The unimportant news thread

[Florestan]

Hundreds of Christians slaughtered in Sri Lanka church bombings. As unimportant as it gets, it seems...

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/21/world/asia/sri-lanka-explosion.html

[amw]

I don't usually pray but I've been doing that today. Coming so soon after another mass slaughter at a place of worship here in NZ, it's horrible this keeps happening to people who dare to do nothing but practice and celebrate a faith the majority doesn't share. Carrying out an act like this is the ultimate chillul haShem and the amount of hatred someone has to be filled with to disregard that is mind-boggling.

Anyway blessings to the martyrs & their families and I hope more than anything this doesn't get used to reignite the incredibly awful 25+ year sectarian war that ended less than a decade ago and has killed hundreds of thousands.

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

Hundreds of Christians slaughtered in Sri Lanka church bombings. As unimportant as it gets, it seems...

What's that supposed to mean?

[Ken B]

What's that supposed to mean?

I take it as a mordant observation about the double standard applied to certain atrocities.

https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2019/04/22/maajid-nawab-sees-a-change-in-world-leaders-tweets-about-the-christchurch-and-sri-lanka-terrorist-attacks/

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

Dead link.

[Ken B]

Dead link.

Indeed. Odd.  Here it is plain text

https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2019/04/22/maajid-nawaz-sees-a-change-in-world-leaders-tweets-about-the-christchurch-and-sri-lanka-terrorist-attacks/

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

Indeed. Odd.  Here it is plain text

https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2019/04/22/maajid-nawaz-sees-a-change-in-world-leaders-tweets-about-the-christchurch-and-sri-lanka-terrorist-attacks/

I got bored half-way through that link. I'm supposed to think that referring to the Sri Lanka victims as "Easter Worshipers" rather than "Christians" is a ploy to avoid accusing Islamic terrorists? Nonsense. It was Easter, if it had been a generic Sunday service it would have been more natural to say "Christians." Equivalent outrage and sympathy was expressed for the Sri Lanka and Christchurch attacks.

What is more fatiguing to me is when people have to get our their outrage-meters and make some sort of a sectarian accusation that people are not getting appropriately outraged about one incident vs another.

[Ken B]

I got bored half-way through that link. I'm supposed to think that referring to the Sri Lanka victims as "Easter Worshipers" rather than "Christians" is a ploy to avoid accusing Islamic terrorists? Nonsense. It was Easter, if it had been a generic Sunday service it would have been more natural to say "Christians." Equivalent outrage and sympathy was expressed for the Sri Lanka and Christchurch attacks.

What is more fatiguing to me is when people have to get our their outrage-meters and make some sort of a sectarian accusation that people are not getting appropriately outraged about one incident vs another.

Actually the argument is that it's a ploy to avoid calling them Christians. Boredom is not a rebuttal, but trust me I understand being bored with people who cannot be bothered to frame an actual argument. *yawn*

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

Actually the argument is that it's a ploy to avoid calling them Christians. Boredom is not a rebuttal, but trust me I understand being bored with people who cannot be bothered to frame an actual argument. *yawn*

Yes, I got that, I did not find the rhetorical distinctions that the claim was based on to be significant.

[amw]

I mean there's several levels here:
- 310 people being killed for their religious beliefs in a third world country is less of a news item than an old cathedral burning down with no casualties in a first world country, because too many people only care about what's happening in their own back yards. (There was another ethnically & religiously motivated attack last month in Mali that killed 160 which also went mostly unnoticed in media.)
- Politicians don't want to name the victims as Christians, possibly out of fear that this will encourage more "alt-right" people to carry out retaliatory attacks like the one in New Zealand. (But this reasoning doesn't make much sense either given that the most right-wing American Christians tend to be virulently anti-Catholic, and just ends up downplaying the religious motivations of the murderers.)
- The alleged culprits are from an organisation that—like all other wahhabi-influenced Sunni Muslim paramilitary organisations—most likely receives funding from a US & European ally, Saudi Arabia, which US & European leaders don't want to alienate, so very little action can be expected in response.

I interpreted a lot of the frustration as stemming from the first point, because the tone-deaf American responses had not yet happened at the time & there was also not yet any claim of responsibility or knowledge of the perpetrators.

[Ken B]

Amw makes some good points, but I think the Mali example rather boosts Florestan's underlying complaint about double standards.

Personally I think it a good thing on balance that elected leaders stand up and lie about religions and call them peaceful, but it's important that we don't believe actually believe them.

