The Student Room Group

Do attacks like Paris create a competition?

Looking through threads and facebook feeds, there seems to almost be a competition around the attacks in Paris, Nigeria and Lebanon.

Many are posting articles, and scrambling to declare the hypocrisy of everyone else in not talking about the Nigerian and Lebanese attacks, and complaining about people changing their profile picture.

This manifests almost as a backlash against the mourning of the deaths in Paris. But I have to ask, would these people be sharing and talking about the attacks in Nigeria and Lebanon if the attacks in Paris never happened?

This isn't the first time this happened.

Thoughts?
Reply 1
No, they wouldn't.

The geopolitical proximity of a tragedy determines the amount of media coverage, which then determines how much people care about it.

In other words, people only wake up to reality once it's right in front of them.

People pick up on this and begin to point fingers, expectedly. I don't see why they shouldn't, really. However, it does mean that some who suddenly recognise the hypocrisy then act as if they were knowledgable of other events taking place, when they very well might not have been.
(edited 8 years ago)
To be honest the only thing that's tempted me to make the fairly weak gesture of changing my facebook profile picture is people moaning about others doing it.

We feel more strongly about the attacks in Paris because the French are like us. They're a free and usually safe modern European democracy.

Frankly, no-one expects Lebanon or Nigeria to be safe. Nor can an attack on either of those countries be interpreted as an attack on Western civilisation, as the Paris attack certainly can be.

This is perfectly natural and logical, and not in the least bit hypocritical.
Reply 3
Original post by TimmonaPortella
To be honest the only thing that's tempted me to make the fairly weak gesture of changing my facebook profile picture is people moaning about others doing it.

We feel more strongly about the attacks in Paris because the French are like us. They're a free and usually safe modern European democracy.

Frankly, no-one expects Lebanon or Nigeria to be safe. Nor can an attack on either of those countries be interpreted as an attack on Western civilisation, as the Paris attack certainly can be.

This is perfectly natural and logical, and not in the least bit hypocritical.


In simple terms it's the difference between your next door neighbour of 30 years having a sudden heart attack and a guy three towns away that you once met at BBQ.
(edited 8 years ago)
The whole thing is completely ridiculous. People don't care about places like Nigeria and Lebanon and other third world places because if they did, they would be mourning some tragedy on Facebook every.single.day. It's only normal that Western people are more shaken by the Paris attack, seeing as this sort of this doesn't happen on our doorstep very often, and seeing as this is an attack on all of *Western* civilization and everyone knows it could've been their city so it just hits close to home. The whole ISIS thing, they attack one European city, they attack all of us. When people get murdered or bombed in some third world country that we know nothing about, nobody thinks 'this could have been me and my friends' or 'our country is next' ttherefore it is normal that we don't stay up crying about it. We can't cry about everything that goes on in the world every single day. We are all more concerned about what happens to us than what happens to people on the other side of the planet.
Original post by Howard
In simple terms it's the difference between your next door neighbour of 30 years having a sudden heart attack and a guy in three towns away that you once met at BBQ.


basically.

The people are trying to make this about 'u are racist u only care about white people being killed' are ****ing tools
Reply 6
Original post by driftawaay
basically.

The people are trying to make this about 'u are racist u only care about white people being killed' are ****ing tools


I agree with you. Complete tools.
Reply 7
Original post by Howard
In simple terms it's the difference between your next door neighbour of 30 years having a sudden heart attack and a guy three towns away that you once met at BBQ.


There's also "Wow, that could have been me" and "I could be next", which Brits don't really feel when something happens in Nigeria or Lebanon.
Reply 8
I don't particularly like this new phenomenon of using your profile picture to show solidarity. It feels off, like you're tainting a selfless act with a note of "look at me."
Original post by Kiytt
No, they wouldn't.

The geopolitical proximity of a tragedy determines the amount of media coverage, which then determines how much people care about it.

In other words, people only wake up to reality once it's right in front of them.

People pick up on this and begin to point fingers, expectedly. I don't see why they shouldn't, really. However, it does mean that some who suddenly recognise the hypocrisy then act as if they were knowledgable of other events taking place, when they very well might not have been.


