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September 11, 2001 was recent news, I'm old. The initial poster (me) is talking about timescales much bigger than 9/11. There was a time where if your neighbor

September 11, 2001 was recent news, I'm old. The initial poster (me) is talking about timescales much bigger than 9/11. There was a time where if your neighbor dropped dead from the black death it was normal. Right now most people don't know anyone who was even in the building when 9/11 happened. Keep in mind the amount of car accidents in the US constitutes a mass slaughter on a scale far larger than anything you can comprehend yet you are ignoring it. There are plenty of things far worse than COVID deaths and 9/11 going on in the world right now... YET we are still more at peace and safer than we ever have been before. Does that make you evil and heartless for completely ignoring how car manufactures and drivers are slaughtering people? No. It doesn't. But it does highlight the fact that you are using and throwing around numbers to raise emotions the same way the media does. Just to keep things in perspective. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_vehicle_fatality_rate_in_U.S._by_year https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_vehicle_fatality_rate_in... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_Sta... Both are about 100 deaths per day JUST in the US.

heavyset_go 6y ago
> Keep in mind the amount of car accidents in the US constitutes a mass slaughter on a scale far larger than anything you can comprehend yet you are ignoring it. I'm not ignoring it, I've even posted about it recently[1]. A typical flu season incurs more deaths than automobiles cause. The former incurs about 40k, while automobiles cause about 32k. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25258632 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25258632
- Geminidog 6y ago
  So then why throw numbers around and compare things to 9/11. There's no point. The pandemic is something we have to deal with but it doesn't change the fact that we are more at peace than ever before. Why do you have to turn everything up to 11 and call red alert, there's no need.
  - heavyset_go 6y ago
    Well, I find it strange that people are easily triggered by reality, so much so that they want to drown it out, ignore it and think that those who are not content with the status quo should be "hit with a belt in the ass and told to stand in the corner", like the comment I replied to said. I also find it strange that I'm being accused of "calling red alert" and am told to "Stop being a fucking doomsday prophet"[1] for stating simple statistics by the very same people who are using statistics to drive their arguments. I even went a step further and stated hard figures. If we're going to rely on a utilitarian metric for peace and human suffering, and use that metric to dismiss criticism of the status quo, what's the issue with using hard figures? [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25279160 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25279160
    - Geminidog 6y ago
      >for stating simple statistics No you're deliberately calling out numbers that blows things out of proportion. 9/11 was deliberately used because it was a tragedy. Why didn't you compare COVID to car accidents which is the bigger more comparable number? Because you want to raise emotions. Don't pretend. You're not a doomsday prophet but you are definitely manipulating the situation towards your own skewed perspective, you were dialing it up to 11, you're just back pedaling now. If you indeed had something unbiased to say you would not have brought 9/11 out of nowhere to say that covid is like a bunch of 9/11s happening back to back because so is the flu so is car accidents. You have an agenda and you are promoting it with biased numbers. > Well, I find it strange that people are easily triggered by reality, so much so that they want to drown it out, ignore it and think that those who are not content with the status quo should be "hit with a belt in the ass and told to stand in the corner", like the comment I replied to said. Triggered by reality? Nobody is triggered here. We're saying calm down. You're the one that's bringing up 9/11 trying to trigger everyone. Nobody is saying be content with the status quo, what we're saying is that don't push the panic button, we are not in a 9/11 panic situation... humanity is more at peace then ever before and the numbers show it when you look at the overall timeline of human existence. I am saying that much of it should be drowned out though. All the news you've been inundated with 2 months ago is already outdated. You're loaded with an over dramatization of problems that humanity basically deals with on a normal basis and becomes useless and outdated within a week let alone a month.
natmaka 6y ago
It never was normal to see a neighbor dropping dead from the black death. Pandemics never were a normal state of affairs. Right now many/most vehicle fatalities were people fully aware of the danger of those vehicles and willing to use them. And most "gun violence" fatalities were suicides (people willing to die). In contrast nearly nobody "accepts" to be exposed to a potentially deadly virus.

heavyset_go 6y ago

> Keep in mind the amount of car accidents in the US constitutes a mass slaughter on a scale far larger than anything you can comprehend yet you are ignoring it. I'm not ignoring it, I've even posted about it recently[1]. A typical flu season incurs more deaths than automobiles cause. The former incurs about 40k, while automobiles cause about 32k. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25258632 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25258632

Geminidog 6y ago
So then why throw numbers around and compare things to 9/11. There's no point. The pandemic is something we have to deal with but it doesn't change the fact that we are more at peace than ever before. Why do you have to turn everything up to 11 and call red alert, there's no need.
- heavyset_go 6y ago
  Well, I find it strange that people are easily triggered by reality, so much so that they want to drown it out, ignore it and think that those who are not content with the status quo should be "hit with a belt in the ass and told to stand in the corner", like the comment I replied to said. I also find it strange that I'm being accused of "calling red alert" and am told to "Stop being a fucking doomsday prophet"[1] for stating simple statistics by the very same people who are using statistics to drive their arguments. I even went a step further and stated hard figures. If we're going to rely on a utilitarian metric for peace and human suffering, and use that metric to dismiss criticism of the status quo, what's the issue with using hard figures? [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25279160 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25279160
  - Geminidog 6y ago
    >for stating simple statistics No you're deliberately calling out numbers that blows things out of proportion. 9/11 was deliberately used because it was a tragedy. Why didn't you compare COVID to car accidents which is the bigger more comparable number? Because you want to raise emotions. Don't pretend. You're not a doomsday prophet but you are definitely manipulating the situation towards your own skewed perspective, you were dialing it up to 11, you're just back pedaling now. If you indeed had something unbiased to say you would not have brought 9/11 out of nowhere to say that covid is like a bunch of 9/11s happening back to back because so is the flu so is car accidents. You have an agenda and you are promoting it with biased numbers. > Well, I find it strange that people are easily triggered by reality, so much so that they want to drown it out, ignore it and think that those who are not content with the status quo should be "hit with a belt in the ass and told to stand in the corner", like the comment I replied to said. Triggered by reality? Nobody is triggered here. We're saying calm down. You're the one that's bringing up 9/11 trying to trigger everyone. Nobody is saying be content with the status quo, what we're saying is that don't push the panic button, we are not in a 9/11 panic situation... humanity is more at peace then ever before and the numbers show it when you look at the overall timeline of human existence. I am saying that much of it should be drowned out though. All the news you've been inundated with 2 months ago is already outdated. You're loaded with an over dramatization of problems that humanity basically deals with on a normal basis and becomes useless and outdated within a week let alone a month.

natmaka 6y ago

It never was normal to see a neighbor dropping dead from the black death. Pandemics never were a normal state of affairs. Right now many/most vehicle fatalities were people fully aware of the danger of those vehicles and willing to use them. And most "gun violence" fatalities were suicides (people willing to die). In contrast nearly nobody "accepts" to be exposed to a potentially deadly virus.