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Atta Elayyan, Developer of MetroTube and LazyWorm Apps, Killed in Christchurch

871 points by twistedlogicx 8y ago

eyphka 8y ago
A really touching piece about an awesome person. You’ll be missed.
twistedlogicx 8y ago
He wasn't just a programmer. He was also a Counter-Strike: Source pro and a legend of the New Zealand CS scene. He was a goalkeeper for the country's national futsal team (indoor-soccer) and won two national titles and a player of the year award. He was a car enthusiast who custom-built a beautiful BMW and won the "Best V8 Engine" award at a show and shine competition. On top of all of that, he was a programmer who founded LazyWorm Apps and developed apps like MetroTube and Tweetro+. According to one of the lead software guys at Microsoft, MetroTube was once the most popular app on the Windows store. Most importantly, he was a father of a 2-year-old girl. His loss is tragic and I had to write about it. I shared this elsewhere and I was referred to this amazing place and asked to share it here as well, so I did. Thank you to anyone who reads his story.
- XMasterrrr 8y ago
  Thanks for reminding us, all of us, that the people affected by hate crimes are people with stories, just like us, not numbers. Same ambitious, similar hobbies, beloved, and gone too soon.
- vtange 8y ago
  It's insane how many really, really, good people we lose to tragedies like this... 9/11 took away one of the founders of Akamai(the CDN company). Even the recent 737 crash took away some really accomplished people from humanity. It's a constant reminder of the fragility of life and how easily one can lose a loved one or oneself these days.
  - pjc50 8y ago
    This kind of thing is why the "NPC" meme and other dehumanizing language is so dangerous. Everyone is a person with a story, achievements, fears, and family. Often really surprising.
    - spamizbad 8y ago
      That meme never registered as problematic to me (at least by meme standards) but you’re correct. I always felt it outed its creators as lacking theory of mind; why does a large group of people have different shared beliefs than me? They must lack the ability to think independently like everyone else in my cliquey subculture!
      - epicureanideal 8y ago
        But let's acknowledge the truth that there are plenty of people who really don't think critically. Certainly some people will label others as "not thinking critically" when they really just think differently, but let's agree the former category does exist, and it's not a small population.
        spamizbad 8y ago
        But most people do think critically. Have you considered this phenomenon to simply be shared or group cognition (also something nearly everyone experiences), rather than a lack of critical thinking skills?
        epicureanideal 8y ago
        I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree about most people thinking critically. I don't have anything other than personal experience to justify my position and a quick Google search wasn't able to turn up any convincing studies. Group cognition (from a quick skim of a Wikipedia article about it) doesn't seem to justify lack of individual critical thinking though. It seems to be more like a term to describe a process, like "memes" and "idea viruses". It doesn't substitute for individual critical thinking.
- dbt00 8y ago
  Thanks for writing and posting this.
- mingabunga 8y ago
  Thanks for writing this - it's an awesome read about a fantastic guy. Atta worked for me for 7 years in Christchurch (the last 3-4 years he was doing these apps on the side, then setting up his business). He was a lovely positive guy and I had total respect for him. Our two companies would catchup occasionally and we all enjoyed his company. He was a real role model to anyone who wanted to be the best they can. It's such a great shame this has happened and I feel so sad for his family (his father was also shot but is in Hospital). Unbelievable that this has happened.
  - twistedlogicx 8y ago
    Thank you so much for your words and I'm so sorry for the loss of your friend. I hope those that are suffering most from his absence (and the absence of all of the other Christchurch victims) can some day reach a point of healing.
- huckyaus 8y ago
  I played countless games of casual CS with Atta while running GotGames, which hosted the majority of Aus/NZ pro CS:S tournaments back in the day. He was a kind and warm influence in a scene which harbored its fair share of immaturity and vitriol. He'll be sorely missed.
- Upvoter33 8y ago
  Thank you for this beautiful story. Each person is a universe and clearly his loss will be felt by many. This mad world we live in saddens me greatly.
- spronkey 8y ago
  Good words. I attended university with Atta many years ago and we remained (distant) friends since. He was a legend back then as a CS:S player and a BMW enthusiast, and pretty good at our regular "Quake Breaks" as well. His company LWA Solutions, that was born out of LazyWorm Apps, did some work for the company I work for. Atta in particular was a driving force behind some of their really cool innovations - in VR. He was one of the first people I knew of who was using a tablet as a mock UI sketchbook, and producing some really cool work despite the awful capacitive touch pens of the time. It's so difficult to reconcile his murder. He was such a genuine guy with so much ahead of him, and I'm so sorry for his family.
  - twistedlogicx 8y ago
    I appreciate these comments from the people who knew him more than anything else. Thank you for your words and I'm so sorry for your loss.
  - Pristina 8y ago
    >It's so difficult to reconcile his murder. Why would you want to reconcile his murder?
    - bracobama 8y ago
      Reconcile, despite its economic association, can also mean to 'come to terms with' something, i.e. to accept that this man has passed away.
- Pristina 8y ago
  Is the implication that if he wasn't a counter strike pro, or a goalkeeper for the nation futsal team, or that he built a BMW, or a programmer, that his life would have been worth less? At the end of the day, his life is precious to him as much as anybody's life is to themself. And to the shooter he's just another 'invader'. I didn't know of him before and I honestly will forget in a week, maybe a faint memory as "that programmer guy who got killed in christchurch". Why is he more important to write about than the other 49 who got snuffed out by the nationalist in his ideological war?
  - all_factz 8y ago
    WTH. We’re appreciating the life of this one guy, whom many of us happen to relate to because we’re also programmers. That doesn’t diminish the lives of anyone else who was slain at Christchurch.
- indemnity 8y ago
  Thank you for sharing his story. It’s saddening how many people are robbed of the kind of friendship they could have with people who are different yet the same in so many ways, because of this learned hatred.
- mysterydip 8y ago
  Sounds like someone I would've been friends with. Thanks for bringing humanity to the headline.
- erklik 8y ago
  Holy crap. How many things can a guy do? That's a bunch of different and varied interests. Thank you so much for writing the story.
- Ozzie_osman 8y ago
  This is a great writeup. Thanks for sharing. I do wish you had mentioned that he is originally Palestinian.
willbw 8y ago
Good read. It is tragic that he was killed in the name of anti-immigrant sentiment, when he seems to be a perfect example of an immigrant success story.
- fabianhjr 8y ago
  > when he seems to be a perfect example of an immigrant success story. Either they are "unsuccessful" and "leeching of social benefits" or they are "successful" and "are stealing their jobs". It is a nationalist catch-22 were there are no successful immigrants, just insecure nationalists that feel disposable and in the process of "being replaced".
  - chii 8y ago
    so what you're saying is that as more people are dis-enfranchised, they will resort to more and more violent means to try to enact change. I don't think this has anything to do with white supremacy or nationalism - but that those ideologies are easy to use as justification. So in the end, the only way to solve this problem is to prevent dis-enfranchisement of the poor and vulnerable. UBI is my go to solution.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
    - fabianhjr 8y ago
      ¿How is an UBI going to help the feeling of "being useless / unnecessary / a burden" and seeing immigrants as the ones "taking away" their jobs as capital opts for outsourcing and automation? The abhorrent coward assailant wasn't even lumpen to begin with.