I don't think it's geographical proximity; if this had happened in Australia it would have received just as much attention. I think it's more to do with it happening in a country with a sophisticated security system like ours


Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by Underscore__
I don't think it's geographical proximity; if this had happened in Australia it would have received just as much attention. I think it's more to do with it happening in a country with a sophisticated security system like ours


Posted from TSR Mobile


Cultural proximity, one might say.
Original post by miser
I don't particularly like this new phenomenon of using your profile picture to show solidarity. It feels off, like you're tainting a selfless act with a note of "look at me."


The word you're looking for slactavism.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slacktivism
Original post by Underscore__
I don't think it's geographical proximity; if this had happened in Australia it would have received just as much attention. I think it's more to do with it happening in a country with a sophisticated security system like ours


They said geopolitical.

Original post by Kiytt
People pick up on this and begin to point fingers, expectedly. I don't see why they shouldn't, really. However, it does mean that some who suddenly recognise the hypocrisy then act as if they were knowledgable of other events taking place, when they very well might not have been.

This is my thinking as well.

Original post by driftawaay
The whole thing is completely ridiculous. People don't care about places like Nigeria and Lebanon and other third world places because if they did, they would be mourning some tragedy on Facebook every.single.day. It's only normal that Western people are more shaken by the Paris attack, seeing as this sort of this doesn't happen on our doorstep very often, and seeing as this is an attack on all of *Western* civilization and everyone knows it could've been their city so it just hits close to home. The whole ISIS thing, they attack one European city, they attack all of us. When people get murdered or bombed in some third world country that we know nothing about, nobody thinks 'this could have been me and my friends' or 'our country is next' ttherefore it is normal that we don't stay up crying about it. We can't cry about everything that goes on in the world every single day. We are all more concerned about what happens to us than what happens to people on the other side of the planet.


This, I think, puts it perfectly. Very well said.
Reply 13
Original post by MatureStudent36
The word you're looking for slactavism.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slacktivism

Ah, I'm glad to find there's a word for it!
Original post by miser
Ah, I'm glad to find there's a word for it!


Oh yes. Pressure groups love them as politicians like to react to how many likes a fringe grouping can get.
It would be hypocritical if one started off with the base notion or statement that they care for any tragedy/people that suffer around the world equally. Frankly, people living in the west do not. It is very sad tbh, but when questioned most people would admit that they don't really care what happens in Nigeria and Lebanon, or care far less than if it happens in a Western country, for reasons of proximity and because of the 'us vs. them' mentality. The French are 'like us' as others have stated, they're much closer and we're much more desensitised to violence in the middle-east and indeed parts of Africa. Therefore, if one is willing to admit this right off the bat, then there is no contradiction. There is only a sad state of affairs all round.
(edited 8 years ago)
The reality is most people don't care about the fact that people were killed in Paris.

Their main priority is to use it as ammunition for whatever their usual argument is against a particular group, Muslims, lefties etc.

It's a bit like when there is a bit of crowd trouble at a football match, you get football forums full of people saying that the club they don't like are "scum fans", should be banned, blah blah, these are just trigger points.

Also all this calling for Muslims to condemn the attacks etc - there was support on this forum for the likes of Anders Brevik and Elliot Rodger by people who generally share their views saying Brevik was driven to do it by mass immigration; Elliot Rodger was driven to it because feminism has gone too far etc.
Original post by MagicNMedicine
The reality is most people don't care about the fact that people were killed in Paris.

Their main priority is to use it as ammunition for whatever their usual argument is against a particular group, Muslims, lefties etc.

It's a bit like when there is a bit of crowd trouble at a football match, you get football forums full of people saying that the club they don't like are "scum fans", should be banned, blah blah, these are just trigger points.

Also all this calling for Muslims to condemn the attacks etc - there was support on this forum for the likes of Anders Brevik and Elliot Rodger by people who generally share their views saying Brevik was driven to do it by mass immigration; Elliot Rodger was driven to it because feminism has gone too far etc.


B o l l o c k s. The truth clearly hurts. Most people care very much. The minority are either racists or terrorists.

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