Return Fire in Dallas

B)

Also, give the kids a break. They're too busy deciding whether they're hemi-demi-pan-sexual or not in a world where cis is an insult. And I'm pretty sure they didn't ask for that.

This is how people like Donald Trump get popular. “Oh you have a different opinion? It’s wrong!”
“Oh by the way, you’re also racist, sexist, farking anti-animalist, homophobe, anti-trans goon sexual.”
“Also you don’t believe all the ■■■■ that’s fed to you by media? You’re a tin-foil hat moron. You’re also crazy.”
Then someone such as Trump comes along, perhaps says thing that are actually much more extreme than what they believe, but they’re so sick of being called racist by social justice dickheads, that they SUPPORT him. At least someone like him allows them to feel ok about expressing an opinion. Obviously I’m not referring to outright silly genuinely racist beliefs here, but a frustrated population will elect people like this. They’re over it.
Off topic, but it’s relevant to your comment as these farksticks are my generation and it’s embarrassing.

Okay, I’ve obviously…well firstly offended you and secondly not expressed myself properly, so for both I apologise.
At no point did I mean to label you as anything. In this particular post I was trying to say that I understood the pressures that the latest generation has that others didn’t have to face. I guess it came across as mocking them for it?
In any case I agree with your post completely. The new left scare the crap out of me.

No no, I wasn’t having a go at you Wim. I was just referencing all these flogs who claim they’re all these stupid genders, then get offended when some poor moron on the street calls them “she” instead of “they” or “stupid ■■■■■■■”.
There’s a youtuber by the name of Blair White, who is a trans girl and cannot stand this stupidity. She’s made a number of videos for those interested.

No worries. I’ve been confused a lot in this thread.

Maybe he didn't think he needed to verbalise the opinion that murder is wrong.

When you want to quell a violent situation you condemn the violence and make it known to stop doing it when you are one of the leaders of the public situation. To not say anything indicates that you sympathise with the perpetrator of the violence. If the guy was just a joe blow who was there, then no he need not say anything but when you are the organiser of the event that lead to the death of 5 innocent people then you have a responsibility to condemn the violence.

Do you want to read the last half of your last sentence again?

Do you want to stop being obtuse?

I think it’s wrong enough to give you another shot at it.

It amazes me at how much of a wanker you can be at times Wim.

I’m trying to be nice.

No you’re not, you’re being deliberately abtuse.

I apologise for being unclear.
I think…‘but when you are the organiser of the event that lead to the death of 5 innocent people then you have a responsibility to condemn the violence.’ is a long way from reasonable.


It’s perfectly reasonable. It may not be his personal fault, but he does have the responsibility to condemn the violence.

And they have.
To break it down still further, it’s the ‘organiser of the event that lead to the death’ that I have a problem with.
That’s nuts. Unless you expect the same from the organizers of the Boston Marathon. But of course that would be nuts too.

This was one guy, not affiliated with BLM, who chose the event to target.

Geez do NOT get stopped by the police in the US, and if you do make sure you do everything exactly as they tell you. So far this year cops in the US have killed 509 people.

White 238
Black 123
Hispanic 79
other 23
unkown 46 (intrigued by the unknown bit)

484 male

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/police-shootings-2016/

Stats mean little without detail. Though I am not specifically labelling these stats as such, published ‘stats’ have caused more harm than good, in my opinion. Because they are almost never impartial. It takes a bit of work to get good data. Someone pays for it, somewhere, somehow. A few questions off the top that make a difference to both the stats, and the stat meaning and relevance:

How many were injured?
How many were armed at the time?
How many were holding a weapon at the time?
How many were actually stopped and questioned?
How many were shot in the course of committing a crime?
Of the above, how many were shot?
Re the above - breakdown race
What defines ‘white’, ‘black’ or other?
What is the breakdown of detained race?
Of the races shot, what is their representative demographic in the area - eg - if Hispanic, was it a largely Hispanic neighbourhood?
What were the repercussions of these shootings? Charges? Acquittals? Out of court settlements?

Maybe he didn't think he needed to verbalise the opinion that murder is wrong.

