4 ms·

No, no and no. Chronic distrust of anything and everything, bordering on paranoia, in response to one in a million events is not rational. Having a Katana like

by mustpax 16y ago

No, no and no. Chronic distrust of anything and everything, bordering on paranoia, in response to one in a million events is not rational. Having a Katana like handle sticking out of your backpack is not even in the same ballpark as malicious provocation. Yelling "fire" in a movie theater? Please.

roel_v 16y ago
Schools are no-weapons zones. You may not like it (I don't) but everybody who doesn't realize that he'll get the cops called on him when walking around with something that looks like a weapon on a school campus is an idiot. Having the cops check out a guy with a sword is not 'chronic distrust of anything and everything'. It's a prudent move that is standard operating procedure around the world. On top of that, this appears to have been at a school where there was a violent incident with a freaking samurai sword not so long ago. How can you reasonably maintain a position that in those circumstances it's irrational to go look for the reported sword carrying person?
- daten 16y ago
  What does a previous incident involving a real sword have to do with this? Is the risk of sword related violence higher because it happened recently? Is the heightened fear any more justified? Should I always be afraid of people carrying swords because one person in millions used one to hurt somebody?
  - roel_v 16y ago
    Are you seriously arguing this? Day t someone chops someone up in a school with a sword, day t + 1 someone walks into the same school with a sword on his back and you'd be like 'oh, carry on, I took Stat 101 so I know that you have no higher chance of getting violent than in any other place!' ? People's judgments of situations are influenced by their previous experiences. Is a fear of flying of someone who survived a plane crash rational? No. Is it normal? Yes. Is a (heightened) fear of dark alleys normal for someone who was raped in one? No. Is it normal? Yes. So, when someone walks in an area where there was recently an attack with a sword, it's perfectly normal for people to be more jittery than they would have been had there not been a recent attack. Apart from this, there is a different dynamic at work. After an attack, there is public pressure on the people in charge to make the area more secure. We can bicker about the measures they take and how it's token security blah blah blah - but when you get a signal that there is a guy walking around with a sword, as a security officer you'll run your ass off to get there and check this guy out, before it's another nut job who has come to vent his frustrations on his ex roommates or whatever. Rational? Not sure, may not - but irrelevant. Is it understandable? Yes. You can argue now that you feel that these reactions are wrong because they are not rational (for a narrow definition of rational, i.e. based on facts and pure, logically sound reason). That's fine. However for you to not acknowledge that the reactions as they were in the present case (for as far as we know the facts from this thread) could not have been foreseen, or that they would come as a surprise, or even that they are not 'normal' reactions for the majority of the population, is plain intellectually dishonest.
  - Pahalial 16y ago
    Well, bluntly, yes. Copycat crime ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copycat_crimes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copycat_crimes ) is a known fact, brought into the public psyche by media at large (see: school shootings, media asking themselves "how much covering should we really give this?") Given a largely publicised slashing with a katana on that same campus mere months ago (perhaps even less time had elapsed - thinkgeek does not clarify when they received the email) it is not unreasonable to assume a higher potential risk. I am not a criminology expert, so could not reliably say how much of an increase it would be. But it would probably be enough to justify unusually strict enforcing of an existing rule barring weapons on campus.
deleted 16y ago
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potatolicious 16y ago
Oh come on. This isn't chronic distrust - it designed specifically to look like a katana! If someone called in a regular old umbrella as a weapon, sure, I'd call that paranoia - but this thing is designed to look like a weapon, and you're blaming people for thinking it was real? "Handlebar fashioned specifically to look like katana assumed to be a katana" - is this really so unreasonable?

by mustpax 16y ago

roel_v 16y ago

Schools are no-weapons zones. You may not like it (I don't) but everybody who doesn't realize that he'll get the cops called on him when walking around with something that looks like a weapon on a school campus is an idiot. Having the cops check out a guy with a sword is not 'chronic distrust of anything and everything'. It's a prudent move that is standard operating procedure around the world. On top of that, this appears to have been at a school where there was a violent incident with a freaking samurai sword not so long ago. How can you reasonably maintain a position that in those circumstances it's irrational to go look for the reported sword carrying person?

daten 16y ago
What does a previous incident involving a real sword have to do with this? Is the risk of sword related violence higher because it happened recently? Is the heightened fear any more justified? Should I always be afraid of people carrying swords because one person in millions used one to hurt somebody?
- roel_v 16y ago
  Are you seriously arguing this? Day t someone chops someone up in a school with a sword, day t + 1 someone walks into the same school with a sword on his back and you'd be like 'oh, carry on, I took Stat 101 so I know that you have no higher chance of getting violent than in any other place!' ? People's judgments of situations are influenced by their previous experiences. Is a fear of flying of someone who survived a plane crash rational? No. Is it normal? Yes. Is a (heightened) fear of dark alleys normal for someone who was raped in one? No. Is it normal? Yes. So, when someone walks in an area where there was recently an attack with a sword, it's perfectly normal for people to be more jittery than they would have been had there not been a recent attack. Apart from this, there is a different dynamic at work. After an attack, there is public pressure on the people in charge to make the area more secure. We can bicker about the measures they take and how it's token security blah blah blah - but when you get a signal that there is a guy walking around with a sword, as a security officer you'll run your ass off to get there and check this guy out, before it's another nut job who has come to vent his frustrations on his ex roommates or whatever. Rational? Not sure, may not - but irrelevant. Is it understandable? Yes. You can argue now that you feel that these reactions are wrong because they are not rational (for a narrow definition of rational, i.e. based on facts and pure, logically sound reason). That's fine. However for you to not acknowledge that the reactions as they were in the present case (for as far as we know the facts from this thread) could not have been foreseen, or that they would come as a surprise, or even that they are not 'normal' reactions for the majority of the population, is plain intellectually dishonest.
- Pahalial 16y ago
  Well, bluntly, yes. Copycat crime ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copycat_crimes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copycat_crimes ) is a known fact, brought into the public psyche by media at large (see: school shootings, media asking themselves "how much covering should we really give this?") Given a largely publicised slashing with a katana on that same campus mere months ago (perhaps even less time had elapsed - thinkgeek does not clarify when they received the email) it is not unreasonable to assume a higher potential risk. I am not a criminology expert, so could not reliably say how much of an increase it would be. But it would probably be enough to justify unusually strict enforcing of an existing rule barring weapons on campus.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

potatolicious 16y ago

Oh come on. This isn't chronic distrust - it designed specifically to look like a katana! If someone called in a regular old umbrella as a weapon, sure, I'd call that paranoia - but this thing is designed to look like a weapon, and you're blaming people for thinking it was real? "Handlebar fashioned specifically to look like katana assumed to be a katana" - is this really so unreasonable?