      - jimjimjim 8y ago
        yep, he wasn't poor or vulnerable.
      - chii 8y ago
ixtli 8y ago
What a horrible waste of a wonderful person. We should all do what we can to make sure society completely rejects the out-moded and dangerous ideology that caused this.
- 0815test 8y ago
  You know, I might easily agree with you, except that this was not "caused" solely by ideology, and to believe this might be not only misleading, but also quite dangerous. The nihilistic sociopath who has perpetrated this heinous act would like nothing more than for people to increasingly magnify his vacuous, meaningless 'ideology', by which he clearly hoped to mislead the public into following his deranged delusion, that fame and self-aggrandizement for him might result from mindless murder; from destroying the best that life has to offer on this Earth. Let's not give him that, let's not fall into this trap he has cleverly laid out for us. We should simply wholesale-reject that outrageous, inhumane way of thinking, and not give it even that hint of dignity that this incredibly misleading term, "ideology", might imply.
  - tomlock 8y ago
    We should still reject that ideology.
    - alexandre_m 8y ago
      We should reject most, if not all, ideologies.
      - fwip 8y ago
        An ideology is just a system of values and ideas about the world. Everyone has one.
        alexandre_m 8y ago
        To a certain extent yes, but unfortunately it's more than just a set of principles. Ideologies tend to lead to fanaticism, embracing a simplified and rigid view of social reality. I'm particularly wary of all the *-isms.
vowelless 8y ago
إِنَّا لِلّهِ وَإِنَّـا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ‎ Born in Kuwait a few years before the Invasion to a Palestinian family. They probably escaped to NZ either due to the war or due to Kuwait's wrath against Palestinians after the war [0]. And met with this end in his new homeland. So unfortunate. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_exodus_from_Kuwait_(1990%E2%80%9391) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_exodus_from_Kuwait...
eg5fv4 8y ago
s/hate crimes/terrorism/
- kick_in_the_dor 8y ago
  Is the difference between a hate crime and terrorist attack the desire to effect some sort of change through terror? E.g, someone shooting up a church is trying to terrorize churchgoers of that race to stop going to church?
  - eg5fv4 8y ago
    I think hate crimes are terrorism, and I think all terrorism is bad. And yes, this creates a chilling effect for immigrants and churchgoers. That's the intended result. I understand many people don't want immigrants for economical or cultural reasons. That's okay. Killing everybody inside a mosque is not okay.
    - XMasterrrr 8y ago
      I completely agree with what you're saying. This is terrorism. This is Islamophobia. This is hatred. And all of that needs to stop.
godelmachine 8y ago
.
- pjc50 8y ago
  Doubt she read it. Couldn't be distinguished in advance from the kind of rant that gets received every day. I wonder what the baseline level of death threats to NZ parliament is. Has become rather high in the UK.
  - leoc 8y ago
    For such a prominent woman, in particular, there's likely to be a steady stream of hate and weirdness being handled by a team of frazzled aides.
- Taniwha 8y ago
  She didn't receive it personally, not everyone reads their emails immediately anyway, this is a red herring, the person responsible was the Aussie terrorist
- danso 8y ago
  If she had gotten it a day or a week earlier, what was she supposed to have done with it? I mean, in terms of its political objective/demands?
- stordoff 8y ago
  Even if she had received and took it seriously, what do you expect her to do? 9 minutes to receive something, determine it is real, and do something about it is not a lot of time.
- lazyasciiart 8y ago
  As has been fairly publicly announced, the email was read and taken seriously and was forwarded to security services less than two minutes later.
- DoofusOfDeath 8y ago
  > Violence is never justified. If one wants to achieve a political objective, always fight for it by political means. There's a line of argument that all (governmental) politics is just the threat of violence, packaged in a velvet glove. (One short defense of that viewpoint: try not paying your taxes.) I abhor violence in most cases, but I think it's a mistake to draw a stark division between the two.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
tamersalama 8y ago
I came across the donation page setup for his family "Atta Elayyan's Young Family" [1] [1] https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/help-atta-elayyans-family https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/help-atta-elayyans-family
guelo 8y ago
ISIS was growing and recruiting online for a while but then they were pretty effectively "deplatformed" internet-wide. The growing white supremacist threat is not being treated anywhere near as seriously with a lot of free speech concerns that only seem to apply to white identity terrorism.
- toyg 8y ago
  Ish. There is still plenty of ISIS crap floating around, it’s just targeted more effectively through direct social networks like whatsapp. My dad (!) had to ban from his football club’s chatgroup the father of one kid, because he insisted in spamming ultra-islamic crap. I’m pretty sure he’s still somewhere, forwarding shit to anyone who’ll listen. It’s a very hard problem. The printed press indirectly generated the Protestant schism, which resulted in centuries of wars and murderous events. The internet is having an equivalent effect today.
  - mythrwy 8y ago
    The alternate reality that is the internet is a huge emerging social issue. I have to say right off the bat, I'm not in favor of governments or big corporations being gatekeepers of what is allowed to be on the internet (moral hazard). At the same time, views not in accordance with actual history (or indeed with reality) propagate at an amazing pace and certain subgroups readily embrace them as reality. In case of shooter (reading his manifesto), he has a juvenile and one dimensional view of "white history" and "white culture" which fails to understand or account for movements of ideas and culture, and fallaciously lumps everyone of a certain skin tone into one cultural group. I have no doubt this view, fanciful as it is, was echoed by his fellows until it became absolute truth in his mind. It is a problem, and not just for white supremacist types and radical Islamists either. Not sure the best solution or if there even is one.
- 781 8y ago
  ISIS also deplatformed itself with it's ultra-violent and gory videos. The white supremacists got this right, but starting with mellower content, memes, and not throwing one in directly in the deep end. Look at this guy, he avoided swastikas because he knows they are a huge turn-off to non-radicalized people.
ibm5100 8y ago
Would this be the wrong type of thread to ask a political question regarding the terrorist attack? This is more of an obituary/rememberance?
- BigChiefSmokem 8y ago
  Ask what you want, let us decide.
wwweston 8y ago
One common phrase I hear among people who are concerned about an equitable and just world is "representation matters." Most often it seems to refer to representation in civic office, or desirable employment positions, and the effect that visibility has on someone's conception of their potential to shoot for a position as a goal. I wonder if it also matters more in profiles like this. It's a beautiful portrait that highlights one dimension of the tragedy of the crime. If we had more profiles like it that came well before eulogies, I wonder how far it might go to beating back the tendency to flatten conceptions of Muslims (or any ethnic/racial identity) to the kind of demonized status that's required in order to plan a terrorist attack like Christchurch.
- devoply 8y ago
  Exactly around the same time an American strike in Afghanistan killed a number of children. That's justified violence which is political, this is unjustified violence which though is aimed at the political is individual. To me both are tragedies of similar magnitudes. One group lacking representation and considered the "other" while another group considered a part of "us". https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/10/world/asia/airstrikes-nangarhar-afghanistan.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/10/world/asia/airstrikes-nan...
