There's been a nasty undertone to the mocking posts about the east coast earthquake

[cali]

yes, it provoked some strong reactions; it's an unusual phenomenon. So what? Why is that something to mock? But a 5.8 earthquake can indeed cause damage and casualties. It's a good thing this one didn't. If people had been hurt or killed, these unending and stupid posts wouldn't be even a little acceptable.

If it snows three inches in certain places and people freak out a bit, I understand. Those folks aren't prepared for that unusual weather phenomenon and don't quite know how to deal with it.

If it had just been a post or two, I wouldn't have bothered expressing this, but there have been dozens of posts from smug Californians. Doesn't really say much (good) for any of you.

[JDPriestly]

1. Who has mocked it?

How you experience an earthquake depends on precisely where you are when it happens.

No one is mocking it. It's just that earthquakes are kind of a routine to Californians.

That's probably because we haven't had the "big one" yet.

People die in earthquakes. They are no a joke.

But, I have experienced earthquakes in my bed -- a gentle rocking that was almost a joke. A few miles away, things were falling off shelves. So, there is a very humorous side to earthquakes. They hit willy nilly at the oddest times. Most of them are not big enough to do a lot of serious damage.

We aren't smug. But we have experienced a number of earthquakes over the years.

Hurricanes, floods and tornadoes are much more frightening to us.

Mudslides are also a serious threat.

And as I said big earthquakes are really bad. But most earthquakes are small.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Posteritatis]

4. "No one is mocking it?" Are we reading the same board? (nt)

[Hosnon]

31. Seriously?

I can only assume you didn't visit DU yesterday... at all.

[NYC Liberal]

36. There are MANY people. n/t

[spanone]

37. 'Hey East Coast, the entire West Coast is mocking you right now'

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44253736/ns/us_news-life/#.TlUAlXPtjf8

[ZombieHorde]

63. Skinner even made an OP about the mocking. nt

[wickerwoman]

3. I don't think it's smugness so much as

a reminder not to take these things so seriously. The terrible truth is that the whole world could be sucked down a black hole at any second and none of us has a bit of control over it. So why worry?

I live in Auckland where in the last three months we've had a 2.9 earthquake, a mini-tornado that threw a few trampolines in the air and snow for the first time since 1939 (a few flakes that fell for two minutes tops).

Each times people cleared out of office buildings and homes to gawk and text their friends and family and enjoy a little novelty and a slight scare. And we took friendly crap from Christchurch over our mini-quake and Dunedin over "Snowmageddon 2011". I don't see it as "smugness", so much as gentle ribbing and a little perspective. I feel better knowing, after all, in the great scheme of things, the place I live isn't all that dangerous and even when it is there are other people who go through much worse on a regular basis and I like to think that that is the intention of the crap rather than anything mean-spirited.

[robcon]

5. I think the devastation wrought by the earthquake should be recognized: see photo

[Tunkamerica]

7. when i saw this the first time it was funny

the 9th time... kind of lame

[JDPriestly]

52. You should see the LA Freeways during the first rain of the season.

People just crawl along as if they had never driven in rain before.

And the few drops that characterize the earliest of our rains (usually end of October or sometime in November) would hardly be called a shower in the Midwest any day of the year.

So, next time it rains in LA, you can mock us.

[hedgehog]

56. I think part of the problem is that we are constantly told how

terrible it is to live in the Northeast and Midwest and have to deal with snow, and how great it is to live in the desert, or California, or the South, or Texas, etc. Typically there is more than a hint of "how can someone be so stupid as to live there and have to deal with the snow?". You can perhaps begin to understand why we tend not to sympathize when folks who previously boasted about their great weather come to us complaining about it (especially when what they're complaining about is their annual 2" snow storm!).

[Iggo]

76. And they will.

B-)

[LooseWilly]

6. really?...

As if the East Coast posters wouldn't do the same if it snowed on San Francisco or LA???

pshah... Californians would embarrass themselves freaking out in such a case just like East Coasters did in the face of an earthquake... And they'd be hassled over it.

Get over the worry about "everybody get along" crap...

Everyone will live (the earthquake wasn't so bad as to push luck that far)... so reconsider how seriously you want to take this.

[Skidmore]

8. There are nasty undertones to a good many posts on DU these days.

[Sherman A1]

9. Indeed

but, we must remember that this is simply a discussion board and everyone is entitled to their opinions and frankly they are simply that "opinions", nothing more.

[tavalon]

15. That is what people who believe themselves powerless do

Have you noticed that Washington isn't paying a lick of attention to us? We have. We haven't become functionally angry at the right people, in the right way, yet, but we know how to show that we are angry, currently still feeling powerless but angry.

