misanthropy

[fromaway]

You know, sometimes I'm not sure what I find most upsetting about the Manitoba bus murder: the fact that it happened or the fact that so many supposedly "normal" and "decent" people are using it as an excuse to be horrible

Comments

[thatames]

A few years ago, a girl I used to work with was involved in a terrible crime (baby-stealing). I read about it on the internet. Anyways. She had a very obviously Latino last name, though her family had been in the US for many generations. While poking around the internet looking for info on the crime (because I was horrified/fascinated someone I knew could have done such a thing) I can't tell you how many blog posts and message board posts about how obviously this was due to those damn Mexicans getting over our border. THE HELL? She was born here like any of us. This happened because she had mental problems and should have been getting treatment, not because of her ancestry. Goddamn.

[thatames]

None of us are perfect, but at least our first thought upon a tragedy is "how can I make this about minorities sucking?"

Ugh.

[fromaway]

(Ha, sorry about the deleted comment; for future reference it was the same as the one below, just a bit shorter.)

Well, that is true (there's a missing "not" in your sentence, obviously, heh).

[gingerale_kitty]

I've been feeling pretty much the same thing, except at a different target. The last few days I've been kind of obsessed about what happened on K-2, and there are all these people who think that the climbers deserved to die horrible deaths because they "knew what they were in for," and took stupid risks and all mountain climbers are stupid adrenaline junkies who should have thought of their families, etc. And this whole idea that, because they left their homes and took risks, their survival (the ones that did survive) isn't heroic or inspiring in any way.

People are awful.

[fromaway]

I don't get it. I mean, I sort of do, because it's a really common knee-jerk reaction to say "oh, I know why this happened, I know who or what to blame, so if I do X or get the government to do Y then nothing bad will ever happen to me." But it's such a nasty destructive thing to do, kicking people when they're down.

[gingerale_kitty]

Exactly. People like things to be predictable, because if things are predictable, they can protect themselves. But if things are predictable, then scary hands-of-fate things like serac avalanches and stabbing deaths can't happen to "good people." So, obviously, the people to whom avalanches and stabbing deaths happen are "bad people." "Bad people" bring it onto themselves.

And then they like to shout that out to the rooftops because, if they say it loudly and rudely enough, maybe it will come true. Or maybe they're even stupid enough to believe it.

[fromaway]

Just World Theory. Very good predictor for, among other things, hard-core conservatism. :p

[copperhill]

I can't read anything about the Greyhound Bus story. It's not just the editorial aspects of it - the blogging, the comments, the sensationalist journalists. It's really just the way the whole thing is being reported. Reporters have not stopped hounded either family for sound bites since the story broke and in some cases have been the ones to seek out and inform family members. News reporting is supposed to be detached and neutral, I get that, but even if the highest ideals of journalistic integrity are being met, this isn't simply detached, it's inconsiderate and ignores that the families are equally dispassionate fact-machines, they're actual people who've just faced a major tragedy.

I also think that the 911 call circulating on YouTube is morbid in the way the video of the man being tazed in Vancouver was morbid.

[fromaway]

Yep. Although I was grateful for the Youtube video because as upsetting as it was, it cut off some (not all, of course) of the Internet assholery. If you can SEE that the guy had his hands at his sides and you aren't already deep into "the police are never wrong" pseudo-fascist bully-boy ideology, it has an impact. The Greyhound 911 call is more straightforwardly morbid because there is no real question of fault.

I don't know what they expect to get from the families. That's very upsetting.

[copperhill]

Wow. Rereading my comment, it is horribly written. I do agree with your assessment of the YouTube video though.

[johnnyg]

I find I'm not able to read very much coverage or commentary around this (I hadn't heard of this 911 video and I don't plan to track it down). But in what I've read I haven't seen instances of reporters "hounding" people's families

[fromaway]

The immediate emergence of xenophobia did shock me, I think because (and this is kind of horrible) Chinese people are not usually stereotyped in that way in Canada. If Li were black or Aboriginal I would have been less surprised.

The hatred and bloodlust expressed really, really bother me. It's not enough to remove this man from society (which I think is entirely justified); he should be shot, he should be tortured, he should be executed without trial, if this were a just society he would be dead already, etc., etc. And then they expand on it -- not just Li but everyone like him (his family, immigrants, people with mental illnesses, people who have committed any sort of crime, etc.) should be locked up, sterilized, etc.

I would understand that rage as trauma if it came from people personally touched by this, but from strangers to it? It's very frightening.

[zooby]

It made me irate that internet assholes around the world saw fit to immediately demand why others on the bus didn't stop this horrific act, like things would've been different if these heroes had been on the bus instead! And legitimate news sources wrote stories about this. Like, are we all talk radio now? Just because they can air their uniformed, stupid, xenophobic opinions on the Internets doesn't mean we (and by we, I mean the mainstream media) have to legitimize them by paying attention. Fuckheads.

As for the rage and bloodlust... yeah. I don't get it. I can understand concern, I mean, nobody wants to take the bus in the first place and it could really happen to anybody, but that's life, you know? I do wonder, though, what they think will be accomplished by arming themselves with pitchforks and "letting him fry." You're not going to prevent something else like this from happening.

This whole "an eye for an eye" thing is gross. An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.