  - wwweston 8y ago
    The hazards of military action including the inevitable civilian casualties (intended or not) are an important topic for consideration. And there's a good case that US Citizens have grown way too complacent about them (and even if we haven't, you check anyway, otherwise that's how you get too complacent). But this isn't really a contest. Everyone's attention is finite, but my guess is the overlap is pretty big between people who are stung by the horror and senselessness of the Christchurch attack and people who are concerned about the moral problems and fallout of military action.
    - devoply 8y ago
      Depends on how you frame the military violence. On the ground level there may be no intention of causing harm to individual civilians. On the much larger executive level it's about shock and awe, to beat the population into capitulation. That's exactly the aim of this sort of violence. Shock and awe. To this individual, this was shock and awe in service of his political objectives. It's violence with political aims. Violence with political aims is ultimately a policing matter. You use better policing to snuff it out. Military interfering in the affairs of other nations for political objectives is inexcusable and should be deplored just as this is.
tmd83 8y ago
He seems to be a wonderful man and my prayers are for him and his family. But I wanted to add something that seems to be better written by the author of the article already. > Atta Elayyan was just one of 50. Remember him, but don’t forget to remember the other lives that were lost that day, each with their own story, their own path, and their own mark on this world.
- Aeolun 8y ago
  I find I just cannot conceptualize 50, just like I cannot conceptualize 10000. It’s too much. I can understand the one that was just presented to me.
  - Taniwha 8y ago
    Well, from a NZ perspective 50 is, as a percentage population-wise, greater than the death toll from 911 in the US - we expect our government to take equivalent level of actions to those the US took against alQuaeda/etc against white supremacists/alt-right supporters to remove future threats from our community.
    - Taniwha 8y ago
      (however we probably wont be invading Australia to root out the white supremacist threat there, nor Antarctica because someone in the PM's family has a beef with penguins)
      - InitialLastName 8y ago
        How about chastising the major world leader (of a New Zealand ally) who the shooter spent a lot of time quoting, and whose supporters and ideology were clearly a strong influence to the shoooter?
    - alexandre_m 8y ago
      How would you suggest doing that exactly? alQuaeda/ISIS = External threats where you can put the blame on a specific area of the world, then promote war politics. I'd be curious to hear your opinion on how effective post 9/11 politics were in that manner. It's not like evil was eradicated, plus the collateral damage. Is there a factory that make white supremacists where we should drop bombs? Beware of the slippery road to define that "factory", also.
eruci 8y ago
Very sad. Indeed for all of those whose life ended in such circumstances. If we could only figure out a way to get extremists to only focus on killing other extremists, we'd all be much better off.
- epicureanideal 8y ago
  Opt-in combat sports in a designated area between opposing factions of fundamentalists?
- gjs278 8y ago
  I think that’s exactly what he tried to do. he considers the people that hangout in mosques to be extremists.
tomlock 8y ago
There's no greater indictment of white supremacy than that a proponent who achieved basically nothing with their life, killed someone who was much much better than them.
- epicureanideal 8y ago
  You mean other than it being absolutely without any rational foundation or practical merit, and possibly being used as a justification for genocide?
  - tomlock 8y ago
    I think being a supremacist who is worse than the people they think they are better than demonstrates 2/3 of those things, yeah?
    - epicureanideal 8y ago
      While I generally agree with your sentiment about this issue, I don't agree about your particular statement. For example, if it happened to be (and obviously it isn't), that 90% of white supremacists had PhDs and were in the 1% by income and wealth, that wouldn't prove anything either about whether their beliefs about whole races of people were correct.
- ltmnnggr 8y ago
  Was he a white supremacist or just an islamophobe and xenophobe? In particular, I'm looking for some quotes from the shooter's manifesto that promote the ideas that whites are supreme over the other races
dispsbl 8y ago
If he would've renounced islamism (which seems to be a terrorist ideology) he might've escaped.
- freen 8y ago
  Every killing carried out by a political extremist in the United States in 2018 was done by a right wing extremist. https://www.businessinsider.com/extremist-killings-links-right-wing-extremism-report-2019-1 https://www.businessinsider.com/extremist-killings-links-rig...
  - randiantech 8y ago
    Lets not think about this atrocity on terms or left or right. Such horrible acts were made in the name of both ideology wings.
    - mcphage 8y ago
      > Such horrible acts were made in the name of both ideology wings. Not in 2018. I wonder about 2017, or 2016? If we close our eyes to what this is, we’ll never be able to stop it.
    - gnat 8y ago
      > Such horrible acts were made in the name of both ideology wings. This is 100% not supported by the fact you're replying to: "Every killing carried out by a political extremist in the United States in 2018 was done by a right wing extremist." It's like you're replying to "Today is Wednesday" with "Let's not think about days as Wednesday or Thursday. Today is named both Wednesday and Thursday." You can say that, but today is still Wednesday.
      - randiantech 8y ago
        Wow, so much downvoting for just stating an obvious thing, that extremism is a bad thing, no matter the ideology behind it. On topic, I can't talk about 2018 because I dont have hard facts about it, but from 1992 through August 12, 2017 the distribution sets that 92% of killings were extreme islamic related, followed by a 6% of extreme right groups.[0] Again, I find it very inappropriate to try to classify this by ideology. No extremism is less bad than the next one. No matter if its right or left, religious or any other type (remember rajneeshpuram?). Personally, as a non american I have suffered much more of left-wing terrorism (like bombs on subways; kidnapping, torture and killing), but again and again, it doesnt really matter. [0]https://www.cato.org/blog/terrorism-deaths-ideology-charlottesville-anomaly https://www.cato.org/blog/terrorism-deaths-ideology-charlott...
freen 8y ago
What a horrible loss to humanity. So many lives, so much potential.
sonnyblarney 8y ago
Tragic, even more so when there are names to the otherwise unknown faces.
inawarminister 8y ago
Innalillahi wa innaillaihi roji'un. May God forgives all his sins, and reward him in the Hereafter for his virtues. I pray that his martyrdom and accomplishments have and will lead to a better world here in mortal life. Also, I used to use MetroTube intensely when I have a Lumia phone back in 2013 or so. Thank you, Mr. Elayyan!
trashbin1234 8y ago
Everyone so deeply moved. And yet American bombs continue to fall. Hour after hour. Every single day. And no one gives a shit.
- jtmb 8y ago
  There are those who give a lot of a shit, and who are deeply disturbed and troubled, knowing families and innocents and children being maimed and killed are on our collective hands, and who do not know how the US can and should escalate, finish or withdraw from these conflicts without empowering butchers and terrorists to replace them, as well as killing or leaving even more friends and allies to die.
  - jessaustin 8y ago
    You do realize, that this is 100% bullshit? We have destroyed these societies by destroying them; we'll hardly do further damage by leaving them alone. Just compare Libya, a smoking ruin where we did all we felt it was necessary to do, with Syria, a now-largely-peaceful functioning nation with the good sense to protect itself from our predations. They have slave markets in Libya now. No regular person survives without regular protection payments to gangsters. Reporters don't dare venture there, they keep track of the carnage by counting the people washing up on Europe's southern shores. The best thing we can do to any nation is the best thing we could have done, always. Leave them alone. If they request, send some humanitarian supplies. Recently however we have screwed up even that simple task, by trying to use humanitarian efforts as a screen for undermining Venezuela's elected government. (Don't believe me? Just ask the Red Cross.)