[JI7]

10. i think part of the reason people joke is because people didn't get hurt

otherwise it wouldn't be funny.

people joke about southern california people not being able to deal with rain all the time.

[ohheckyeah]

54. Big difference unless

rain scares you because you've never experienced it before.

[Tunkamerica]

66. I had a cousin from Alaska who'd never seen a thunderstorm.

He ran out into a nasty one when visiting Virginia. That was the story anyway.

[a la izquierda]

11. I grew up in NJ and lived in CA for awhile.

Earthquakes are freaky, especially when they're really unusual. Thanks for this post. I was fielding freaked out phonecalls from my sister, who is 8 1/2 months pregnant.

[JI7]

12. i'm in los angeles and one of the things i'm always hoping for is i'm not in the bathroom

if/when a huge quake hits. i think of that more than things that could be more dangerous like driving during the quake.

[Waiting For Everyman]

13. I lived in L.A. for Sylmar, and I thought it was a "nothing" quake too.

It seemed just like this one (and I live somewhat near to the one today now)... I looked outside, saw nothing damaged, thought it was over, and went back to sleep. Later once reports came in, it turned out to be this...

http://framework.latimes.com/2011/02/09/sylmar-earthquake/#/0

Not so "nothing". Sylmar was a 6.6, this was a 5.9. Yes, Sylmar was stronger but not by much, and East Coast quakes are stronger in how they travel anyway, so figure it pretty similar. I can tell you that as far as how the two *felt*, they were very much the same.

[JI7]

14. i think the fear of this quake had more to do with thinking it might be a terrorist attack

[LooseWilly]

16. People on the East Coast are still worrying about a terrorist attack?...

Ohhh... right, there are some people still worrying about that on the West Coast, too. I guess.

Sorry, some of us have real things to worry about... we sometimes forget about the privileged who worry about these things.

I don't think there are many people in Oakland who have to worry about terrorist attacks. I bet the same is true of Baltimore. Queens (to some extent, though JFK is in Queens). New Orleans. Even Philly, probably doesn't have to worry much.

I think there are some folks out there in the suburbs of Virginia that think a bit highly of themselves... to put it a bit bluntly...

I don't really believe they'll stop doing so either. And I'm not particularly interested in converting them... I'm no evangelizing voice.

People need to get to know fear better... so that it isn't such a "scary" and unfamiliar concept...

Just saying...

[JI7]

17. no, i don't think they are "worried" about an attack, but that if something like the earthquake

happens which is unusual on the east coast the fear is more that it is a terrorist attack . if i was there i would probably have thought that first especially if i was inside somewhere before thinking it was an earthquake.

being in california though my first thought would be that it was an earthquake.

and by east coast i mean particularly the areas where 9/11 attacks happened.

and it has nothing to do with privilege . the attacks didn't target people of privilege. they targeted anyone working where the attacks happened from the highly paid ceos to those who make much less like the people who wash dishes in the restaurant at the top.

[Tunkamerica]

67. I specifically thought "No way that was an earthquake" even though it was the only thing I could

think of.

[justiceischeap]

18. I worry about terrorist attacks on the East Coast

I work 2 stops from the Pentagon, where in the last year two attempted domestic terror attacks have been thwarted. As I sat in my shaking office building yesterday, my thought process went as such:

explosion (building or metro bombed)
earthquake

When I was a kid I lived in Missouri and a couple of miles from my house a laundry mat blew up (gas leak) and the shaking of my house was very similar to yesterday's earthquake. Since we don't get many earthquakes on the East Coast (this will be my 3rd since moving to the east coast in 1984), I'd say it has nothing to do with elitism or privilege but logic that we consider a terrorist attack before an earthquake.

But you come across as someone who doesn't engage their logic... Just saying.

[aquart]

22. Not worried. But now it's one of the things we have to rule out.

We always have to rule it out. Was it? Nuh uh. Okay, so what? Earthquake. YE FREAKING GODS!HERE? Yup.

Let me know which street you'd like to be on in NYC when a quake shakes the buildings.

The week began with a quake and it's ending with a hurricane. We know exactly what to fear.

You don't begin to impress with that smug.

[eShirl]

25. Some of their reaction could have been PTSD.

The media's been ramping up for the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks, which is only 2-3 weeks away.

[pipi_k]

40. Not sure how it helps

to trivialize fear and denigrate people who feel it.


It's one of the first and most primal of emotions. You don't just reason it away.