When you want to quell a violent situation you condemn the violence and make it known to stop doing it when you are one of the leaders of the public situation. To not say anything indicates that you sympathise with the perpetrator of the violence. If the guy was just a joe blow who was there, then no he need not say anything but when you are the organiser of the event that lead to the death of 5 innocent people then you have a responsibility to condemn the violence.

Do you want to read the last half of your last sentence again?

Do you want to stop being obtuse?

I think it’s wrong enough to give you another shot at it.

It amazes me at how much of a wanker you can be at times Wim.

I’m trying to be nice.

No you’re not, you’re being deliberately abtuse.

I apologise for being unclear.
I think…‘but when you are the organiser of the event that lead to the death of 5 innocent people then you have a responsibility to condemn the violence.’ is a long way from reasonable.


It’s perfectly reasonable. It may not be his personal fault, but he does have the responsibility to condemn the violence.

And they have.
To break it down still further, it’s the ‘organiser of the event that lead to the death’ that I have a problem with.
That’s nuts. Unless you expect the same from the organizers of the Boston Marathon. But of course that would be nuts too.

This was one guy, not affiliated with BLM, who chose the event to target.


The BLM have condemned the violence, but that reverend had the chance to do it live on tv, there and then and for some reason didn’t. He should have shouted his condemnation.

I don’t know what the Boston Marathon organisers did, but I would hope they would have condemned it too.

Agree to disagree perhaps.

Interesting how much the story can change from the original chaos. Early reports were three gunmen in a co-ordinated , triangulated attack. Now its a sole Afghanistan war veteran.

And seriously, how friggin lucky is that Mark Hughes bloke to be alive!!??? Openly takes an assault rifle to the demonstration and police are then killed with automatic rifle fire? Yeah nah, not a great career move.

Why waste bandwith on a country that's beyond help.

There’s 319 million of them and we still let you post.
Fark knows why.

I’ll let you and your cronies waste your precious time on this non-entity of a country - You can lead a horse to water …

Sometimes you’re worth clicking.
That has made my night.
Heh heh heh. Cronies.
Hey IT! You’re my crony!

Sometimes you're worth clicking. That has made my night. Heh heh heh. Cronies. Hey IT! You're my crony!

Awesome!

Sometimes you're worth clicking. That has made my night. Heh heh heh. Cronies. Hey IT! You're my crony!

Awesome!

You can have Hawaii. Probably more. I can’t commit too much because I don’t actually know how many cronies I have, or what the transaction of yaco leaving us the entire United States involves yet…but you can definitely have Hawaii.

There’s a lot of issues at play.

The shoot first, ask questions later attitude of those in the police force is one. Just seems like they are trigger happy.

Another is how the assassin had access to armour piercing bullets, which they found at his home. No-one stood a chance with those things flying about.

McCurry got caught doing a fair bit of photoshopping of late...

Indeed.

Not the thread - or probably even forum, lol - for it but “Caught” is an interesting term. I think most of the recent ‘scandal’ is a storm in a teacup concocted by people who seem to miss the point that buying wallprints immediately makes it art, not photojournalism.

Personally, i think the modern “cleaning up” of the Afghan Girl for mass sale erodes the original brilliance of the pic, but hey, its his photo to do with as he wishes.

The one i think is really ludicrous is some criticism for cloning out a power pole in a street shot of a cart. The ‘story’ was and still is the cart, he’s just uncluttered the background to his taste and in any event its clearly a wallhanger, a travel shot. Not a news doc pic.

Every photo asks you decide which part is “true”, and which isnt.

There's a lot of issues at play.

The shoot first, ask questions later attitude of those in the police force is one. Just seems like they are trigger happy.

Another is how the assassin had access to armour piercing bullets, which they found at his home. No-one stood a chance with those things flying about.

Police have rightly objected to the public access to armour piercing rounds for many years. Its insane. No wonder they are jumpy.

I tried to stay away from this thread as I knew it would make me feel even more depressed about the state of the US than I already do. Objective (mostly), un-biased opinions usually do that.

The problem is so deep-rooted, so un-addressed, so highly exploited that I can’t see it ever being solved. We live in a society segregated not just in where we live but how we think and act. And its not getting better - our politics and business makes sure of that. Add to that the irrationally high value we put on the self (as opposed to the collective), rampant egos, and lack of empathy. Now pour onto this fire the fuel of easy access to guns and military grade weapons.