- toofy 8y ago
  > And no one gives a shit. I understand it can feel frustrating, as if people have forgotten, but it's important to remember that there are plenty of people who do give a shit. Paying attention to one issue doesn't erase people's concern for another issue. Just don't stop caring.
- ixtli 8y ago
  I have to say that i really respect that you said this because it's the reality: fast violence gets international condemnation and slow, well-dressed violence gets valorized. I also have to say that even though many of us can't really do anything about the American war machine, there are many of us who give a shit.
throwaway5752 8y ago
If you want to financially show your support, the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh has a GoFundMe page https://www.gofundme.com/tree-of-life-stands-with-christchurch-mosques https://www.gofundme.com/tree-of-life-stands-with-christchur.... It can be verified on their site and other channels. It's important that victims of white supremacist terrorism stand together, and that decent people reject it.
- eythian 8y ago
  This one: https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/christchurch-shooting-victims-fund https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/christchurch-shooting-victim... is a bit more official.
kuon 8y ago
For some reason, this affects me a lot more than I want to admit.
- twistedlogicx 8y ago
  I understand. I cried like four times writing the article. I almost gave up several times (especially near the start), because the more I read about him, the more I realized I was utterly unqualified to do him justice with my words. The only thing that kept me going was how much I wanted to tell people his story. The amount of comments I've received since, with people telling me how much of an impact his story had on them, it's been more touching, more humbling and more rewarding than anything I ever could have expected.
  - exodust 8y ago
    Thanks for sharing his story. I really liked how he was a passionate skillful gamer and developer and family guy and sporting guy. Yes, it's possible to fit all those in! I can only hope to cover half the bases he did.
mandeepj 8y ago
Satya Nadella also mentioned him in his condolences https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A6512862980844195840/ https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A6...
mattparlane 8y ago
Great read, thanks for posting. To me, one thing that's not being discussed much is that Europeans only settled in New Zealand around 200 years ago, pretty short in the history of humanity. You could ask the Maori people how they feel about Europeans showing up and taking their land and destroying their culture, yet they are not gunning us down in cold blood.
- vowelless 8y ago
  I’m torn. On one hand I think we should think about the “motives” of these monsters and try to explain why they are wrong m, like you just did. On the other side, I don’t want to legitimize even a semblance of rationality exhibited by this guy. Even if Europeans had been in NZ for a thousand years, this is not the right response.
  - 0815test 8y ago
    As I've written already ITT, the last thing I would want is for the attacker to receive even a shred of legitimacy - but I nonetheless think parent commenter raises a very good point! Because see, that individual would sure like us to think that Europeans are in some way the "rightful" inhabitants of New Zealand, the place where he carried out his hateful attack. Even a cursory knowledge of history would quickly evince to us just how nonsensical this notion is - yet he happily makes that argument anyway! And we are to believe that this attack was not in fact driven by the most heinous sort of murderous and destructive intent, with "politics" and "ideology" (even of the most radical sort one could possibly imagine) being merely the flimsiest of post-hoc rationalizations?
- pjc50 8y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_Wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_Wars NZ is somewhat unusual in that the colonizers neither won overwhelmingly (as in Australia and North America), nor eventually receeded (most of Africa), but struck a peace treaty and then stuck to it, building a mostly-peaceful society on that basis.
kr4 8y ago
This world is creation of our collective consciousness. We need a collective conscious effort to bring sanity to the sad state of the world today. Please join us in global meditation for peace on every Saturday http://blacklotusapp.org/ http://blacklotusapp.org/
- straightrow 8y ago
  ATTA ELAYYAN' It is so good to read some one with common SENSE, IN MY FINAL YEARS ON THIS PLANET. iN MY 95 year. Having raised in a RC orphanage and thru all the RC's educations and then Married in a RC building (church) and we raised 2 girls , one married a RC wonderfull man and the younger girl married a Jewish wonderfull guy. However, they all gave up their parents cults and are "free at last", and HAPPY WITH LIFE.
mirimir 8y ago
That is just so sad :( I've never quite understood why Islamophobia is so prevalent in Australia. Even more than in the US, it seems. So I found this.[0] It seems a great summary. 0) Briskman (2015) The Creeping Blight of Islamophobia in Australia. IJCJ&SD 4(3): 112‐121. https://www.crimejusticejournal.com/article/download/772/527 https://www.crimejusticejournal.com/article/download/772/527
exodust 8y ago
"Islamophobia" is a stupid loaded buzzword. Used by some to discredit and slander those who raise concerns with Islam. The problem with this word is that it seeks to shut down those who oppose any aspect of the religion. For some odd reason being a Muslim is considered an ethnicity, or race. This further complicates any polarizing discussion about what Islam looks like in a Muslim minority country like Australia. Racism is a nasty, ignorant crime. But if you oppose the requirement of full head coverings of Muslim women, are you being racist? How about Islamophobic? Most reasonable people want peace, not violence. Most people do not condone or want extremist views. Yet violent religious extremists are a growing problem in Australia's nearest neighbor Indonesia. Not to mention we've had our own share of Islamic terror here in Australia. The road to peace is not helped by such words as "Islamophobia". This is particularly true when Islam has the historical habit of crossing into politics and power with brutally oppressive laws in Islamic governed nations.
- vnorilo 8y ago
  Religions and cultures generally evolve from very nasty towards less nasty. Of course sometimes there is a big lurch towards nastiness. However, (us?) secular humanists can best help religions become less toxic by inclusion rather than tribalist confrontation. I find it's better to frame one's principles and talking points as "religons must respect human rights" rather than,"Islam has always been violent and forces women to wear hijabs".
  - exodust 8y ago
    That's a good and positive idea in regards to framing principles towards human rights. While inclusion is the antidote for exclusion, we are not faced primarily with an exclusion problem. There's simply been too many religious-justified atrocities and crimes from various religions. This world's violence and crime is ridiculous, and the details of the crimes are the extreme opposite of human rights. I was taught that superstition was unhealthy. Perhaps I was brainwashed with anti-superstitious propaganda? My main "phobia" is: religion as a force in politics and education. Religion should stick to what it's good at - peaceful prayer gatherings. I support "freedom of peaceful prayer gatherings". What happened at the mosques in NZ - unspeakable, sickening, the work of a deranged paranoid meat-head terrorist. More violence for fictitious reasons. Too long festering in corners with other truthers, confirming each other unchallenged; combined with likely sociopathic condition. (sorry for long post, passionate issues)
straightrow 8y ago
Trumps"s poison has shred Trump's sickness has spread world wide in to a beautiful Country like New Zealand
straightrow 8y ago
Trump"s sickness has gone WWW, even to beautiful New Zealand

