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Don't get me wrong, I understand police violence is a continuing problem, but that doesn't make this instance of it less shocking. As a meta note, I've noticed

Don't get me wrong, I understand police violence is a continuing problem, but that doesn't make this instance of it less shocking. As a meta note, I've noticed that people often respond to comments saying "I'm shocked with a recent occurrence of X" with "X has always been bad and been happening for a long time" and in my opinion that response only serves to desensitize people to the bad thing.

jfengel 6y ago
The problem is that people are already desensitized. They've watched X come and go and they act shocked every time. Then they continue to push it down their list of priorities when they vote. By next week this will be pushed out of the news. By November it will be completely forgotten, except among the minority who it directly affects and were already aware. All of the outrage you hear now will not translate into change. So when people say "X has been bad for a long time", people need to hear that as "and this time you should remember it and do something".
roenxi 6y ago
There are a lot of different people out there who get shocked over different things. And writing for the 10-30% of people who think that incentives matter more than innate character - we don't need people to be sensitised and spring loaded to be shocked. These growth of these problems has been a visible trend for my entire lifetime and longer if you buy arguments like those presented in, say, The Rise of the Warrior Cop. Anyone who gets shocked by trends that have been around for that long is either very new to this, or part of the problem. The solution is less shock, more reform to promote basic principles of equality, freedom and prosperity.
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noobermin 6y ago
I'm also tired of the "X has always been bad and been happening for a long time." While I think some people mean it to highlight how prevalent a problem is, it often comes across (or is in fact intended to be) a way to both virtue signal and put down people who are less informed.
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jfengel 6y ago

The problem is that people are already desensitized. They've watched X come and go and they act shocked every time. Then they continue to push it down their list of priorities when they vote. By next week this will be pushed out of the news. By November it will be completely forgotten, except among the minority who it directly affects and were already aware. All of the outrage you hear now will not translate into change. So when people say "X has been bad for a long time", people need to hear that as "and this time you should remember it and do something".

roenxi 6y ago

There are a lot of different people out there who get shocked over different things. And writing for the 10-30% of people who think that incentives matter more than innate character - we don't need people to be sensitised and spring loaded to be shocked. These growth of these problems has been a visible trend for my entire lifetime and longer if you buy arguments like those presented in, say, The Rise of the Warrior Cop. Anyone who gets shocked by trends that have been around for that long is either very new to this, or part of the problem. The solution is less shock, more reform to promote basic principles of equality, freedom and prosperity.

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noobermin 6y ago

I'm also tired of the "X has always been bad and been happening for a long time." While I think some people mean it to highlight how prevalent a problem is, it often comes across (or is in fact intended to be) a way to both virtue signal and put down people who are less informed.

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