ASIO would have been referring to external threats to Australia. I’m not discounting terrorism as a threat, but so far externally driven or inspired terrorism has had little impact on the daily lives of Australians ( except possibly the Lindt siege justification). It wasn’t responsible for the Bourke Street mass killings.
When Morrison bangs on about the onus on Islamic clerics to call out terrorism, he neglects to say they have. The ones attracted to terrorism aren’t getting terrorist messages from them or even listening to them.
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I don’t, and i was two blocks away from this attack and much closer than that when Gargasoulas or whatever his name was drove his car into a bunch of people not long ago.
After a few days, people went back to their everyday daily life. They will this time, too. Had it been a sept 11 scale attack, yeah, things would probably be different. But humans are resilient creatures when not directly affected by something like this.
Worth remembering that the purpose of a terrorist attack is to terrorise (rather than achieve some sort of religious or ideological goal directly). Sept 11 succeeded spectacularly not just on a tactical level but a strategic level, because it frightened and goaded the USA into making a whole bunch of dumb policy decisions that made Bin Laden’s long-term aim (a religious war between Islam and the West, rather than the west ganging up with a bunch of secularised modernising majority-islamic nation states to stomp on inconvenient religious fanatics like him) damn near become a reality.
Terrorism is a tactic used by the weak against the strong. The use of the tactic acknowledges the attacked can’t win in a straight up fight, so they goad an enemy into destroying its own moral authority though overreach, and therefore the stronger side create its own enemies through overreaction and persecution (say hi to ISIS, which was basically born in the dungeons of Abu Ghraib). Of course, that’s the tactic as thought out by people who plan such things, I suspect the people who actually perform the attacks have … less nuanced motivations.
Anyone who isn’t angry when these sorts of thing happen has something a little bit wrong with it. But it’s worth remembering that letting anger drive your reaction is exactly what the planners are counting on. It’s always worth asking yourself it you’d prefer to fight ruthlessly back in righteous vengeance … or whether instead, you’d prefer to win.
Too many people choose option A. Keifer Sutherland and the screenwriters of ‘24’ have a ■■■■■■■ lot to answer for. Terrorism isn’t best addressed with massive retaliation and retribution against families and racial/religious profiling, and arrest without trial and torture etc etc. that’s what creates more terrorism. Terrorism is best treated as a grim and unpleasant but routine police matter. Deglamourise it and it loses its power.
Anyway, if you want to talk about what makes people afraid and how this threatens the Australian way of life, look up the stats on murders of women by their partners/exes/randoms who followed them home. From a pure numbers point of view, this sort of thing makes terrorism look like a relatively puny issue. But i suspect most people in this thread are guys, so they probably don’t think about it all that much…
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I’d personally be more worried about getting belted in the back of the head for no reason by some yobbo at night than be a victim of any other crime in Melbourne.
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I was rather hoping that the terrorist would have gone for him rather than Sisto.
For a couple of years I lived in London and commuted between Belfast, Dublin and London. It was during the Troubles. Yes, the constant bombings were devastating but you ended up, just going about your business. Yes, it got very (very) close a couple of times and I was scared. Maybe the old time Londoners that I spoke to made me believe that you just never let the terrorists win and give into the fear. I hold that opinion today. They also told me that it’s only the people at the fringes/extremities not the whole population that are the problem.
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Yeah, they are an unfortunate part of ‘life’, as you say.
But then you infer that someone maiming or killing others isn’t, likewise, an unwholesome part of ‘life’ - something that has been happening almost as long.
Two of those are via mother nature, recession is a collection of elements.
Terrorism like none of those 3. It is 100% man made based on something that doesnt exist
I wonder why they didn’t shoot him in the legs or use their much vaunted taser.
A shot from two meters direct into the chest is not going to have a living outcome.
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Centre of mass is a larger target and therefore easier to hit.
You’d be surprised how far bullets can ricochet if they miss going for a leg shot.
Can also remember this being brought up a decade ago after the cops shot that kid with a kitchen knife at a skatepark (Brunswick or Coburg maybe?)
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That doesn’t really address my point at all.
Which was - all those things are an unfortunate way of our life. Humans, in all our brilliance and monstrous capabilities, are a force of nature.
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I will never understand why ‘terrorism’ is given different media / community coverage to other types of illegal/accidental death. The relatives/friends of victims of domestic voilence, car ‘accidents’, any other murders or natural disasters must all feel the same sense of loss. All of these deaths may have been prevented but have not been, thus leaving grieving and wounded people behind.
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Because the Media love to spread fear. Sells more papers, get more watching and listening.
If they didn’t report it, we would all be in a happier place.
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Do you think its bigger than say Eurydice Dixon or Jill Meahger? I think the difference is that when innocent people are unsuspectingly killed by predators there is a sense that nobody is actually safe anywhere or at any time. Accidents are tragic of course but there is some level of acceptance that accidents are just that - accidental not deliberate.
Unless im reading it wrong, are you saying Dixon and Meahger were accidents?
EDIT: yes i did
Those cops were pretty darn impressive imo. Kept their composure, did everything they could and in the end finished it when they had to. All under massive pressure with a crowd filming it.
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There was a lot of media attention over these two murders. There is bugger-all attention paid to the many, many, many killings of women by men in the majority of cases where the woman happens to not have a public profile.
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You are reading it completely wrong. I’m saying that Dixon & Meagher were NOT accidents - they were deliberate attacks by predators hence why they like this attack will attract more media attention.
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I highlighted exactly why I believe both those murders gave the victims a public profile & drew more attention. I’m not & haven’t suggested the loss is any less significant to their families but I believe its fairly standard human nature to fear dangers we know we have absolutely no control over.
No I do not think it is bigger than what you mention, all unexpected deaths are equally tragic, road accidents are often caused by idiots bad driving, stats will show it is more likely to be in a road accident than an airplane crash, but reporting and the public all get alarmed about a plane crash, same could be said about recent shark attacks.
I suppose my main point is that to me all unexpected deaths are equally tragic but some seem to be betrayed as more ‘tragic’ than others.
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I think it is because thosd particular murders and acts of terrorism fall under the “that could have been me” and it makes us re-assess or be much more careful about what we do and where we go. Domestic violence is perpatrated by weak ■■■■■ who are married to their victim, the attacker is known to the victim.
But I agree, we seriously need do to more in regards to domestuc violence