871 points by twistedlogicx 8y ago

A really touching piece about an awesome person. You’ll be missed.

He wasn't just a programmer. He was also a Counter-Strike: Source pro and a legend of the New Zealand CS scene. He was a goalkeeper for the country's national futsal team (indoor-soccer) and won two national titles and a player of the year award. He was a car enthusiast who custom-built a beautiful BMW and won the "Best V8 Engine" award at a show and shine competition. On top of all of that, he was a programmer who founded LazyWorm Apps and developed apps like MetroTube and Tweetro+. According to one of the lead software guys at Microsoft, MetroTube was once the most popular app on the Windows store. Most importantly, he was a father of a 2-year-old girl. His loss is tragic and I had to write about it. I shared this elsewhere and I was referred to this amazing place and asked to share it here as well, so I did. Thank you to anyone who reads his story.

XMasterrrr 8y ago
Thanks for reminding us, all of us, that the people affected by hate crimes are people with stories, just like us, not numbers. Same ambitious, similar hobbies, beloved, and gone too soon.
vtange 8y ago
It's insane how many really, really, good people we lose to tragedies like this... 9/11 took away one of the founders of Akamai(the CDN company). Even the recent 737 crash took away some really accomplished people from humanity. It's a constant reminder of the fragility of life and how easily one can lose a loved one or oneself these days.
- pjc50 8y ago
  This kind of thing is why the "NPC" meme and other dehumanizing language is so dangerous. Everyone is a person with a story, achievements, fears, and family. Often really surprising.
  - spamizbad 8y ago
    That meme never registered as problematic to me (at least by meme standards) but you’re correct. I always felt it outed its creators as lacking theory of mind; why does a large group of people have different shared beliefs than me? They must lack the ability to think independently like everyone else in my cliquey subculture!
    - epicureanideal 8y ago
      But let's acknowledge the truth that there are plenty of people who really don't think critically. Certainly some people will label others as "not thinking critically" when they really just think differently, but let's agree the former category does exist, and it's not a small population.
      - spamizbad 8y ago
        But most people do think critically. Have you considered this phenomenon to simply be shared or group cognition (also something nearly everyone experiences), rather than a lack of critical thinking skills?
        epicureanideal 8y ago
        I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree about most people thinking critically. I don't have anything other than personal experience to justify my position and a quick Google search wasn't able to turn up any convincing studies. Group cognition (from a quick skim of a Wikipedia article about it) doesn't seem to justify lack of individual critical thinking though. It seems to be more like a term to describe a process, like "memes" and "idea viruses". It doesn't substitute for individual critical thinking.
dbt00 8y ago
Thanks for writing and posting this.
mingabunga 8y ago
Thanks for writing this - it's an awesome read about a fantastic guy. Atta worked for me for 7 years in Christchurch (the last 3-4 years he was doing these apps on the side, then setting up his business). He was a lovely positive guy and I had total respect for him. Our two companies would catchup occasionally and we all enjoyed his company. He was a real role model to anyone who wanted to be the best they can. It's such a great shame this has happened and I feel so sad for his family (his father was also shot but is in Hospital). Unbelievable that this has happened.
- twistedlogicx 8y ago
  Thank you so much for your words and I'm so sorry for the loss of your friend. I hope those that are suffering most from his absence (and the absence of all of the other Christchurch victims) can some day reach a point of healing.
huckyaus 8y ago
I played countless games of casual CS with Atta while running GotGames, which hosted the majority of Aus/NZ pro CS:S tournaments back in the day. He was a kind and warm influence in a scene which harbored its fair share of immaturity and vitriol. He'll be sorely missed.
Upvoter33 8y ago
Thank you for this beautiful story. Each person is a universe and clearly his loss will be felt by many. This mad world we live in saddens me greatly.
spronkey 8y ago
Good words. I attended university with Atta many years ago and we remained (distant) friends since. He was a legend back then as a CS:S player and a BMW enthusiast, and pretty good at our regular "Quake Breaks" as well. His company LWA Solutions, that was born out of LazyWorm Apps, did some work for the company I work for. Atta in particular was a driving force behind some of their really cool innovations - in VR. He was one of the first people I knew of who was using a tablet as a mock UI sketchbook, and producing some really cool work despite the awful capacitive touch pens of the time. It's so difficult to reconcile his murder. He was such a genuine guy with so much ahead of him, and I'm so sorry for his family.
- twistedlogicx 8y ago
  I appreciate these comments from the people who knew him more than anything else. Thank you for your words and I'm so sorry for your loss.
- Pristina 8y ago
  >It's so difficult to reconcile his murder. Why would you want to reconcile his murder?
  - bracobama 8y ago
    Reconcile, despite its economic association, can also mean to 'come to terms with' something, i.e. to accept that this man has passed away.
Pristina 8y ago
Is the implication that if he wasn't a counter strike pro, or a goalkeeper for the nation futsal team, or that he built a BMW, or a programmer, that his life would have been worth less? At the end of the day, his life is precious to him as much as anybody's life is to themself. And to the shooter he's just another 'invader'. I didn't know of him before and I honestly will forget in a week, maybe a faint memory as "that programmer guy who got killed in christchurch". Why is he more important to write about than the other 49 who got snuffed out by the nationalist in his ideological war?
- all_factz 8y ago
  WTH. We’re appreciating the life of this one guy, whom many of us happen to relate to because we’re also programmers. That doesn’t diminish the lives of anyone else who was slain at Christchurch.
indemnity 8y ago
Thank you for sharing his story. It’s saddening how many people are robbed of the kind of friendship they could have with people who are different yet the same in so many ways, because of this learned hatred.
mysterydip 8y ago
Sounds like someone I would've been friends with. Thanks for bringing humanity to the headline.
erklik 8y ago
Holy crap. How many things can a guy do? That's a bunch of different and varied interests. Thank you so much for writing the story.
Ozzie_osman 8y ago
This is a great writeup. Thanks for sharing. I do wish you had mentioned that he is originally Palestinian.

willbw 8y ago

Good read. It is tragic that he was killed in the name of anti-immigrant sentiment, when he seems to be a perfect example of an immigrant success story.

fabianhjr 8y ago
> when he seems to be a perfect example of an immigrant success story. Either they are "unsuccessful" and "leeching of social benefits" or they are "successful" and "are stealing their jobs". It is a nationalist catch-22 were there are no successful immigrants, just insecure nationalists that feel disposable and in the process of "being replaced".
- chii 8y ago
  so what you're saying is that as more people are dis-enfranchised, they will resort to more and more violent means to try to enact change. I don't think this has anything to do with white supremacy or nationalism - but that those ideologies are easy to use as justification. So in the end, the only way to solve this problem is to prevent dis-enfranchisement of the poor and vulnerable. UBI is my go to solution.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - fabianhjr 8y ago
    ¿How is an UBI going to help the feeling of "being useless / unnecessary / a burden" and seeing immigrants as the ones "taking away" their jobs as capital opts for outsourcing and automation? The abhorrent coward assailant wasn't even lumpen to begin with.
    - jimjimjim 8y ago
      yep, he wasn't poor or vulnerable.
    - chii 8y ago

ixtli 8y ago

What a horrible waste of a wonderful person. We should all do what we can to make sure society completely rejects the out-moded and dangerous ideology that caused this.

