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Another car bomb killed 34 in Turkey (wounding 125)

jimmy eat jazz said:
So where is the outpouring of sympathy and grief from the West that we saw after Paris?

Oh, that's right, Turks don't look like us. They don't belong to our tribe. They're one of the 'others.'
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We should probably fly the flag at half mast for the next month or two, tbpfhwy.
 
jimmy eat jazz said:
So where is the outpouring of sympathy and grief from the West that we saw after Paris?

Oh, that's right, Turks don't look like us. They don't belong to our tribe. They're one of the 'others.'
Click to expand...

It is only in the past few years that I became aware that I did this. I'd feel sorrow for terrible things that happened in Europe and basically ignore the horrible tragedies that happen in Africa or the Middle East. Although there is little I can do about any of it, I am at least now more aware that any tragedy to the human family matters. And awareness is where change starts.

Granted, I can still only focus on some of it - otherwise, I'd be too depressed to ever get out of bed.
 
JazzGal said:
It is only in the past few years that I became aware that I did this. I'd feel sorrow for terrible things that happened in Europe and basically ignore the horrible tragedies that happen in Africa or the Middle East. Although there is little I can do about any of it, I am at least now more aware that any tragedy to the human family matters. And awareness is where change starts.

Granted, I can still only focus on some of it - otherwise, I'd be too depressed to ever get out of bed.
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Well said.
 
jimmy eat jazz said:
So where is the outpouring of sympathy and grief from the West that we saw after Paris?

Oh, that's right, Turks don't look like us. They don't belong to our tribe. They're one of the 'others.'
Click to expand...

This has been a concern for some Turkish people on my facebook news stream. I think Ankara and other hit places aren't like Paris, since she probably is the ideal center concept for humanity's state of mind that anything Paris represents. So subconscience goes like "This is a Muslim country, there is bound to be violence." "This is Africa, they were never away from violence." "This is Paris, this cannot happen to such a beauty! Let's stick together and defeat the evil."
 
addictionary said:
This has been a concern for some Turkish people on my facebook news stream. I think Ankara and other hit places aren't like Paris, since she probably is the ideal center concept for humanity's state of mind that anything Paris represents. So subconscience goes like "This is a Muslim country, there is bound to be violence." "This is Africa, they were never away from violence." "This is Paris, this cannot happen to such a beauty! Let's stick together and defeat the evil."
Click to expand...

Humans have always been, and will always be, tribalistic in our outlook. We identify with, and promote the interests of whatever tribe we see ourselves belonging to. Other tribes are at best not of our concern, but at worst a threat to our own tribal identify or safety. We exaggerate the suffering and injustices to members of our tribe, and diminish the sufferings and justice of the members of other tribes. We justify the excesses and brutality of our tribe, while condemning the brutality and injustice in the other tribes.

As someone who travels and works much outside the US, I am confident in saying that much of the rest of the world, while admiring and seeking to emulate much of the US, also see the US as an insufferably self-righteous bully.

Personally, the entire notion of 'American Exceptionalism, has gone way to far in this country; it blinds us to what our real and many faults are and thus at best makes it difficult to find, and at worst makes us incapable of finding, solutions to our problems or improving as a nation or people.
 
jimmy eat jazz said:
Humans have always been, and will always be, tribalistic in our outlook. We identify with, and promote the interests of whatever tribe we see ourselves belonging to. Other tribes are at best not of our concern, but at worst a threat to our own tribal identify or safety. We exaggerate the suffering and injustices to members of our tribe, and diminish the sufferings and justice of the members of other tribes. We justify the excesses and brutality of our tribe, while condemning the brutality and injustice in the other tribes.

As someone who travels and works much outside the US, I am confident in saying that much of the rest of the world, while admiring and seeking to emulate much of the US, also see the US as an insufferably self-righteous bully.

Personally, the entire notion of 'American Exceptionalism, has gone way to far in this country; it blinds us to what our real and many faults are and thus at best makes it difficult to find, and at worst makes us incapable of finding, solutions to our problems or improving as a nation or people.
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That's where superego and humanism comes in. Common sense tells us that we are the same no matter what race or religon we belong to, that we both individually have the equal value as human beings. And that nothing is more important than the life of a human being. But I believe Western societies demand more than what they give in these terms.
 
addictionary said:
This has been a concern for some Turkish people on my facebook news stream. I think Ankara and other hit places aren't like Paris, since she probably is the ideal center concept for humanity's state of mind that anything Paris represents. So subconscience goes like "This is a Muslim country, there is bound to be violence." "This is Africa, they were never away from violence." "This is Paris, this cannot happen to such a beauty! Let's stick together and defeat the evil."
Click to expand...

It's pure economics, homie. People associate wealth with well ordered/well ran countries. Poorer countries are associated with chaos and where something like that happens. Turkey is still an up and comer economically....so there you go. If Dubai got car bombed, Western people would be shocked(well, the ones that know what Dubai actually is). Even domestically, that's the shock inflection line we're working with. We're all shocked when murders happen in certain wealthy neighboorhoods....we run those stories in our news for a few days....talk about what a great doctor he was....blah...blah...blah....maybe a week.....not so much elsewhere. You get killed in a normal neighborhood, you're getting 1 day(or even a few hours in places where the news is really rolling in) in the news cycle unless it's just a bizarro story.
 
Duck Rodgers said:
It's pure economics, homie. People associate wealth with well ordered/well ran countries. Poorer countries are associated with chaos and where something like that happens. Turkey is still an up and comer economically....so there you go. If Dubai got car bombed, Western people would be shocked(well, the ones that know what Dubai actually is). Even domestically, that's the shock inflection line we're working with. We're all shocked when murders happen in certain wealthy neighboorhoods....we run those stories in our news for a few days....talk about what a great doctor he was....blah...blah...blah....maybe a week.....not so much elsewhere. You get killed in a normal neighborhood, you're getting 1 day(or even a few hours in places where the news is really rolling in) in the news cycle unless it's just a bizarro story.
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Good point. It's about the pyramid of social existence. Economic layer is the lowest ground. No bread and water, no tour in the museum of Louvre.
 
There was bombing today, on Istiklal Street, one of the busiest places in Istanbul and where I work and the only reason I wasn't there was because I took a vacation.

Most of the people I know are taking the side streets to get to work and they are really afraid. I know people that quit their job there. I know that my family is asking me to stop working there and I know that I am considering it.

Turkey is becoming a very horrible place to live.
 
Hekate said:
There was bombing today, on Istiklal Street, one of the busiest places in Istanbul and where I work and the only reason I wasn't there was because I took a vacation.

Most of the people I know are taking the side streets to get to work and they are really afraid. I know people that quit their job there. I know that my family is asking me to stop working there and I know that I am considering it.

Turkey is becoming a very horrible place to live.
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Wow that is truly horrible.. our thoughts are with you and your friends.
 
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