4 ms·

Can you provide the source of your data about the risk of dying?

by yandie 10y ago

blowski 10y ago
For most of the last 20 years, fatalities in terrorist attacks in (Western) Europe were in single figures. There were three exceptions - the Madrid trains in 2004, London bombings in 2005, and the Oslo shootings in 2011. See http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2015/11/daily-chart-10 http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2015/11/daily-c... Last year, that increased to around 100, this time based on 2 attacks (both in Paris, France). So far this year, there have been nearly 300 fatalities over 9 separate incidents: http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-europe-terror-20160715-snap-htmlstory.html http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-europe-terror-2016... Correction: there were around 170 fatalities in 2015, and there have been around 150 so far in 2016.
- morsch 10y ago
  That's nearly 300 (speficially, 278) fatalities over the last two years, not this year.
  - blowski 10y ago
    Oh yes, sorry you're right. Even so, the numbers have increased significantly in the last couple of years.
- justincormack 10y ago
  We are back in Europe to the average level of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s in terms of deaths with far fewer attacks, after a reduction in the 2000s though http://www.datagraver.com/case/people-killed-by-terrorism-per-year-in-western-europe-1970-2015 http://www.datagraver.com/case/people-killed-by-terrorism-pe...
  - lb1lf 10y ago
    While I tend to shrug off any attack with the idea that I still live in one of the safest corners of the planet (Small-town Norway), I do appreciate that people are, reasonably, more scared of Terrorism(tm) than they've been in the past around here. I have a couple of ideas why this may be so: a) Back in the seventies/eighties when media reported on the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the ETA in Spain or the RAF in Germany / BR in Italy, reporting was much more low key (For anything but the most spectacular events, Norwegian papers would typically publish a small note to the effect that "Members of the Basque separatist organization ETA today killed a police officer and two bystanders in whatever Spanish place you've never heard of." Today if someone for whatever reason kills a couple of people, it is a major story with photos, interviews, analysis and whatnot. Hence, events on a similar scale as was experienced in the past now appear much more significant. b) Violence today seems a lot more arbitrary; in the seventies, the typical terrorism victim if my recollection of the news back then is anything to go by, was someone who was targeted for something they were; police officers, magistrates, cabinet members, Israelis, whatever. Hence we'd just shrug it off, as we weren't targets, anyway. Today, for a significant number of perpetrators, anyone is a target - and that makes it a lot harder to just shrug an attack off as something which does not affect you; three people get blown up in a bar in Elbonia? Could've been you; after all you went to the neighbourhood pub only yesterday! c) Additionally, as much (if not all) terrorism today appears motivated by religion (or, more precisely, by some perverted interpretation of religion), it is a godsend to anyone of a xenophobic bent. Get rid of the people you do not like; get rid of the terrorism problem at the same time! Militant islamism basically makes xenophobia legitimate, which in turn can be argued to foster militantism, which further fosters xenophobia and downwards we go.

Can you provide the source of your data about the risk of dying?

by yandie 10y ago

Can you provide the source of your data about the risk of dying?

For most of the last 20 years, fatalities in terrorist attacks in (Western) Europe were in single figures. There were three exceptions - the Madrid trains in 2004, London bombings in 2005, and the Oslo shootings in 2011. See http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2015/11/daily-chart-10 http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2015/11/daily-c... Last year, that increased to around 100, this time based on 2 attacks (both in Paris, France). So far this year, there have been nearly 300 fatalities over 9 separate incidents: http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-europe-terror-20160715-snap-htmlstory.html http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-europe-terror-2016... Correction: there were around 170 fatalities in 2015, and there have been around 150 so far in 2016.

morsch 10y ago
That's nearly 300 (speficially, 278) fatalities over the last two years, not this year.
- blowski 10y ago
  Oh yes, sorry you're right. Even so, the numbers have increased significantly in the last couple of years.
justincormack 10y ago
We are back in Europe to the average level of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s in terms of deaths with far fewer attacks, after a reduction in the 2000s though http://www.datagraver.com/case/people-killed-by-terrorism-per-year-in-western-europe-1970-2015 http://www.datagraver.com/case/people-killed-by-terrorism-pe...
- lb1lf 10y ago
  While I tend to shrug off any attack with the idea that I still live in one of the safest corners of the planet (Small-town Norway), I do appreciate that people are, reasonably, more scared of Terrorism(tm) than they've been in the past around here. I have a couple of ideas why this may be so: a) Back in the seventies/eighties when media reported on the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the ETA in Spain or the RAF in Germany / BR in Italy, reporting was much more low key (For anything but the most spectacular events, Norwegian papers would typically publish a small note to the effect that "Members of the Basque separatist organization ETA today killed a police officer and two bystanders in whatever Spanish place you've never heard of." Today if someone for whatever reason kills a couple of people, it is a major story with photos, interviews, analysis and whatnot. Hence, events on a similar scale as was experienced in the past now appear much more significant. b) Violence today seems a lot more arbitrary; in the seventies, the typical terrorism victim if my recollection of the news back then is anything to go by, was someone who was targeted for something they were; police officers, magistrates, cabinet members, Israelis, whatever. Hence we'd just shrug it off, as we weren't targets, anyway. Today, for a significant number of perpetrators, anyone is a target - and that makes it a lot harder to just shrug an attack off as something which does not affect you; three people get blown up in a bar in Elbonia? Could've been you; after all you went to the neighbourhood pub only yesterday! c) Additionally, as much (if not all) terrorism today appears motivated by religion (or, more precisely, by some perverted interpretation of religion), it is a godsend to anyone of a xenophobic bent. Get rid of the people you do not like; get rid of the terrorism problem at the same time! Militant islamism basically makes xenophobia legitimate, which in turn can be argued to foster militantism, which further fosters xenophobia and downwards we go.