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

I mean there's several levels here:
- 310 people being killed for their religious beliefs in a third world country is less of a news item than an old cathedral burning down with no casualties in a first world country, because too many people only care about what's happening in their own back yards. (There was another ethnically & religiously motivated attack last month in Mali that killed 160 which also went mostly unnoticed in media.)
- Politicians don't want to name the victims as Christians, possibly out of fear that this will encourage more "alt-right" people to carry out retaliatory attacks like the one in New Zealand. (But this reasoning doesn't make much sense either given that the most right-wing American Christians tend to be virulently anti-Catholic, and just ends up downplaying the religious motivations of the murderers.)
- The alleged culprits are from an organisation that—like all other wahhabi-influenced Sunni Muslim paramilitary organisations—most likely receives funding from a US & European ally, Saudi Arabia, which US & European leaders don't want to alienate, so very little action can be expected in response.

I interpreted a lot of the frustration as stemming from the first point, because the tone-deaf American responses had not yet happened at the time & there was also not yet any claim of responsibility or knowledge of the perpetrators.

About 300,000 people die every day on earth. It is the nature of terrorism to cause a relatively tiny number of people to die in spectacular manner and command attention.

I don't find it inappropriate that the destruction of a thousand year old structure that represents the pinnacle of achievement of a culture would attract as much attention as the number of deaths on one day being increased by 0.1%. The significance of the terrorist attack is not the loss of life, but the potential for civilization instability.

[Ken B]

About 300,000 people die every day on earth. It is the nature of terrorism to cause a relatively tiny number of people to die in spectacular manner and command attention.

I don't find it inappropriate that the destruction of a thousand year old structure that represents the pinnacle of achievement of a culture would attract as much attention as the number of deaths on one day being increased by 0.1%. The significance of the terrorist attack is not the loss of life, but the potential for civilization instability.

We agree this time, especially the last sentence.

[Ken B]

The push to rehire Jussie Smollett. https://deadline.com/2019/04/empire-cast-crew-letter-jussie-smolett-return-fox-disney-1202601208/

The point is not that he is innocent, the point is that it's ok anyway. Privileges are established by asserting them.

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

The push to rehire Jussie Smollett. https://deadline.com/2019/04/empire-cast-crew-letter-jussie-smolett-return-fox-disney-1202601208/

The point is not that he is innocent, the point is that it's ok anyway. Privileges are established by asserting them.

I'll keep my outrage powder dry in the event he actually gets rehired. You'll have to keep me up to date, I don't even know what show he was on.

[Ken B]

I'll keep my outrage powder dry in the event he actually gets rehired. You'll have to keep me up to date, I don't even know what show he was on.

Some people confuse sardonic observation with outrage. But your position is that it's only an outrage when the bigwigs at Fox bless him?

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

Some people confuse sardonic observation with outrage. But your position is that it's only an outrage when the bigwigs at Fox bless him?

I should be surprised if someone somewhere is willing to overlook the behavior of this scumbag, presumably because he looks good? There is no one on the planet that does not have a following of apologists. Even the guy who shot all those students in Parkland Florida has internet groupies. Lord, I hear that some GoT fanatics are rooting for the Night King! (Well, I am, sort of.)

[Ken B]

I should be surprised if someone somewhere is willing to overlook the behavior of this scumbag, presumably because he looks good? There is no one on the planet that does not have a following of apologists. Even the guy who shot all those students in Parkland Florida has internet groupies. Lord, I hear that some GoT fanatics are rooting for the Night King! (Well, I am, sort of.)

True. Even Boulez has admirers.

[greg]

I should be surprised if someone somewhere is willing to overlook the behavior of this scumbag, presumably because he looks good? There is no one on the planet that does not have a following of apologists. Even the guy who shot all those students in Parkland Florida has internet groupies. Lord, I hear that some GoT fanatics are rooting for the Night King! (Well, I am, sort of.)

Dude... I might be with you on that one. Why the Night King for you? For me it's that that world disgusts me so much that it would be best to just start from scratch tbh.

Other option I wouldn't mind is Jon + Daenerys, which would be great, but not sure that world would be much less disgusting than its current state.

[Ken B]

Kim Foxx, the Chicago prosecutor who lied about recusing herself in the Smollett case, has been posing for selfies with another accused, and had to actually recuse herself.
https://defensemaven.io/bluelivesmatter/news/state-s-attorney-forced-to-recuse-herself-after-posing-with-defendant-for-selfie-1wG9YSdLE061Zv-elfcevg/