Anonymous wrote:Having empathy for the French people requires ZERO justification. Goodbye.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of us also have French ancestry

+1

Please do not feel you have to analyze or justify an emotional response to the French tragedy. The suggestion u need do so is typical dcum lunacy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel really badly about Paris, like everyone else. But I can't get out the disparity in reaction between this and the Russian plane bomb, for which ISIS takes credit as well. That killed more people, including children. Why didn't the whole world light up for Russia two weeks ago?

because in the hierarchy of victims, white westerners are the most sympathetic. Right now, US-Russia relations are frosty, so doing/saying anything to acknowledge that Russians, too, belong to the human race, is not politik. A planeload of dead russkis, meh. They aren't like us, they don't bleed like us. Possibly asked for it, for all you know. Paris, well, that's different. Can't do it to people who look like us.

Um, Russian people don't look any less "like us" than French people.

The coverage of the Russian plane crash is/was treated much differently by Russian media itself, compared to coverage of Paris by Western media. I've been in Russia when foiled terrorist ploys within the country have been announced, and it just seems that everyone is more stoic about it. It actually reminds me of the novels I've read set in World War II London. I'm not sure why their attitude is so different, but it isn't because they lack compassion, and it isn't because they aren't informed. I'm not convinced our way is necessarily better.

Seriously, though, I can't help but think about the joy and validation all of the coverage of Paris is bringing to jihadis and their organizations. It is clear to them from the coverage that they have indeed caused terror. I'm not proposing a solution, or saying that Western media SHOULDN'T cover the event, but I do think that the way we cover the event is very pleasing to a lot of people who hate us, to a degree that Russia's stoicism is not.

The Russian media HAS been covering other terrorist acts with the same degree of anger/tears. Recall Beslan, the Nord-Ost theater hostage operation etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of us also have French ancestry

+1

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel really badly about Paris, like everyone else. But I can't get out the disparity in reaction between this and the Russian plane bomb, for which ISIS takes credit as well. That killed more people, including children. Why didn't the whole world light up for Russia two weeks ago?

because in the hierarchy of victims, white westerners are the most sympathetic. Right now, US-Russia relations are frosty, so doing/saying anything to acknowledge that Russians, too, belong to the human race, is not politik. A planeload of dead russkis, meh. They aren't like us, they don't bleed like us. Possibly asked for it, for all you know. Paris, well, that's different. Can't do it to people who look like us.

Um, Russian people don't look any less "like us" than French people.

The coverage of the Russian plane crash is/was treated much differently by Russian media itself, compared to coverage of Paris by Western media. I've been in Russia when foiled terrorist ploys within the country have been announced, and it just seems that everyone is more stoic about it. It actually reminds me of the novels I've read set in World War II London. I'm not sure why their attitude is so different, but it isn't because they lack compassion, and it isn't because they aren't informed. I'm not convinced our way is necessarily better.

Seriously, though, I can't help but think about the joy and validation all of the coverage of Paris is bringing to jihadis and their organizations. It is clear to them from the coverage that they have indeed caused terror. I'm not proposing a solution, or saying that Western media SHOULDN'T cover the event, but I do think that the way we cover the event is very pleasing to a lot of people who hate us, to a degree that Russia's stoicism is not.

Anonymous wrote:Many of us also have French ancestry

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are kidding, right? No shame here.
Parisian values are a proxy for our values--the attack on them is an attack on us. They were just easier to get to. It is not a matter of more or less sympathy. People are reacting to the fact that WE have been attacked, and there is no end in sight. Your nutty question is like asking Americans after Pearl Harbor why they hadn't been equally shaken by god knows, the massacre of Nanking. It was horrific, but not an attack on the US. It is not revulsion / sympathy we feel. It is revulsion, sympathy, fear, outrage AND a call to action..

Ah I see - parisian values - are these the same values that republicans were just shitting on last week when potus candidates were making fun of the french work week?

The same values that have made france the butt of jokes on the right, here for the last 15+ years on all sorts of policy and cultural dimensions?

No your analogy is terrible - that's like saying americans were shaken up when Paris fell to the germans in 1940. A lot of americans weren't. Pearl harbor's analogy is 9/11.

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Anonymous wrote:

Why be ashamed? The Russian airplane thing is horrific, but because details are not confirmed (was it a bomb? Was it not????) I don't yet know what to think/feel. As to Beirut……I agree with PP, I have been to Beirut, it is a beautiful city, but yes, this is common there. Do we hold vigil every night for shootings in Camden? No, because sadly we are immune to it. It's conditioning. Did we react to the Mumbai killings in the same way as we feel these attacks? Probably not quite, because few of us have been to Mumbai. Paris? Most of us have been there. The idea that it was intentionally done to people doing what WE do, (dine, concert, football games, etc) is disconcerting to us.

It isn't shameful to recognize that it upsetting to feel more threatened and more sympathetic to that which we directly relate to. We relate to Paris. We have the "that could be us" reaction to it. We have the "it could be here next" feeling. It scares us. Don't you understand that? If we "lived out" every tragedy that happened in every place every day we would be paralyzed by anxiety. It's a way of coping, to NOT take on every bombing, every death, every horror. This one hits us harder because we relate to it, so it gets in through our carefully placed defense mechanisms. Nothing shameful about that.

Why be ashamed when people get blown up by terrorists in Paris and we're deeply shaken, but people get blown up by terrorists in Beirut and we shrug? I think that question answers itself.

Agreed...I totally understand why people have a stronger reaction to the Paris events than i.e Beirut, but you can't help being a little saddened by the disparity. It speaks to our selfishness I think. As long as we don't think it's something that "can happen to us" most people really don't care.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel really badly about Paris, like everyone else. But I can't get out the disparity in reaction between this and the Russian plane bomb, for which ISIS takes credit as well. That killed more people, including children. Why didn't the whole world light up for Russia two weeks ago?

because in the hierarchy of victims, white westerners are the most sympathetic. Right now, US-Russia relations are frosty, so doing/saying anything to acknowledge that Russians, too, belong to the human race, is not politik. A planeload of dead russkis, meh. They aren't like us, they don't bleed like us. Possibly asked for it, for all you know. Paris, well, that's different. Can't do it to people who look like us.

Um, Russian people don't look any less "like us" than French people.

The coverage of the Russian plane crash is/was treated much differently by Russian media itself, compared to coverage of Paris by Western media. I've been in Russia when foiled terrorist ploys within the country have been announced, and it just seems that everyone is more stoic about it. It actually reminds me of the novels I've read set in World War II London. I'm not sure why their attitude is so different, but it isn't because they lack compassion, and it isn't because they aren't informed. I'm not convinced our way is necessarily better.

Seriously, though, I can't help but think about the joy and validation all of the coverage of Paris is bringing to jihadis and their organizations. It is clear to them from the coverage that they have indeed caused terror. I'm not proposing a solution, or saying that Western media SHOULDN'T cover the event, but I do think that the way we cover the event is very pleasing to a lot of people who hate us, to a degree that Russia's stoicism is not.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel really badly about Paris, like everyone else. But I can't get out the disparity in reaction between this and the Russian plane bomb, for which ISIS takes credit as well. That killed more people, including children. Why didn't the whole world light up for Russia two weeks ago?

because in the hierarchy of victims, white westerners are the most sympathetic. Right now, US-Russia relations are frosty, so doing/saying anything to acknowledge that Russians, too, belong to the human race, is not politik. A planeload of dead russkis, meh. They aren't like us, they don't bleed like us. Possibly asked for it, for all you know. Paris, well, that's different. Can't do it to people who look like us.