WTF is going on?

[Mike Christ]

Violent crime in general is near historical lows. It just seem more prevalent now than in the past because the media brings news from all parts of the world to everybody so we're a lot more aware of it.

Exactly my point.

Also... Communication has gotten to a level now where we have a social community spread across the entire globe. Things that happen to some one in china can affect you, because you know a person involved. Or in the case of our rabid media, the continental united states has shrunk to this tiny ball of interconnected threads. Local news reports on shootings, weather, and small local disturbances as if they are in your own neighborhood.
This isn't exactly good or bad, but lately it has been taken out of context and a lot of people don't have the wits to realize there IS another context.

+1 people feel unsafe because they have no clue about how unsafe the world has always been. This is as good as any society has ever had it.

It's still no less violent than it ever was.  It's just an evolved form of violence, a more pleasant violence.  Physical violence may dwindle, but violence itself isn't going anywhere.  If you can force someone to do something without ever laying a finger on them, that's an impressive thing.  And it happens all the time.  If someone points a gun at me and says, "Lay down on the ground, right now."  I'm going to do just that.  I don't care if I'm being robbed or put into cuffs, I'll mow the guy's lawn if he wanted me to, because I know what would happen if I refused.

I mean, how many people in this world today are forced to pay a fee to live?  And is this number going up or down as time goes on?  Egyptians whipped slaves, whether the slave did magnificent, or not.  And America taxes, whether the slave does magnificent, or not.

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[Nesetalis]

by measurable statistics, violence is becoming less.. Murder rate has dropped signifigantly over the past 40 years.
Whether this means we are becoming less violent, or simply finding better ways to channel that violence (video games anyone?) is anyone's guess... but as a country we have become far less murderous.

[instaBoost]

civil unrest, move along or stay inside

[RodeoX]

It's still no less violent than it ever was.  It's just an evolved form of violence, a more pleasant violence.  Physical violence may dwindle, but violence itself isn't going anywhere.  If you can force someone to do something without ever laying a finger on them, that's an impressive thing.  And it happens all the time.  If someone points a gun at me and says, "Lay down on the ground, right now."  I'm going to do just that.  I don't care if I'm being robbed or put into cuffs, I'll mow the guy's lawn if he wanted me to, because I know what would happen if I refused.

I mean, how many people in this world today are forced to pay a fee to live?  And is this number going up or down as time goes on?  Egyptians whipped slaves, whether the slave did magnificent, or not.  And America taxes, whether the slave does magnificent, or not.

The fact that we can even criticize the government in public is virtually unheard of in history. Even now the freedoms Americans enjoy are hard to come by. For example, next week I will be on the road again. Part of the time I will be in a country that would put me to death if they discovered I was an atheist.  No people in history have had it this good. It's easy to want more freedom, but let's not forget what we have.

[Nesetalis]

Exactly RodeoX +1
Everything must be put in context. We need to appreciate what we have... even as we fight for more.

[Mike Christ]

It's still no less violent than it ever was.  It's just an evolved form of violence, a more pleasant violence.  Physical violence may dwindle, but violence itself isn't going anywhere.  If you can force someone to do something without ever laying a finger on them, that's an impressive thing.  And it happens all the time.  If someone points a gun at me and says, "Lay down on the ground, right now."  I'm going to do just that.  I don't care if I'm being robbed or put into cuffs, I'll mow the guy's lawn if he wanted me to, because I know what would happen if I refused.

I mean, how many people in this world today are forced to pay a fee to live?  And is this number going up or down as time goes on?  Egyptians whipped slaves, whether the slave did magnificent, or not.  And America taxes, whether the slave does magnificent, or not.

The fact that we can even criticize the government in public is virtually unheard of in history. Even now the freedoms Americans enjoy are hard to come by. For example, next week I will be on the road again. Part of the time I will be in a country that would put me to death if they discovered I was an atheist.  No people in history have had it this good. It's easy to want more freedom, but let's not forget what we have.

We can criticize the government because the government evolved.  They now know if they give you as many 'rights' as they can before you start questioning why they're there in the first place, they can let you get away with whatever you want.  As long as you work and pay taxes, you're free.  But you're not really free, you still have to work and pay taxes--and I'm not saying work is a bad thing, it's completely vital for any society to function.  The problem is when the work is watered down to pay for an overhead to do what you can already do if you had more free time due to making more money by not being taxed.  When you say good, I think you mean, the illusion is good.  But that just means we're less aware that if we act in a way our government disagrees with, we will be forced to stop doing said thing, until finally we're silenced.

[boscorocks]

Look at other countries.  I'm sure you can find babies and mothers murdered by knives and clubs.

Guns allow old people in wheelchairs and young women to defend themselves against even the strongest of attackers.  Those people would be utterly helpless against someone with a knife in a country where guns are illegal.

Yes, if you want to see a WTF world that is "disarmed" Google South Africa Farm Murders. Try not to throw up if you go to the images tab. Not a shot fired.

[pekv2]

Great talk guys, a lot of good points put out here. Keep it coming.