Yeah...people in NY are STILL afraid of terror attacks. Especially this close to the 10th anniversary of 9/11

Even though I live more than 100 miles away from NYC, I have nightmares about planes crashing in my yard.

I lived in TN back in 1974 when that huge outbreak of tornadoes happened. I saw my first tornado, and believed that my kids and I were going to die.

All these years later I still have nightmares about tornadoes.

Just because you "have more important things to worry about", that doesn't mean someone else's fears don't matter.

[chrisa]

32. Earthquake being a terrorist attack?

We should really keep better tabs on those weather machines we license out!

[pipi_k]

42. Nothing humorous about that...

If a group of people aren't used to earthquakes, and if they've been virtually brainwashed for the past 10 years to fear terrorists, and when the building they're in shakes, yes...they could be excused for thinking someone had set off a bomb or a plane had crashed into a nearby building.

[ohheckyeah]

55. Never crossed most of our minds I would venture to guess.

That was more the press than regular people. We had no idea what to expect in terms of whether this was a fore shock or what.

[nc4bo]

19. It's concerning that a nuke plant was built to only withstand a 6.0 earthquake

and this quake was a 5.8 or 5.9.

We've got some things to be concerned about. Mankind doing really stupid things that have the potential cause irreparable harm to people living in the vicinity of them.

[Throckmorton]

24. Nope, it was designed to withstand 5 such quakes in its lifetime

The so-called Operating Basis Earthquakes.

The plants are also designed to withstand a single Safe Shutdown Earthquake, which has a local ground motion of 4 to 20 times higher than an OBE.

[H2O Man]

20. My wife

called me from her work site. She spent a significant amount of her life in California. When it started yesterday, she had co-workers etc get into doorways. That was her first reaction, and probably -- I'm speculating -- would have been most East Coaster's last.

She's been through many a west coast earth quake. She found nothing humorous in yesterday's events.

[Gman]

21. I think a lot of it is just expressions of relief

That it wasn't anything catastrophic that we've been conditioned to expect. Those truly smug individuals haven't thought about the fact that the east coast doesn't have the luxury of so many earthquake proof 100+ year old buildings, as Skinner points out.

[EstimatedProphet]

23. I think it's less about mocking the earthquake, and more about mocking sanctimoniousness

For example, the picture going around with the lawn chair tipped over. I don't see that so much as making fun of the earthquake as much as making fun of the freeper assholes who put 9/11 Never Forget stickers on every surface they come within 50 yards of.

[pipi_k]

43. So that's the way people fight the santimoniousness

of the right?

By posting mocking photos on DU that could be offensive to DUers?

Oh, and mocking can also be sanctimonious. :(

[EstimatedProphet]

44. Actually, yes. That's exactly how they do it.

[pipi_k]

47. Well it's rather unkind n/t

[EstimatedProphet]

48. Perhaps, but that doesn't negate my first post.

[LanternWaste]

75. Or at least your inference and interpretation of it.

"That's exactly how they do it..."

Or at least your inference and interpretation of it.

[EstimatedProphet]

77. No, that's what happened.

Some people put up jokes. Some other people took offense to those jokes. Case closed. This is what happened, therefore this is what would happen if it were to happen.

[Tunkamerica]

68. I think that's a stretch.

In fact, I think you missed the point of that photo completely. It's funny because there was little to no damage and it was a big story. What that has to do with 9/11 bumper stickers you'll have to explain.

[EstimatedProphet]

74. Maybe you didn't see the "Never Forget" pic then

It had a crying eagle, "8/23/2011: Never Forget" in big font, and a pic of the lawn chair tipped over. That was clearly making fun of 9/11 Never Forget stickers. Of course part of the humor was about making fun of all the coverage for a minor story, but that's not all of what went around.

[WhiteTara]

26. It's not the earthquake, but the coverage

that generates such scorn. Come on!

[theophilus]

27. There are lots of nasty undertones here to a lot of things. n/t

[A-Schwarzenegger]

73. Democratic nasty Undertones.

:*

[hlthe2b]

28. Seems to me that in our relief that no serious harm or damage resulted....

that a bit of self-deprecating humor would be a natural release response. I haven't seen anyone laughing at our fellow Coloradoans in Trinidad and on the NM border, who likewise experienced a significant and nearly unheard of magnitude seismic event. Then again our media didn't go to wall to wall "defcon 1" level coverage. I think in retrospect a little shared self-laughter at our own cable media is not out of the ordinary.

