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I'm quite astonished by the disproportionate media attention and hysteria. For comparison 55 people died today in an Iraq bombing and about 80 people die every
by RivieraKid 14y ago
I'm quite astonished by the disproportionate media attention and hysteria. For comparison 55 people died today in an Iraq bombing and about 80 people die every day on the U.S. roadways.
- chadillac83 14y agoI tried explaining this to someone earlier... apparently it's not a numbers game because of assumed risk. There is little to no risk to watching a marathon, whereas living in Iraq or speeding on the highway there is implied risk. I'm not trying to discredit what you're saying, just pointing out why people (my friend and probably a lot of others) go into hyper sensitive reactionary mode.
- RivieraKid 14y agoI would say it's surprise factor combined with sensitivity to terrorist attacks.
- rayiner 14y agoThat and people aren't robots. A bombing in Boston means more to someone in New York than does one in Iraq, and purposeful taking of innocent life means more than accidental death.
- scarmig 14y agoWell, the innocent people being blown up in Iraq certainly weren't accidentally being blown up. And we had a much bigger role in creating the situation in Iraq than we did the situation in Boston...
- rayiner 14y agoA bombing in Boston hits home to people in New York, because people can relate to their countrymen better than they can to random people on the other side of the planet with a different culture and history. This is human nature.
- hallomac2013 14y agoHonestly, humans ought to be better than this outdated and questionable nature.
- rayiner 14y agoRight. That's why everyone here on HN cared as much about the black guys who get railroaded by overzealous prosecutors each year as they did about Aaron swartz and weev. Relating to people like yourself is a totally outmoded concept and doesn't serve any useful social purpose at all. That's why everyone is so happy that "world citizen" billionaires have overcome such trivialities like national loyalty and figured out how to export American prosperity all over the world. We totally love that.
- darkarmani 14y ago> disproportionate media attention and hysteria. What is disproportionate about it? Large bombs don't go off in US cities every day. Are you surprised that there are bombings in Iraq? Is that something you don't expect?
- RivieraKid 14y agoDisproportionate to how many people died. And calm down please.
- darkarmani 14y agoDo you know how many people die in hospice care each day? Do you expect heavy coverage of them?
- RivieraKid 14y agoNo, but I also don't expect 4 links on Hacker News about a bombing that killed 3 people.
- pvaldes 14y ago... And none about chemical weapon's first use in Siria "yesterday" with a lot of innocent people running with burned flesh in the streets, yes I can understand what you are trying to say. Sad times.
- darkarmani 14y agoYou do understand that HN is hosted in the US, right? If HN was hosted in Syria, it would most likely cover that.
- pvaldes 14y agoYes I do. I'm understand also, as you should, that this is an international community of people. There is, probably, a lot of brilliant minds here from many coins of this small floating rock, so it is expected that we could talk freely about universal problems and achieve much more than just a local and restricted point of view (and maybe to talk about possible ways to avoid this tragedies again and again).
- andrewfelix 14y agoIt's also getting widespread coverage everywhere, especially TV News. So this is entirely inappropriate for HN.
- DanBC 14y agoI should flag the submission. But what happens if I do? Is my flagging affected by me using a flag on something with so many up votes?