Why is the US so paranoid?

RandomName2

A few days ago an autistic 9 year old was charged with a felony for writing "bone thrat" on a bathroom wall in his school. He had meant "bomb threat" - and the elementary school were so hypersensitive to possible bombings that they actually not only understood this but immediately evacuated the school and called the police. Consequently the boy was charged with terrorism.

While the Upton Sherif seems to have been keen to make an example of the boy, the felony was thankfully reduced to a "note of apology" by the Upton county court due to the parents going public on the matter. You know what's funny? The boy had gotten the idea by seeing another school having an evacuation due to another bomb threat a week before.

How many bombings have there been in the US since.. I dunno.. 1970?

About 22, in total.

So about as many as have happened in one day in Northern Ireland (e.g. Bloody Friday).

What do you think would happen if someone wrote "bone thrat" in a lavatory in Belfast? Mass evacuation? Panic? Hysteria?

Why is the US so damn paranoid?

Desolation Of Smug

Because of the clever. It's also why they are so slim and hate guns. Brains to burn.

Hermy

RandomName2 wrote: »

Why is the US so damn paranoid?

Much easier to control the masses through fear I suppose.
Back in the day it was the commies - now it's muslims.
Tomorrow they'll think of something else.
But they seem to be in no hurry to stop fighting.

kneemos

God damn Ruskies.

Seriously,cold war,drills for nuclear war,bunkers and sith.

SEPT 23 1989

poor kid

Boring username

A brief search reveals a slightly more realistic figure of 2,381 terror related incidents in the U.S.A. between 1970 and 2013. Figures courtesy of the global terrorism database:

http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/search/Results.aspx?start_yearonly=1970&end_yearonly=2013&start_year=&start_month=&start_day=&end_year=&end_month=&end_day=&country=217&asmSelect1=&dtp2=all&success=yes&casualties_type=b&casualties_max=

Kermit.de.frog

They are paranoid because they are the target for everyone for the crime of being the most powerful country in the world.

c_man

Why is the US so paranoid?

They smoke too much.

Or not enough.

kneemos

Responding to graffiti on a toilet wall is beyond paranoid,probably hysterical or something.

Hermy

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

They are paranoid because they are the target for everyone for the crime of being the most powerful country in the world.

Perhaps more to do with abuse of power rather than simply power alone.

Sheep Lover

They have them damn Mehecans at the border with their tequila and sombreros and hot women.

Fcuk it, why can't we have a border with Meheeco

Timberrrrrrrr

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

They are paranoid because they are the target for everyone for the crime of being the most powerful country in the world.

Did you wave the stars and stripes and have a bald eagle on you shoulder as you hit the submit button?

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Money.

No one buys weapons or signs defense threaties when theres nothing to be scared of.

Yamanoto

RandomName2 wrote: »

What do you think would happen if someone wrote "bone thrat" in a lavatory in Belfast?

It'd be construed as a romantic overture in Ulster-Scots, the language of love.

Antar Bolaeisk

Think they're bad at home, you should see them abroad, you'd swear the entire world was out to kidnap them.

The_Valeyard

Sheep Lover wrote: »

They have them damn Mehecans at the border with their tequila and sombreros and hot women.

Fcuk it, why can't we have a border with Meheeco

1) Geography, continental drift.

2) If Mexico and Ireland were next to each other, no work would get done, be all out relaxing and drinking cocktails!

My name is URL

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

They are paranoid because they are the target for everyone for the crime of being the most powerful country in the world.

Aye... all those 7 year old kids scrawling words on walls and making gun shapes out of poptarts are real threats to the world's most powerful country :rolleyes:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/boy-suspended-for-chewing-breakfast-pastry-into-a-gun-shape-will-get-hearing/2013/09/13/8326c878-1bf6-11e3-8685-5021e0c41964_story.html

It's no wonder 10% of all kids are medicated in the US with dip****s like that in charge

anncoates

Desolation Of Smug wrote: »

Because of the clever. It's also why they are so slim and hate guns. Brains to burn.

Thank God we live in Ireland, which is teeming with slim, compassionate intellectuals.

chopperbyrne

I'd be more worried if the school wasn't evacuated after the hint of a bomb threat.

Tugboats

I wonder in there an American based message board that talks about Ireland all day? Do we latch onto them and talk about them everyday to pretend that we are relevant? Strange behaviour whatever the reasons....

