiny bit of good can come from this.
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