Makes one want to curl up and cry.

As far as Dallas goes its just another example of how easy it is for un un-hinged and highly motivated person to destroy so many lives.

Why does everyone have to look at things like colour? ■■■■■■ me off no end. When I meet someone for the first time the last thing I consider is what freakin colour their skin is. Instead I focus on them as people and seek to get to know them. Colour has very little to do with it but this world is so freakin focused on labels that they dehumanse everyone.

Labels are what cause divisions so I wish people would stop it. Left, right, Muslim, Christian, so on and so forth. It immediately creates barriers and that should not be how it works.

Of course it does. But it will never stop. It is based on fear. People fear others who aren’t like them. Its a survival mechanism. You fear the stranger until you know you are safe.

I went to a party once and I was the only white person there. As I walked into the backyard, it was getting dark and there were about 60 or so people staring at me as if to say “you are at the wrong place”. I looked back trying to convey “no I’m at the right place.” I found the people I knew and everything was fine as I knew it would be.
However it was the first time ever in my life I really went close to beginning to understand what aboriginal people must go through every day of their lives. Being the only one of your race and feeling completely outnumbered.

Good point and I appreciate what you say Scorpio.

But I can up the ante: I spent the last 3 weeks in china and was outnumbered about 1 billion to one. And yet it was a fantastic experience. CJ has been living there for a long time too and I think would also agree

The difference is in the culture. We in the west (and especially right wing Americans) have a lot to learn. And change,

That’s an interesting point. And I hadn’t really thought about it. However thinking now I have never had that feeling when I have been in Asia, not threatened, nor out of place. Ever.
I have never had the feeling before that I had when I walked into that party. No one was threatening or anything like that. I just felt like I was naked.

Why does everyone have to look at things like colour? ■■■■■■ me off no end. When I meet someone for the first time the last thing I consider is what freakin colour their skin is. Instead I focus on them as people and seek to get to know them. Colour has very little to do with it but this world is so freakin focused on labels that they dehumanse everyone.

Labels are what cause divisions so I wish people would stop it. Left, right, Muslim, Christian, so on and so forth. It immediately creates barriers and that should not be how it works.

Of course it does. But it will never stop. It is based on fear. People fear others who aren’t like them. Its a survival mechanism. You fear the stranger until you know you are safe.

I went to a party once and I was the only white person there. As I walked into the backyard, it was getting dark and there were about 60 or so people staring at me as if to say “you are at the wrong place”. I looked back trying to convey “no I’m at the right place.” I found the people I knew and everything was fine as I knew it would be.
However it was the first time ever in my life I really went close to beginning to understand what aboriginal people must go through every day of their lives. Being the only one of your race and feeling completely outnumbered.

Good point and I appreciate what you say Scorpio.

But I can up the ante: I spent the last 3 weeks in china and was outnumbered about 1 billion to one. And yet it was a fantastic experience. CJ has been living there for a long time too and I think would also agree

The difference is in the culture. We in the west (and especially right wing Americans) have a lot to learn. And change,

That’s an interesting point. And I hadn’t really thought about it. However thinking now I have never had that feeling when I have been in Asia, not threatened, nor out of place. Ever.
I have never had the feeling before that I had when I walked into that party. No one was threatening or anything like that. I just felt like I was naked.

I don’t see that as ‘odd’, though.
The more unusual or unexpected a situation id, the more wary we naturally are. If the scenario reoccurs, then the wariness lessens accordingly and eventually, it becomes normal, usual, and comfortable.

We evolved by being careful. When things feel out of place, we are meant to be careful. That’s not being bigoted, but being true to our instincts. Assuming your skin is lighter, if the town you lived in was 90% dark skinned, then you probably would have not felt odd walking into a party where almost all the guests were dark skinned. And so on.

I walked into a party once where twenty or so people were wearing fark Carlton jumpers and the whole mob were singing “We are the Navy Blues”.

Fortunately it was the wrong house and wrong party… thank fark.
It was in fact some institution named ‘Bedlam’ that I’d walked into… I still sicked up in my mouth but.