[GambitBTC]

Look at other countries.  I'm sure you can find babies and mothers murdered by knives and clubs.

Guns allow old people in wheelchairs and young women to defend themselves against even the strongest of attackers.  Those people would be utterly helpless against someone with a knife in a country where guns are illegal.

Yes, if you want to see a WTF world that is "disarmed" Google South Africa Farm Murders. Try not to throw up if you go to the images tab. Not a shot fired.

Jesus.... you weren't kidding.

[Lethn]

While stuff like this is horrible and precisely what made me stop watching mainstream news channels of any sort, you'll find that the majority of people aren't actually like this. Granted, it's going to get pretty bad as the economy gets worse and paper money collapses but for the most part, people are pretty passive and just want to get along with their lives.  If you bother to question what you watch and read you'll discover that these kind of murders and the like are usually isolated the problem is though that the news very often goes out of their way to find them, their primary purpose in life seems to be to scare the shit out of people and provoke reactions out of them.

It always amazes me how news reporters etc. will go to the ends of the earth to find out about violent murder in the world but they won't even report something nice happening in their own back yard.

[Gabi]

People believing that what the media says is what is happening all over the world. The media say that 1 person has been killed->omg it means that everywhere in the world people are getting killed.

[Lethn]

That's what happened with me, when I turned off that stupid box I realised they were full of shit.

[veteranBtc]

Maybe the world is going down.

The smallest problems now will be the biggest problems in the future!

[Aztec]

I cant bare the way Sky News and the like Dramatise the news. They love it when somthing breaks like that. They are all over it like a rash.

Same with Newspapers. Most of them are full of complete nonsense about soap opera stars and the Spice Girls latest reunion.

Stop the world I want to get off.

[moni3z]

I turned the tv on not to long ago, week maybe? A baby shot and killed in Chicago. I turn the tv on just 20 minutes ago, a georgia 2 kids shot a mother and her baby cuz she would not give them any money.

Wtf is wrong with these ppl?

Shots shots shots.

Is this the apocalypse or some shit? near the end of the world?

Let me ask, WTFFFFFFF?

No, sadly that's just how us Americans are.

If you wanna see something that will make you sick, research USA's murders by firearm a year compared to Canada's.

Makes me ashamed to be an American, and that's why i am currently going through the requirements to be a dual citizen, live in Canada, and visit family back in the states.

Problem with that is you have to declare and pay tax (possibly depending on income) to the Americans regardless of where you live and they will arrest you at the US border if you don't. Make sure to talk to an immigration tax lawyer

[TECSHARE]

Why is it that these discussions always focus on guns and never ask WHY ARE PEOPLE LOSING THEIR MINDS ALL OF A SUDDEN? Our society is sick and profits from the emotional and mental destruction of humanity. Guns are nothing but a DISTRACTION from the REAL KILLER, the systemic illness of our society as a whole. It makes you feel better at night if you can just blame it on a handful of wackos rather than acknowledge it for the complex system of destruction it is. If you did that you would have to examine and take responsibility for your own behavior, and no one wants that!

[Mike Christ]

Why is it that these discussions always focus on guns and never ask WHY ARE PEOPLE LOSING THEIR MINDS ALL OF A SUDDEN? Our society is sick and profits from the emotional and mental destruction of humanity. Guns are nothing but a DISTRACTION from the REAL KILLER, the systemic illness of our society as a whole. It makes you feel better at night if you can just blame it on a handful of wackos rather than acknowledge it for the complex system of destruction it is. If you did that you would have to examine and take responsibility for your own behavior, and no one wants that!

This.

[Lethn]

lol I won't argue with you there Techshare, the sad fact is a lot of other people will, I do believe the majority of people are genuinely peaceful, but honestly, the stuff I've seen lately, you'd have to be seriously pushed over the edge or into a corner to suddenly decide the only way out is to massacre a bunch of people to get your point across. It's going to be a mixture of some serious emotional issues and then a small group of scumbags who went and made that persons life a living hell that they felt the need to lash out like that.

People are looking for a scapegoat and inanimate objects are usually the easiest to place blame on.

[Dabs]

Bad Guy: This is a hold up. Gimme your private keys or I will kill you.
Good Guy: You can't shoot me, I have a brain wallet.
Bad Guy: Not in the head ... gimme your private keys or I will hurt you, one digit at a time.

[bubblesort]

Don't let the media fool you.  Violent crime has been down or flat for the last decade.  Check out the statistics here:

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr

There is no crime wave.

They are making a big deal about this because they want more gun regulation and they want us to let them invade our privacy with everything from wiretaps at our ISPs to drones in our back yards, and they want to let beat cop thugs run stop and frisks without us questioning them.  Idiots like that wiretapping criminal Piers Morgan asshole are pushing us to be more scared so that we give up more liberties and freedoms.  To do that they will parade every middle class white victim of violent crime they can find all day long across our TV sets.

They seem to ignore the minority victims unless the crime is especially horrific (like the woman whose baby was shot) because they don't actually care about violent crime.  If they did they would put out stories about all killings and not discriminate based on race and class like they do.