NotCominBack

Could he not just say bone thrat was his favourite rapper?

seenitall

If I lived in the US, I'd be paranoid too.

cnocbui

chopperbyrne wrote: »

I'd be more worried if the school wasn't evacuated after the hint of a bomb threat.

I know a country where you would fit right in.

If you really want an idea of how Paranoid the US is, write down a list of every armed organisation they have. The same list could also be used to explain why their national debt is so immense.

Kelly06

Just because your paranoid doesn't mean they aren't all out to get you!

Cienciano

Boring username wrote: »

A brief search reveals a slightly more realistic figure of 2,381 terror related incidents in the U.S.A. between 1970 and 2013. Figures courtesy of the global terrorism database:

http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/search/Results.aspx?start_yearonly=1970&end_yearonly=2013&start_year=&start_month=&start_day=&end_year=&end_month=&end_day=&country=217&asmSelect1=&dtp2=all&success=yes&casualties_type=b&casualties_max=

Considering the kid in the op was charged with terrorism, I wouldn't take all those incidents too serious

Desolation Of Smug

anncoates wrote: »

Thank God we live in Ireland, which is teeming with slim, compassionate intellectuals.

My bit of it is. There's one or two next door. They don't talk to my sort though.

shruikan2553

Cienciano wrote: »

Considering the kid in the op was charged with terrorism, I wouldn't take all those incidents too serious

Probably a beach bar in Hawaii called Aloha Snackbar on the list.

AllGunsBlazing

They should make him cover the entire wall with the same slogan - but this time with proper spelling. Like in 'Life of Brian'.

Egginacup

Tugboats wrote: »

I wonder in there an American based message board that talks about Ireland all day? Do we latch onto them and talk about them everyday to pretend that we are relevant? Strange behaviour whatever the reasons....

Nah, they wouldn't even know or care where other places are.
Only Americans who take daddy's credit card and "do" Europe are punching back and still they get employed despite saying "I COULD care less" or some other such genius.

RobYourBuilder

Tugboats wrote: »

I wonder in there an American based message board that talks about Ireland all day? Do we latch onto them and talk about them everyday to pretend that we are relevant? Strange behaviour whatever the reasons....

Check out IrishCentral or any other Irish American themed forum.

RobYourBuilder

The Ukranian army are now 'pro American troops' according to CNN. The majority of them are incapible of looking at the rest of the world without looking at it through an American prism.

http://i.imgur.com/jdEdngn.png

bb1234567

RandomName2 wrote: »

A few days ago an autistic 9 year old was charged with a felony for writing "bone thrat" on a bathroom wall in his school. He had meant "bomb threat" - and the elementary school were so hypersensitive to possible bombings that they actually not only understood this but immediately evacuated the school and called the police. Consequently the boy was charged with terrorism.

While the Upton Sherif seems to have been keen to make an example of the boy, the felony was thankfully reduced to a "note of apology" by the Upton county court due to the parents going public on the matter. You know what's funny? The boy had gotten the idea by seeing another school having an evacuation due to another bomb threat a week before.

How many bombings have there been in the US since.. I dunno.. 1970?

About 22, in total.

So about as many as have happened in one day in Northern Ireland (e.g. Bloody Friday).

What do you think would happen if someone wrote "bone thrat" in a lavatory in Belfast? Mass evacuation? Panic? Hysteria?

Why is the US so damn paranoid?

Schools massacres seem to be much more common there than elsewhere in the world, for whatever reason. I think they did the right thing, if they didn't evacuate and 100 kids ended up dead you'd be posting about how stupid and incompetent the staff were despite the warnings.

kneemos

bb1234567 wrote: »

Schools massacres seem to be much more common there than elsewhere in the world, for whatever reason. I think they did the right thing, if they didn't evacuate and 100 kids ended up dead you'd be posting about how stupid and incompetent the staff were despite the warnings.

Surprised they even managed to get bomb threat out of "bone thrat".
If you intended to make a bomb threat would you write bone thrat on a toilet wall in presumably a childs handwriting?

glassdaisies

Hey now, we're not all bad (and ethnocentric and entitled..). But it's the ones that make the news that are the awful and crazy ones that even us fairly normal Americans don't like. Schools over here have to do stupid crap like that because of the potential for lawsuits. Everyone is sue happy, it's insane. And the one time they DIDN'T take even a ridiculous threat like that seriously, would be the time that it was an actual emergency.