0815test 8y ago
You know, I might easily agree with you, except that this was not "caused" solely by ideology, and to believe this might be not only misleading, but also quite dangerous. The nihilistic sociopath who has perpetrated this heinous act would like nothing more than for people to increasingly magnify his vacuous, meaningless 'ideology', by which he clearly hoped to mislead the public into following his deranged delusion, that fame and self-aggrandizement for him might result from mindless murder; from destroying the best that life has to offer on this Earth. Let's not give him that, let's not fall into this trap he has cleverly laid out for us. We should simply wholesale-reject that outrageous, inhumane way of thinking, and not give it even that hint of dignity that this incredibly misleading term, "ideology", might imply.
- tomlock 8y ago
  We should still reject that ideology.
  - alexandre_m 8y ago
    We should reject most, if not all, ideologies.
    - fwip 8y ago
      An ideology is just a system of values and ideas about the world. Everyone has one.
      - alexandre_m 8y ago
        To a certain extent yes, but unfortunately it's more than just a set of principles. Ideologies tend to lead to fanaticism, embracing a simplified and rigid view of social reality. I'm particularly wary of all the *-isms.

vowelless 8y ago

إِنَّا لِلّهِ وَإِنَّـا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ‎ Born in Kuwait a few years before the Invasion to a Palestinian family. They probably escaped to NZ either due to the war or due to Kuwait's wrath against Palestinians after the war [0]. And met with this end in his new homeland. So unfortunate. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_exodus_from_Kuwait_(1990%E2%80%9391) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_exodus_from_Kuwait...

eg5fv4 8y ago

s/hate crimes/terrorism/

kick_in_the_dor 8y ago
Is the difference between a hate crime and terrorist attack the desire to effect some sort of change through terror? E.g, someone shooting up a church is trying to terrorize churchgoers of that race to stop going to church?
- eg5fv4 8y ago
  I think hate crimes are terrorism, and I think all terrorism is bad. And yes, this creates a chilling effect for immigrants and churchgoers. That's the intended result. I understand many people don't want immigrants for economical or cultural reasons. That's okay. Killing everybody inside a mosque is not okay.
  - XMasterrrr 8y ago
    I completely agree with what you're saying. This is terrorism. This is Islamophobia. This is hatred. And all of that needs to stop.

godelmachine 8y ago

pjc50 8y ago
Doubt she read it. Couldn't be distinguished in advance from the kind of rant that gets received every day. I wonder what the baseline level of death threats to NZ parliament is. Has become rather high in the UK.
- leoc 8y ago
  For such a prominent woman, in particular, there's likely to be a steady stream of hate and weirdness being handled by a team of frazzled aides.
Taniwha 8y ago
She didn't receive it personally, not everyone reads their emails immediately anyway, this is a red herring, the person responsible was the Aussie terrorist
danso 8y ago
If she had gotten it a day or a week earlier, what was she supposed to have done with it? I mean, in terms of its political objective/demands?
stordoff 8y ago
Even if she had received and took it seriously, what do you expect her to do? 9 minutes to receive something, determine it is real, and do something about it is not a lot of time.
lazyasciiart 8y ago
As has been fairly publicly announced, the email was read and taken seriously and was forwarded to security services less than two minutes later.
DoofusOfDeath 8y ago
> Violence is never justified. If one wants to achieve a political objective, always fight for it by political means. There's a line of argument that all (governmental) politics is just the threat of violence, packaged in a velvet glove. (One short defense of that viewpoint: try not paying your taxes.) I abhor violence in most cases, but I think it's a mistake to draw a stark division between the two.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

tamersalama 8y ago

I came across the donation page setup for his family "Atta Elayyan's Young Family" [1] [1] https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/help-atta-elayyans-family https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/help-atta-elayyans-family

guelo 8y ago

ISIS was growing and recruiting online for a while but then they were pretty effectively "deplatformed" internet-wide. The growing white supremacist threat is not being treated anywhere near as seriously with a lot of free speech concerns that only seem to apply to white identity terrorism.

toyg 8y ago
Ish. There is still plenty of ISIS crap floating around, it’s just targeted more effectively through direct social networks like whatsapp. My dad (!) had to ban from his football club’s chatgroup the father of one kid, because he insisted in spamming ultra-islamic crap. I’m pretty sure he’s still somewhere, forwarding shit to anyone who’ll listen. It’s a very hard problem. The printed press indirectly generated the Protestant schism, which resulted in centuries of wars and murderous events. The internet is having an equivalent effect today.
- mythrwy 8y ago
  The alternate reality that is the internet is a huge emerging social issue. I have to say right off the bat, I'm not in favor of governments or big corporations being gatekeepers of what is allowed to be on the internet (moral hazard). At the same time, views not in accordance with actual history (or indeed with reality) propagate at an amazing pace and certain subgroups readily embrace them as reality. In case of shooter (reading his manifesto), he has a juvenile and one dimensional view of "white history" and "white culture" which fails to understand or account for movements of ideas and culture, and fallaciously lumps everyone of a certain skin tone into one cultural group. I have no doubt this view, fanciful as it is, was echoed by his fellows until it became absolute truth in his mind. It is a problem, and not just for white supremacist types and radical Islamists either. Not sure the best solution or if there even is one.
781 8y ago
ISIS also deplatformed itself with it's ultra-violent and gory videos. The white supremacists got this right, but starting with mellower content, memes, and not throwing one in directly in the deep end. Look at this guy, he avoided swastikas because he knows they are a huge turn-off to non-radicalized people.

ibm5100 8y ago

Would this be the wrong type of thread to ask a political question regarding the terrorist attack? This is more of an obituary/rememberance?

