Fuck. I can deal with it at family reunions. I can deal with it at bars. Most times i can deal with it in the bedroom. But here on HN? This i cannot abide.
When you say "the Media" what in gods' name do you actually mean?
The Media made me do it. I would have known but for The Media. Why does The Media always [x]. I am not that smart; i make a lot of mistakes in a lot of different ways. But i learned long ago that blaming my parents, my gender, my race, etc. for MY STUPIDITY is a huge waste of time and resources.
People are rioting because they are frustrated, or insidious, or bored, or despicable, or bored, or passionate, or bored.
There are absolutely some people looting and raising hell because they are seeing others do it without consequence on television or online.
When I say "the Media", I (in god's name) mean the television news, the online news, twitter, and facebook.
Do you honestly think that people just independently thought to go burn some shit up (in a hive mind sort of way) all at the same time, for no reason other than they were bored?
The TV didn't tell them to do it, it showed them that other people were doing it (stimulating people swaying that way to join in for whatever the reason).
Further, "the media" have been purposely making a habit recently of showing black men killed by white police officers, when in fact, so far just this year 380[1] people have been killed by police -- only a fraction have been black, with the rest mostly while and latino. Also, you will note that some of those black people killed must have also been killed by black officers -- but crickets on the TV and online.
Realistically, why do you think that is? Do you not at least suspect that it is because "they" (tv news, online news, etc) know how people will react? If it was just the act of the police killing someone, how come all the police shootings haven't been front-page news nation-wide?
It is very naive to think that modern day journalists do not know if printing certain stories with sensationalist headlines, or focusing on certain stories will have effects on people. It is also very naive to think that people seeing and hearing these (very focused) stories would not react to them[2].
[1] http://killedbypolice.net/
[2] They certainly knew back in the day! See the Spanish-American War as a well-known example of the media "making" people do somthing
>>Further, "the media" have been purposely making a habit recently of showing black men killed by white police officers, when in fact, so far just this year 380[1] people have been killed by police -- only a fraction have been black, with the rest mostly while and latino. Also, you will note that some of those black people killed must have also been killed by black officers -- but crickets on the TV and online.
How many of those whites or latinos were unarmed, not threatening the cops, or were running away when they were shot/choked/beaten?
About half the people killed by US police have a mental illness. Police do need to be careful but shooting people is probably not the right thing to do in most of those cases.
Better training in de-escalation and rapid tranquilisation and psychiatric nurse accompaniment would be better.
Your first point needs a citation. If someone has an adderal prescription, would you say they have a mental illness? that is a rather ambiguous description.
They do need to be more careful. So careful that maybe a human is not up to the job...
This report talks about a "serious mental illness".
Those words tend to be used for diagnosed mental illnesses like schizophrenia and other psychotic illnesses, sometimes major depression or severe bipolar disorder. Very roughly one or two people per hundred meet this definition.
An appropriate adderal prescription would be for a mental illness or mental health problem. It would tend not to be described as "severe and enduring". This "severe" label is in the context of mental illness, not the general population; it's not meant to imply that ADHD etc are trivial.
so...100s of millions of people colluding to foment a riot? CTBP if you ask me
>hivemind lunacy
yes and no.
>' "the media" '
seriously? they all get together at a big meeting and set an agenda?
>on death, blackness, cops, and conspiracies
Do not conflate the issue here. i agree this whole 'spotlight on brutality' is cherry picking by SJWs. i know full well that cops suck for more reasons than one. i also know that, regardless of the undeniable suckage, cops serve an extremely important function in an ordered society. our back and forth is about your laziness in identifying a root cause. there is no 'the media'. i assume you has a facebook (i do not). are you an agent of "the media"?
please understand, i am not mad at you, i am mad at a tendency that you are representing. it is the same as any time someone says "Americans do [x]" or "white males always [x]". The idea that there are monoliths and that they act in informed concert is preposterous.
It is super cool right now to act like what is happening in the US is some giant fucking race war. in truth, things are getting better. that is why individual killings stand out. but journos, pundits, and SJW bloggers are driven by attention. that does not excuse you and i acting the same way.
We all want shit to change, but in different ways and for different reasons. when any opportunity appears to give voice to this seemingly ubiquitous angst, we let loose. when we do, a small group of ne'er do wells take advantage of the focus of LEOs and steal shit.
I do not like the way media works either, friend. i am not opposed to you or your ideas. i just took issue with where you chose to lay they blame.
> i assume you has a facebook (i do not). are you an agent of "the media"?
I do not, however I do think that people either get their news from TV/radio/online or (importantly) from other friends, mostly through facebook posts these days.
My main point (and opposed to your point, apparently) is that there may not be a smokey room where "the media" get together and decide what will be news, but the end effect is just the same if the vast majority of people's news sources are all printing/showing the same cherrypicked sensationalistic stories that are meant to illicit passionate reactions (and views/likes/etc.)
And on this we agree. An echo chamber of ignorance resulting in an excessive amount of stupid.
And i do think there is a grand conspiracy behind it all: the conspiracy to increase profit every year, no matter the method, for the faceless gods of our time... the Shareholders.
Full disclosure: i am a member of "The Media". I'm on the entertainment side, so i sleep a little better knowing that most people know we peddle lies and watch anyways for diversion (as opposed to information ((if someone gets their facts from narrative fiction that is their own failing))). I was drinking away my regrets in a bar in DC one night and i got into an "exchange" with this seemingly intelligent young lady. When i countered one of her statements, she told me she was certain of her facts as she, "had seen it in a documentary". After chuckling into my cup, which in retrospect did not help the situation, i asked her why she thought that made it true. She told me that documentaries were not allowed to lie. At that time i was working on a "science" tv show for the channel that purports to tell the public about historical events. we were doing a bit on "lasers that could destroy [x] from space". not more than a day before we had interviewed a scientist who specialized in focused/directed energy devices. For 3+ hours the director had tried to get the guy to say the line we needed: the blah blah blah could destroy any place on the globe. Of course this scientist never said it, because it was not/ is not possible, at least not how the writers were asserting it. Finally, the poor, foolish scientist said something that the editors knew they could cut into a statement that would we work and we wrapped soon after. I never watched the Episode, but i remember shooting a mock up of the earth, two small mirrors, and a laser pointer simulating a giant death ray.
It is when lies dress up as truth and all people do is ignore it or rationalize it that we get the horseshit that passes for news these days.
Double disclosure: I'm an hour south of Bmore. I love that city. The cops are horrendous, both black and white, and many of the citizenry ignore it until a camera crew rolls up.
I hate that the city is burning, but only because i am certain no one is going to learn anything from this.
When you say "the Media" what in gods' name do you actually mean?
The Media made me do it. I would have known but for The Media. Why does The Media always [x]. I am not that smart; i make a lot of mistakes in a lot of different ways. But i learned long ago that blaming my parents, my gender, my race, etc. for MY STUPIDITY is a huge waste of time and resources.
People are rioting because they are frustrated, or insidious, or bored, or despicable, or bored, or passionate, or bored.
They are not rioting because a TV told them to.