But yeah, even though that story is really stupid, it's really hard NOT to be paranoid sometimes, being from NY state and knowing so many people who were covered in ash and who watched those twin towers fall with their own two eyes. It was terrifying.

But at least we can get all the divorces and abortions that we want...?

kneemos

glassdaisies wrote: »

Hey now, we're not all bad (and ethnocentric and entitled..). But it's the ones that make the news that are the awful and crazy ones that even us fairly normal Americans don't like. Schools over here have to do stupid crap like that because of the potential for lawsuits. Everyone is sue happy, it's insane. And the one time they DIDN'T take even a ridiculous threat like that seriously, would be the time that it was an actual emergency.

But yeah, even though that story is really stupid, it's really hard NOT to be paranoid sometimes, being from NY state and knowing so many people who were covered in ash and who watched those twin towers fall with their own two eyes. It was terrifying.

But at least we can get all the divorces and abortions that we want...?

Oh no you didnt.

Renegade Mechanic

Why are Americans so paranoid. Have ye seen American news/media? It genuinely beggars belief. Even our drooling Jersey Shore and Big Brother fanatics would call shenanigans at the pure tripe they get away with sensationalising!

CrazyRabbit

Boring username wrote: »

A brief search reveals a slightly more realistic figure of 2,381 terror related incidents in the U.S.A. between 1970 and 2013. Figures courtesy of the global terrorism database:

http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/search/Results.aspx?start_yearonly=1970&end_yearonly=2013&start_year=&start_month=&start_day=&end_year=&end_month=&end_day=&country=217&asmSelect1=&dtp2=all&success=yes&casualties_type=b&casualties_max=

But how many of them are for kids writing harmless threats on bathroom walls?

chopperbyrne wrote: »

I'd be more worried if the school wasn't evacuated after the hint of a bomb threat.

Congratulations on responding exactly the way terrorists hoped you would.

RandomName2 wrote: »

Why is the US so damn paranoid?

Because the American government has been interfering in the internal affairs of other countries for decades and have caused untold misery and death affecting millions. Only in recent years has this started to come back and bite them in the ass. So now, they have every right to be paranoid as there are so many genuinely out to 'get them'. But it's their own fault. (Note: I'm not excusing terrorism or attacks on civilians.)

Just a little Samba

Reason American public are kept in state of paranoia:

It justifies military spending. Very powerful people make billions of dollars per year for their arms manufacturing companies by continuing to control American budgetary spending. A new war every 5-15 years to pump out more guns, billions of dollars of "aid" to Israel, Egypt, etc in the form of jets, tanks, small arms and ordinance, "redevelopment" contracts for their friends.

If people are constantly paranoid about war coming, they aren't as surprised when their country goes to war, for whatever reason, and are less likely to realise that the reason their education system is in the toilet, their healthcare system is excluding over 30% of them from receiving even basic medical care and up to 25% of the population live in poverty is because they spend more money on their military year on year than the next 5 countries combined.

Can afford to occupy a country you have no business being in, to finance 60 year illegal occupation of Palestine and the Golan, to bankroll Middle-eastern dictators but can't afford to fund a school system or drinking water for 40% of Detroit.

MURICA!


tl;dr, war is big business, too many people in the arms industry have influence in US politics and US media, keeping people sacared justifies "defence" spending.

MRnotlob606

I like my women like my politics , a little of Bush as possible.

circadian

Because news looks like this



Although Sky had "Terror Alert" flashing in red a few weeks back. No explanation.

I've seen Fox News light up like the Blackpool Illuminations a few times, it's like having 10 alarm clocks with sirens.

If this is your main source of information then you're doomed.

RandomName2

bb1234567 wrote: »

Schools massacres seem to be much more common there than elsewhere in the world, for whatever reason. I think they did the right thing, if they didn't evacuate and 100 kids ended up dead you'd be posting about how stupid and incompetent the staff were despite the warnings.

graffiti saying "thrat" isn't actually a threat. Even if a phone call was rung into the local police station and some kid said "elementary X has a bomb threat" with no further details, I wouldn't take it terribly seriously.