BigChiefSmokem 8y ago
Ask what you want, let us decide.

wwweston 8y ago

One common phrase I hear among people who are concerned about an equitable and just world is "representation matters." Most often it seems to refer to representation in civic office, or desirable employment positions, and the effect that visibility has on someone's conception of their potential to shoot for a position as a goal. I wonder if it also matters more in profiles like this. It's a beautiful portrait that highlights one dimension of the tragedy of the crime. If we had more profiles like it that came well before eulogies, I wonder how far it might go to beating back the tendency to flatten conceptions of Muslims (or any ethnic/racial identity) to the kind of demonized status that's required in order to plan a terrorist attack like Christchurch.

devoply 8y ago
Exactly around the same time an American strike in Afghanistan killed a number of children. That's justified violence which is political, this is unjustified violence which though is aimed at the political is individual. To me both are tragedies of similar magnitudes. One group lacking representation and considered the "other" while another group considered a part of "us". https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/10/world/asia/airstrikes-nangarhar-afghanistan.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/10/world/asia/airstrikes-nan...
- wwweston 8y ago
  The hazards of military action including the inevitable civilian casualties (intended or not) are an important topic for consideration. And there's a good case that US Citizens have grown way too complacent about them (and even if we haven't, you check anyway, otherwise that's how you get too complacent). But this isn't really a contest. Everyone's attention is finite, but my guess is the overlap is pretty big between people who are stung by the horror and senselessness of the Christchurch attack and people who are concerned about the moral problems and fallout of military action.
  - devoply 8y ago
    Depends on how you frame the military violence. On the ground level there may be no intention of causing harm to individual civilians. On the much larger executive level it's about shock and awe, to beat the population into capitulation. That's exactly the aim of this sort of violence. Shock and awe. To this individual, this was shock and awe in service of his political objectives. It's violence with political aims. Violence with political aims is ultimately a policing matter. You use better policing to snuff it out. Military interfering in the affairs of other nations for political objectives is inexcusable and should be deplored just as this is.

tmd83 8y ago

He seems to be a wonderful man and my prayers are for him and his family. But I wanted to add something that seems to be better written by the author of the article already. > Atta Elayyan was just one of 50. Remember him, but don’t forget to remember the other lives that were lost that day, each with their own story, their own path, and their own mark on this world.

Aeolun 8y ago
I find I just cannot conceptualize 50, just like I cannot conceptualize 10000. It’s too much. I can understand the one that was just presented to me.
- Taniwha 8y ago
  Well, from a NZ perspective 50 is, as a percentage population-wise, greater than the death toll from 911 in the US - we expect our government to take equivalent level of actions to those the US took against alQuaeda/etc against white supremacists/alt-right supporters to remove future threats from our community.
  - Taniwha 8y ago
    (however we probably wont be invading Australia to root out the white supremacist threat there, nor Antarctica because someone in the PM's family has a beef with penguins)
    - InitialLastName 8y ago
      How about chastising the major world leader (of a New Zealand ally) who the shooter spent a lot of time quoting, and whose supporters and ideology were clearly a strong influence to the shoooter?
  - alexandre_m 8y ago
    How would you suggest doing that exactly? alQuaeda/ISIS = External threats where you can put the blame on a specific area of the world, then promote war politics. I'd be curious to hear your opinion on how effective post 9/11 politics were in that manner. It's not like evil was eradicated, plus the collateral damage. Is there a factory that make white supremacists where we should drop bombs? Beware of the slippery road to define that "factory", also.

eruci 8y ago

Very sad. Indeed for all of those whose life ended in such circumstances. If we could only figure out a way to get extremists to only focus on killing other extremists, we'd all be much better off.

epicureanideal 8y ago
Opt-in combat sports in a designated area between opposing factions of fundamentalists?
gjs278 8y ago
I think that’s exactly what he tried to do. he considers the people that hangout in mosques to be extremists.

tomlock 8y ago

There's no greater indictment of white supremacy than that a proponent who achieved basically nothing with their life, killed someone who was much much better than them.

epicureanideal 8y ago
You mean other than it being absolutely without any rational foundation or practical merit, and possibly being used as a justification for genocide?
- tomlock 8y ago
  I think being a supremacist who is worse than the people they think they are better than demonstrates 2/3 of those things, yeah?
  - epicureanideal 8y ago
    While I generally agree with your sentiment about this issue, I don't agree about your particular statement. For example, if it happened to be (and obviously it isn't), that 90% of white supremacists had PhDs and were in the 1% by income and wealth, that wouldn't prove anything either about whether their beliefs about whole races of people were correct.
ltmnnggr 8y ago
Was he a white supremacist or just an islamophobe and xenophobe? In particular, I'm looking for some quotes from the shooter's manifesto that promote the ideas that whites are supreme over the other races

dispsbl 8y ago

If he would've renounced islamism (which seems to be a terrorist ideology) he might've escaped.

freen 8y ago
Every killing carried out by a political extremist in the United States in 2018 was done by a right wing extremist. https://www.businessinsider.com/extremist-killings-links-right-wing-extremism-report-2019-1 https://www.businessinsider.com/extremist-killings-links-rig...
- randiantech 8y ago
  Lets not think about this atrocity on terms or left or right. Such horrible acts were made in the name of both ideology wings.
  - mcphage 8y ago
    > Such horrible acts were made in the name of both ideology wings. Not in 2018. I wonder about 2017, or 2016? If we close our eyes to what this is, we’ll never be able to stop it.
  - gnat 8y ago
    > Such horrible acts were made in the name of both ideology wings. This is 100% not supported by the fact you're replying to: "Every killing carried out by a political extremist in the United States in 2018 was done by a right wing extremist." It's like you're replying to "Today is Wednesday" with "Let's not think about days as Wednesday or Thursday. Today is named both Wednesday and Thursday." You can say that, but today is still Wednesday.
    - randiantech 8y ago
      Wow, so much downvoting for just stating an obvious thing, that extremism is a bad thing, no matter the ideology behind it. On topic, I can't talk about 2018 because I dont have hard facts about it, but from 1992 through August 12, 2017 the distribution sets that 92% of killings were extreme islamic related, followed by a 6% of extreme right groups.[0] Again, I find it very inappropriate to try to classify this by ideology. No extremism is less bad than the next one. No matter if its right or left, religious or any other type (remember rajneeshpuram?). Personally, as a non american I have suffered much more of left-wing terrorism (like bombs on subways; kidnapping, torture and killing), but again and again, it doesnt really matter. [0]https://www.cato.org/blog/terrorism-deaths-ideology-charlottesville-anomaly https://www.cato.org/blog/terrorism-deaths-ideology-charlott...

freen 8y ago

What a horrible loss to humanity. So many lives, so much potential.

sonnyblarney 8y ago

Tragic, even more so when there are names to the otherwise unknown faces.

inawarminister 8y ago

Innalillahi wa innaillaihi roji'un. May God forgives all his sins, and reward him in the Hereafter for his virtues. I pray that his martyrdom and accomplishments have and will lead to a better world here in mortal life. Also, I used to use MetroTube intensely when I have a Lumia phone back in 2013 or so. Thank you, Mr. Elayyan!

trashbin1234 8y ago

Everyone so deeply moved. And yet American bombs continue to fall. Hour after hour. Every single day. And no one gives a shit.