If someone were making light of suffering, I'd be with you Cali. Rather, a little levity in relief does not seem like such a horrible thing. :shrug:

[JVS]

29. Let's retaliate by spoiling every TV show for them.

[GoneOffShore]

30. Too funny!

[wickerwoman]

51. LOL!

And deciding every election while they're still at work.

[Shagbark Hickory]

33. I wouldn't call them mocking so much as I would call them bragging.

[Ishoutandscream2]

34. I guess, then, you have noticed the very smug remarks about the Texas drought

It happens with Texas all the time here. I understand your upsetness, and I hope this translate to you speaking up when Texas is being mocked as well.

[pipi_k]

35. Much the same thing happened...

back in June when we (Western Mass) had a couple of tornadoes.

yeah, they weren't on the same scale as Joplin, MO, but they're not exactly a usual thing out this way, let alone having them pass right through a major city and then go on for another 40 miles.

And as I found out later, the roaring noise I heard out my way about 20 minutes before that was more than likely the start of the one that did so much damage farther east. I'm 20 miles away from where it first touched down. That's a potential 60 mile path. Almost 1/2 the width of the entire state.

Anyway, there was wreckage. People died.

But I guess it's not really a disaster unless more than a couple of people die and the area is wiped clean of all human habitation.

If people can't find in in themselves to offer empathy, the least they can do is not make themselves look like asses by scoffing...

[boston bean]

38. Very true, that did happen then too.

I'm starting to get a complex from our liberal western brethren.

[Little Star]

39. Our devastating tornado's here in MA this year were also..

mocked relentlessly!

[Johonny]

41. I mock this thread on mocking

only the terminally self righteous know for sure what is and isn't to be mocked. The total media saturation of a relatively minor event (I was in New York through two 5 Earthquakes, worse I've ever experienced and I now live on the west coast) was rightly mocked by people. Mocking the total overblown reaction to this Earthquake... You have people posting on the DU that the quake was caused by fictitious secret government projects so... I think a little mocking was totally expected.

We complain when it rains in LA and everyone on the DU rightly mocks us :)

[LWolf]

45. Actually,

I've seen more threads ABOUT mocking than actually mocking.

Then again, I haven't spent much time on DU.

I hope everyone in range of the quake is ok; having lived through plenty, I don't take them for granted. If nothing falls on you during the quake, the aftermath is often worse.

[Gormy Cuss]

46. Beat me to it.

There are a handful of posters who wrote mocking posts and many more who were sympathetic.

[Incitatus]

49. LEAVE VIRGINIA ALONE!1

:cry:

[frylock]

50. all those lives lost..

such a tragedy.

[hedgehog]

53. Your post captures the whistling past a graveyard aspect of a

lot of the humor. When we on the East Coast hear about an earthquake elsewhere, it's generally one of the bad ones. So our first reaction to any earthquake is to expect the worst. I think a lot of us are laughing because we automatically went to DEFCON 10 over what turned out to be a minor event.

[ohheckyeah]

57. It would have been nice

if those experienced with earthquakes had used their experience to inform us and to reassure us instead of making fun. We can't help it if the press went to Defcon 10 and all they did was make things worse. A little first hand knowledge of what to expect and some reassurance would have gone a long way. My parents are 84 years old and they had never experienced an earthquake before. Many of us had not and we didn't know if what we experienced was just a foreshadowing of something worse to come.

[Waiting For Everyman]

58. Most of the west coast "experience" with quakes is with those that do no damage

no different from the experience we had on the east coast yesterday. They tell us how they don't even notice. Their "no damage" experience there is no different than our "no damage" experience here yesterday. The only difference is that they experience them more often.

The number of people who have been in a major quake is much smaller, even on the west coast - because a whole lot of them haven't lived there very long. And even if they have, most were not in the quake zone.

I'm very sure that the relatively small number of us who have experienced a major quake, were not mocking. The others have no room to talk, because they're no more experienced than you are after yesterday.

I've lived on the east coast most of my life, but I lived in L.A. for several years and was there for the Sylmar quake in 1971. It was a 6.6 (not that big of a number, right?) but it was a very serious quake which caused a lot of damage and killed a lot of people.

I'll tell you this... I'm about 100 miles from the one yesterday, and it felt identical to Sylmar. Damage notwithstanding. We were lucky.

But don't be impressed by most of the west coaster's "savvy". Baloney. Most of them are untested, and have no idea how they will react to a serious damage quake. Good luck with that, mockers. You'll probably get to find out someday. I hope you're ready with more than snark and smugness.

