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oh, right, that's why the US is on my no-go list. thanks for reminding me, had almost forgotten!
by amarant 8y ago
oh, right, that's why the US is on my no-go list. thanks for reminding me, had almost forgotten!
- peterwwillis 8y agoDon't worry, it's only dangerous here if you're a woman, a person of color, non-Christian, an immigrant, disabled, poor, live in a city/town near industrial plants, need medical care, a senior citizen, are LGBTQ+, a sex worker, an addict, or live near natural disasters.
- thedaemon 8y agoSome people may think you are joking. This is not a joke.
- kolanos 8y agoWhite males make up the largest portion of people shot by police. [0] [0]: https://www.statista.com/statistics/585152/people-shot-to-death-by-us-police-by-race/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/585152/people-shot-to-de...
- peterwwillis 8y ago32,658 people were killed by terrorists in 2014. Does that mean we're more likely to be killed by terrorists than by police? Of course not, because that was terrorists killed around the world. There's more people living around the world than in the US. In the US, only 3,046 people were killed by terrorists between 2001 and 2014. More white people get killed in America because there are more white people here than black people. But adjusting for population, more black people get killed in America by cops than white people. Three times more. I provided tons of links (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18168217 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18168217), you can see for yourself.
- kolanos 8y agoThen why aren't white males on your list?
- peterwwillis 8y agoBecause it's a list of things that makes it risky to live in this country, not just people getting shot. I list several groups without gender or race, and white males can still be in those groups. But just being a white male in and of itself isn't risky. That's the least risky group.
- kolanos 8y agoAnd that's just factually and verifiably false.
- peterwwillis 8y agoI'm perfectly willing to be convinced otherwise, if you have any evidence. Can you provide me a single metric of a societal risk to white males more than any other group, adjusted for population? (That is to say, a risk that is caused by society and isn't health/genetic related, like prevalence of disease)
- kolanos 8y agoThe link I provided clearly shows that white males are second only to black males in terms of how likely they are to be shot by police. My point is that excluding white males as victims of police violence or framing the problem as something that does not affect white males helps no one.
- peterwwillis 8y agoSo, because it's not helping white males, it helps no one?
- gooseh 8y agoThat may be true, but the OP is talking about risk, so you need to compare those figures to the population breakdown. The risk experienced by a white person (representing 45% of those shot by police and 72% of the population) is significantly lower than that of a black person (22% of those shot by police, 12% of the population). Similar story for other minorities.
- kolanos 8y agoYes, proportionally black males are more likely to be shot by police than white males. But pointing out that in GP's list of all the groups that need to be wary of police, the one most shot by police in absolute numbers is absent.
- minitech 8y agoBecause it’s irrelevant when we’re talking about the risk of being a member of the group?
- kolanos 8y agoIn terms of "risk" they're second only to black males. Women, on the other hand, regardless of race, are extremely unlikely to be shot by police. So why are they on the list?
- minitech 8y agoOh, I see, reading your previous comment again – you interpreted it as a “list of all the groups that need to be wary of police”. It’s not that, it’s just about “danger” in a broad sense.
- kolanos 8y agoBroadly speaking, white males are second only to black males in terms of being targets of violence in the United States. That's all violence, not just the police inflicted kind.
- enriquto 8y agoI remember when I was a kid in the late 80s my father used to badmouth the Soviet Union for its lack of civil liberties. He told me many examples (all of them out of his head), about how bad was the life of the citizens under the soviet state. I cannot remember any story as horrendous as those that I read in the linked article.
- tome 8y agoMaybe that's because the story in the linked article happens to a vanishingly small proportion of the populace but life under the Soviet Union was terrible for a huge proportion.
- dang 8y agoPlease don't post unsubstantive comments to HN, and especially not nationalistic swipes, which lead to just the kind of threads we're trying to avoid. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- amarant 8y agoI was about to protest, but then saw the thread that did follow... You're probably right, I'll try to think a bit more before I post. Sorry .