jtmb 8y ago
There are those who give a lot of a shit, and who are deeply disturbed and troubled, knowing families and innocents and children being maimed and killed are on our collective hands, and who do not know how the US can and should escalate, finish or withdraw from these conflicts without empowering butchers and terrorists to replace them, as well as killing or leaving even more friends and allies to die.
- jessaustin 8y ago
  You do realize, that this is 100% bullshit? We have destroyed these societies by destroying them; we'll hardly do further damage by leaving them alone. Just compare Libya, a smoking ruin where we did all we felt it was necessary to do, with Syria, a now-largely-peaceful functioning nation with the good sense to protect itself from our predations. They have slave markets in Libya now. No regular person survives without regular protection payments to gangsters. Reporters don't dare venture there, they keep track of the carnage by counting the people washing up on Europe's southern shores. The best thing we can do to any nation is the best thing we could have done, always. Leave them alone. If they request, send some humanitarian supplies. Recently however we have screwed up even that simple task, by trying to use humanitarian efforts as a screen for undermining Venezuela's elected government. (Don't believe me? Just ask the Red Cross.)
toofy 8y ago
> And no one gives a shit. I understand it can feel frustrating, as if people have forgotten, but it's important to remember that there are plenty of people who do give a shit. Paying attention to one issue doesn't erase people's concern for another issue. Just don't stop caring.
ixtli 8y ago
I have to say that i really respect that you said this because it's the reality: fast violence gets international condemnation and slow, well-dressed violence gets valorized. I also have to say that even though many of us can't really do anything about the American war machine, there are many of us who give a shit.

throwaway5752 8y ago

If you want to financially show your support, the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh has a GoFundMe page https://www.gofundme.com/tree-of-life-stands-with-christchurch-mosques https://www.gofundme.com/tree-of-life-stands-with-christchur.... It can be verified on their site and other channels. It's important that victims of white supremacist terrorism stand together, and that decent people reject it.

eythian 8y ago
This one: https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/christchurch-shooting-victims-fund https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/christchurch-shooting-victim... is a bit more official.

kuon 8y ago

For some reason, this affects me a lot more than I want to admit.

twistedlogicx 8y ago
I understand. I cried like four times writing the article. I almost gave up several times (especially near the start), because the more I read about him, the more I realized I was utterly unqualified to do him justice with my words. The only thing that kept me going was how much I wanted to tell people his story. The amount of comments I've received since, with people telling me how much of an impact his story had on them, it's been more touching, more humbling and more rewarding than anything I ever could have expected.
- exodust 8y ago
  Thanks for sharing his story. I really liked how he was a passionate skillful gamer and developer and family guy and sporting guy. Yes, it's possible to fit all those in! I can only hope to cover half the bases he did.

mandeepj 8y ago

Satya Nadella also mentioned him in his condolences https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A6512862980844195840/ https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A6...

mattparlane 8y ago

Great read, thanks for posting. To me, one thing that's not being discussed much is that Europeans only settled in New Zealand around 200 years ago, pretty short in the history of humanity. You could ask the Maori people how they feel about Europeans showing up and taking their land and destroying their culture, yet they are not gunning us down in cold blood.

vowelless 8y ago
I’m torn. On one hand I think we should think about the “motives” of these monsters and try to explain why they are wrong m, like you just did. On the other side, I don’t want to legitimize even a semblance of rationality exhibited by this guy. Even if Europeans had been in NZ for a thousand years, this is not the right response.
- 0815test 8y ago
  As I've written already ITT, the last thing I would want is for the attacker to receive even a shred of legitimacy - but I nonetheless think parent commenter raises a very good point! Because see, that individual would sure like us to think that Europeans are in some way the "rightful" inhabitants of New Zealand, the place where he carried out his hateful attack. Even a cursory knowledge of history would quickly evince to us just how nonsensical this notion is - yet he happily makes that argument anyway! And we are to believe that this attack was not in fact driven by the most heinous sort of murderous and destructive intent, with "politics" and "ideology" (even of the most radical sort one could possibly imagine) being merely the flimsiest of post-hoc rationalizations?
pjc50 8y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_Wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_Wars NZ is somewhat unusual in that the colonizers neither won overwhelmingly (as in Australia and North America), nor eventually receeded (most of Africa), but struck a peace treaty and then stuck to it, building a mostly-peaceful society on that basis.

kr4 8y ago

This world is creation of our collective consciousness. We need a collective conscious effort to bring sanity to the sad state of the world today. Please join us in global meditation for peace on every Saturday http://blacklotusapp.org/ http://blacklotusapp.org/

straightrow 8y ago
ATTA ELAYYAN' It is so good to read some one with common SENSE, IN MY FINAL YEARS ON THIS PLANET. iN MY 95 year. Having raised in a RC orphanage and thru all the RC's educations and then Married in a RC building (church) and we raised 2 girls , one married a RC wonderfull man and the younger girl married a Jewish wonderfull guy. However, they all gave up their parents cults and are "free at last", and HAPPY WITH LIFE.

mirimir 8y ago

That is just so sad :( I've never quite understood why Islamophobia is so prevalent in Australia. Even more than in the US, it seems. So I found this.[0] It seems a great summary. 0) Briskman (2015) The Creeping Blight of Islamophobia in Australia. IJCJ&SD 4(3): 112‐121. https://www.crimejusticejournal.com/article/download/772/527 https://www.crimejusticejournal.com/article/download/772/527

exodust 8y ago

"Islamophobia" is a stupid loaded buzzword. Used by some to discredit and slander those who raise concerns with Islam. The problem with this word is that it seeks to shut down those who oppose any aspect of the religion. For some odd reason being a Muslim is considered an ethnicity, or race. This further complicates any polarizing discussion about what Islam looks like in a Muslim minority country like Australia. Racism is a nasty, ignorant crime. But if you oppose the requirement of full head coverings of Muslim women, are you being racist? How about Islamophobic? Most reasonable people want peace, not violence. Most people do not condone or want extremist views. Yet violent religious extremists are a growing problem in Australia's nearest neighbor Indonesia. Not to mention we've had our own share of Islamic terror here in Australia. The road to peace is not helped by such words as "Islamophobia". This is particularly true when Islam has the historical habit of crossing into politics and power with brutally oppressive laws in Islamic governed nations.

vnorilo 8y ago
Religions and cultures generally evolve from very nasty towards less nasty. Of course sometimes there is a big lurch towards nastiness. However, (us?) secular humanists can best help religions become less toxic by inclusion rather than tribalist confrontation. I find it's better to frame one's principles and talking points as "religons must respect human rights" rather than,"Islam has always been violent and forces women to wear hijabs".
- exodust 8y ago
  That's a good and positive idea in regards to framing principles towards human rights. While inclusion is the antidote for exclusion, we are not faced primarily with an exclusion problem. There's simply been too many religious-justified atrocities and crimes from various religions. This world's violence and crime is ridiculous, and the details of the crimes are the extreme opposite of human rights. I was taught that superstition was unhealthy. Perhaps I was brainwashed with anti-superstitious propaganda? My main "phobia" is: religion as a force in politics and education. Religion should stick to what it's good at - peaceful prayer gatherings. I support "freedom of peaceful prayer gatherings". What happened at the mosques in NZ - unspeakable, sickening, the work of a deranged paranoid meat-head terrorist. More violence for fictitious reasons. Too long festering in corners with other truthers, confirming each other unchallenged; combined with likely sociopathic condition. (sorry for long post, passionate issues)

straightrow 8y ago

Trumps"s poison has shred Trump's sickness has spread world wide in to a beautiful Country like New Zealand

straightrow 8y ago

Trump"s sickness has gone WWW, even to beautiful New Zealand