[TransitJohn]

59. To me, it's just

one group of snobby urban elitists cajoling another group of snobby urban elitists, both groups acting with urban privilege. Because the media is concentrated on the coasts, the rest of the country gets inundated with wall to wall coverage. At least it was more than, "There's a snow storm hitting Washington and New York!!!!"

[Cali_Democrat]

60. A "nasty" undertone?

Oh please!

[pipi_k]

61. I only noticed it getting nasty when

people asked for a bit of compassion for the people who may not have been physically harmed, but who definitely suffered emotional damage...and the response was even more mocking.

If someone asks for compassion and it triggers more mocking, then yeah...that's nasty.

[cwydro]

71. Emotional damage??

Asking for compassion on a freaking discussion board?

I cannot believe the whining here. No wonder the freepers laugh their asses off about DU.

I have lost a car, a house and god knows how much "emotional" security in hurricanes and one bad fire. Never did I come to DU for "compassion"...even if I posted about it, I wasn't looking for compassion from DU.

This whole earthquake whining - east coast versus west coast thing - is really funny to me. What a bunch of babies...both sides. (I live in NC and I think the lawn chair falling over thing is funny).

Wow, "OUR earthquake is better than YOUR earthquake!" "We have snowstorms!" "You meanie westcoasters...we live in brick buildings...waaahhh!"

SO sick of the regional fighting on this board...always putting down the south; now we're putting down the west coast. Grow the fuck up everyone.

Shut up about this people. What a bunch of crybabies.

[LanternWaste]

78. I imagine many people conflate 'whining' with...

I imagine many people conflate 'whining' with 'request for respect, tolerance and compassion'.

Although I too must admit to often conflating petulance about said respect with simple vulgarity...

[cherokeeprogressive]

62. Oh FFS. It's called "whistling past the graveyard". Grow some skin.

It's a west coaster's way of saying "thank the Goddess it didn't happen HERE hoo boy we dodged a bullet that time wonder what east coasters think about earthquakes NOW damn I need to call my mom/dad/sister/brother/cousin/best friend and make sure they're ok".

If it makes any east coasters feel better I'll start an OP stating my belief that Gaia was simply waking up and testing her ability to throw the human parasite off of her back. Or that it was a HAARP experiment gone wrong or that Dick Cheney ordered it. Come to think of it I'm going to call Jesse The Body and have him investigate the HAARP angle because I think it was a conspiracy to line the pockets of the insurance companies.

West coasters are reminded nearly every day that "The Big One" is lurking just around the corner and how it's going to be, if not the mother of all earthquakes, then at least her crazy sister. We live with it every day. Hell, one of the biggest box-office draws in the 1970's, with a screenplay by none other than Mario Puzo was about Los Angeles being destroyed in an earthquake and how Los Angelenos struggle to survive after the apocalypse.

The difference here is that earthquakes give no warning whatsoever that can be reliably measured. Hurricanes? You know they're coming. Tornadoes? You know there are thunderstorms forecast. But earthquakes? "HOLY FUCK WE'RE HAVING AN EARTHQUAKE!" is about as much warning as anyone has ever received.

San Francisco was destroyed by an earthquake. Long Beach was destroyed by an earthquake. The Anchorage earthquake lasted for four fucking minutes and killed people in CALIFORNIA. Try THAT on for size.

I'm authorizing my people to send 85,000,000 care packages that include warm blankies, soft hugs, and murmurs of "there there" so east coasters can stop feeling "mocked".

I've always been fascinated by the "I'll take an earthquake over a hurricane or tornado" debate. I wonder if any east coast opinions on the matter were changed by yesterday's cataclysmic event...

Again I say... grow some skin. No one has hurt anyone.

[cwydro]

72. Agree 100%

and I'm on the east coast...never seen such whining as I've seen lately.

It's embarrassing actually.

(Oh and I would take a hurricane over a tornado lol).

[ZombieHorde]

64. Recommended. nt

[bluestate10]

65. I have my differences with you, but I generally respect your posts.

But on this one, all I can say is chill dude. Yes people on the east coast were shaken up, but they persevered. As they always do.

[cwydro]

69. Oh please

I live on the east coast...never lived in CA...but I think the funny "pics of devastation" making the rounds on the internet are hilarious.

The west coasters have a right to laugh at us...come on folks...lighten up. DU is too effing serious most of the time...what a bunch of whining about nothing.

Get over yourself.

[malletgirl02]

70. I tried to recommend

your post, but some jerk unrec and negated my rec. I agree with you. Although it wasn't severe there was damage at the epicenter a place called Mineral, Virgina. I bet most people making the jokes never heard of it. There are many nasty people on DU.