WHy are some people so disgusting?

[HEyHEY]

At work today this guy asked me if I'd seen this video clip of the Tsunami. It was some guy suntanning and people from a building were yelling at him to get out of the way. He looked up, saw the wave and started running. The wave swept him away.
This guy was laughing the whole time he told me the story, expecting me to laugh.
I felt like saying "DO you laugh when you see people struggle for their lives as their heads are being cut off on the internet?"

Really bugs me.

[AwakeAtLast]

1. Me, too!

You wouldn't believe the number of pictures that people have e-mailed to me. I don't know if they want me to reply. How do you reply?

Sad. Very sad.

[HEyHEY]

3. Yeah, I can understand if it's being sent in a ...

"Holy shit look at this!" Kinda way..but when you're expecting me to laugh...

[maxudargo]

2. I don't know...

I think it is a way of posturing. Of making yourself look tough or something.

Actually, I hope it is a way of posturing. I hope these people don't get sincere delight out of such things. I hope they're just pretending.

[Az]

4. When Bugs Bunny falls off a cliff he bounces

When Rambo gets shot he grunts and keeps going.

We have learned that what happens to others at a distance does not affect us. We are becoming increasingly insular in our society. Cars and phones may be perfectly wonderful tools, but they allow us to pick and choose our friends a lot more. No longer dependent on circumstance we can pick those individuals who we like best to associate with. Therefor we never connect with those less like us.

Over time anyone not in our immediate circle becomes less human. Just another object on the landscape. And occaisionally bits of the landscape fall on them. And as long as it doesn't affect us it seems funny.

[shadowknows69]

20. Hey, I'm a huge Bugs Bunny fan

but I can't watch real tragedy. I feel like I die myself everytime I see footage of another's misery. I can't believe how often the MSM plays the same heart wrenching clips. CNN actually had the balls to do a story on how constant exposure to the video of events like the tsunami may give children traumatic stress and nightmares. No, sh*t Sherlocks. Roll that footage again Wolf.

[JanMichael]

5. I don't know man. I really don't. It seems like the world has gone mad.

People as spectators has apparently backfired. It appears that we've not equiped people with a decent amount of empathy...

[HEyHEY]

6. What really gets me is how they justify it

Some BS like "Oh, come one man....there's nothing we can do now."

[Old Mouse]

I think you've hit on something there,

empathy is what seems to be in short supply.

[Old Mouse]

7. There is a growing fan base

of people who derive pleasure from pictures and video of actual death and destruction. The Internet has fueled this fetishism, and sites dedicated to violent pornography proliferate at a rate not significantly less than sexual pornography.

It may have something to do with the fact that violence and sex both stimulate the same areas of the brain.

[HEyHEY]

8. It could even effect the anti-war effort

Vietnam was stopped partially because of all the footage on the news at night. Now, they may not care.

[Wonk]

9. Faces Of Death Box Set, now available on DVD, order your copy today!

Express delivery available!

[HEyHEY]

10. The special edition for real sadistic pricks!

Show babies dying!

[Wonk]

12. You've seen it? I haven't. I've only heard of and seen ads for it. nt

[HEyHEY]

13. You gotta watch the "shopping network for complete assholes."

Only $19.95!

[Old Mouse]

11. It's now far worse than faces of death

You can see the national dialog progressing to the point where violent images are acceptable and sexual ones are not.

Janet's breast versus Gibson's Christ.

[mongo]

22. Yes it's all porns fault

In fact, all of our societies ills are the fault of porn -sheesh.

Do you have any FACTS to back up your assertion that "sites dedicated to violent pornography proliferate at a rate not significantly less than sexual pornography"?

I doubt it. If violent porn is so much more prevelent, how come the biggest compaies: Vivid, Wicked, Adam & Eve, and Sin City never have movies which are "violent porn". Perhaps it is because you don't know what the hell you are talking about.

[Old Mouse]

25. You mistake the argument

I am not speaking of the SEXUAL pornographic industry. I use the actual meaning of the word pornography.

I think you are too accustomed to fighting for the rights of the industry you defend. I do not speak out against SEXUAL pornography in any way, nor fantasy depictions of violent sexual imagery. But regarding the production companies you name, there are specific but interpretable laws about what can and cannot be depicted in productions distributed in the United States. These boundaries are often crossed in other countries with more lax rules.

I am talking about the growing underground of people who get sexual pleasure from viewing real violent imagery, such as the Iraqi decapitation videos.

[AgadorSparticus]

14. maybe this is a stretch, but perhaps reality TV has screwed up

people's perspective on life. maybe this is just another reality show for them--with really big special effects. and the fact that it occured so far away compounds the non reality effect.

i say this because i am disturbed by the use of marketing the army as a video game for recruitment. i don't remember where i saw this, but one soldier said that he shoots people from his tank like a video game. they crank up the music and pretend the killing is some video game. it's so screwed up but i don't know how else to explain for this easy kill, lack of respect for human life mentality.

[ComerPerro]

15. I know a lot of conservatives who, after 9/11

Downloaded videos of the Towers getting hit, going down, and people jumping. They watched them over and over again, and were really amused by it.

Sick.

[Behind the Aegis]

16. That is sick!

I had to turn off the TV during that time because they kept showing scenes of people jumping. I couldn't watch that! I still can't! If I see something on 9-11, I will watch, but if I think they are about to show a person jumping, I turn away. I can be a real bitch, and stone-hearted on occasion, but the thought of the fear those people felt as they fell....I just can't see it. We have become a jaded society, and some revel in the gore and violence.

[flaminbats]

17. too many people get pleasure from others' pain..

everytime I see a Repuke they start talking about the Tsunami just as it was another political issue. Last time one repuke began claiming that it was important because "they've been killing each other off in civil wars anyway."

One got pissed that we would divert so many troops and supplies from our losing War in Iraq. Another claimed it would "become another Bosnia", strange considering that was one of our best accomplishments. My impression has been most soldiers would rather be in Southern Asia and the Indian Ocean helping those who need us, than occupying a hostile country.

Republicans really want to blame someone for the sorry management and lack of aid to Tsunami victims, but we never hear them speak about the tragedy of losing over 80,000 human beings or what should be done to help.

[Nay]

18. Go get the book "Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television"

by Jerry Mander. 25 years ago he predicted that callousness like this would be a direct result of showing such scenes, over and over again, on TV, and it did not matter whether the scenes were not real (actors) or real. He correctly predicted nearly all the bad effects TV would have.

[Karenina]

21. Go to link for a primer...

http://www.ratical.org/ratville/AoS/theSun.html

Mander is quite correct.

[sbj405]

19. I work in a field/agency that stands to gain work/$ from this event

It was some of my co-workers first reactions to the news. I still don't think the enormity of loss was had an impact of most Westerners.

[InvisibleBallots]

23. He was emotionally troubled by what he saw

and there is a constant drumbeat from the corporate media that laughter is an acceptable response to tragedy, as long as you are far away from it. From Mel Brooks to the Simpsons, laughing at tragedy is a hallmark of comedy.

This guy sees a horrific video, it disturbs him, and culturally he's conditioned to laugh at it.

[Swede]

24. Total lack of compassion.

It's real. I cannot understand it.