What would they do if the word nitroglycerin was written on the wall of some suburb? Evacuation of the town and a door-to-door inquiry looking for the substance - and an FBI investigation into who may have written the graffiti when it turns out there is no explosive to be found?

If the mayor of New York went on the television in a news report saying
"CITIZENS! We have become aware that there may be cars in your local neighborhoods, highways, and streets! Do not approach these under any circumstances as they have been responsible for many scores of deaths! The military has been informed and will dispose of these dangerous vehicles without delay" We would call him insane; even though cars in the US last year have been responsible for over 30,000 deaths - which if you took every terrorist incident and every mass shooting in the US over the last century and combined them wouldn't be close to matching.

RandomName2

CrazyRabbit wrote: »

Congratulations on responding exactly the way terrorists hoped you would.

Being in a constant state of terror? Snap

Dravokivich

Been over a couple of times. I've met people that were rather laid back and understood that any threat which was followed through was an extreme situation and nothing they took to be normal or expected. Then again I also saw a few people who's very existence felt as they anticipated more and greater acts of terror to occur. I saw a woman who was talking to a bar man in a hotel I was staying in, about how she felt that it was reassuring her flight was delayed due to a maintenance issue because a terrorist might have done something with it otherwise.

I really don't think it's particularly unique to the USA though. Anywhere there's a hint of conflict you'd have people with that overly bias idea that it's not a matter of if, but when something will happen. We just see more of it from their perspective due to the accessibility of their media, with it also being a common theme in movies and tv shows produced there.

Muahahaha

Just a little Samba wrote: »

Reason American public are kept in state of paranoia:

It justifies military spending. Very powerful people make billions of dollars per year for their arms manufacturing companies by continuing to control American budgetary spending. A new war every 5-15 years to pump out more guns, billions of dollars of "aid" to Israel, Egypt, etc in the form of jets, tanks, small arms and ordinance, "redevelopment" contracts for their friends.

If people are constantly paranoid about war coming, they aren't as surprised when their country goes to war, for whatever reason, and are less likely to realise that the reason their education system is in the toilet, their healthcare system is excluding over 30% of them from receiving even basic medical care and up to 25% of the population live in poverty is because they spend more money on their military year on year than the next 5 countries combined.

Can afford to occupy a country you have no business being in, to finance 60 year illegal occupation of Palestine and the Golan, to bankroll Middle-eastern dictators but can't afford to fund a school system or drinking water for 40% of Detroit.

MURICA!


tl;dr, war is big business, too many people in the arms industry have influence in US politics and US media, keeping people sacared justifies "defence" spending.

This.

I think also the military industrial complex explains the US's paranoia quite well, namely because there are vast profits to be made in the arms industry and the US has been arming the world to the teeth for years to the extent now that their economy is disproportionally dependent on making profits from weapons manufacturing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military%E2%80%93industrial_complex

AFAIK Britain also suffers from the military industrial complex but to a lesser extent than the US. Still Britain has approx 400,000 people who work for arms manufacturers (mainly in the south of England). When 400,000 people are employed making arms the arms industry themselves are incentivised to ensuring that the weapons get used at some stage or other so they can go make more weapons, after all 400,000 jobs depend on it etc, etc.

Grayson

Sheep Lover wrote: »

They have them damn Mehecans at the border with their tequila and sombreros and hot women.

Fcuk it, why can't we have a border with Meheeco

We have a border with Armagh. isn't that enough for you?

Grayson

RobYourBuilder wrote: »

The Ukranian army are now 'pro American troops' according to CNN. The majority of them are incapible of looking at the rest of the world without looking at it through an American prism.

http://i.imgur.com/jdEdngn.png

Now that's messed up. I think the only people who think that are americans and russians.

Dravokivich

Grayson wrote: »

We have a border with Armagh. isn't that enough for you?

heh that reminds me, in school an American kid asked where Cavan was, told him up north, just south of the border. Confused the bejasus out of him. :pac:

Boring username

Cienciano wrote: »

Considering the kid in the op was charged with terrorism, I wouldn't take all those incidents too serious

The GTD doesn't collect data on incidents that are judged to be hoaxes or non threats i.e. there has to be a demonstrated genuine threat.

Capt'n Midnight

Recent stats show that toddlers kill more people than terrorists in the US.


Terrorism is a part of FUD, Fear Uncertainty Doubt.

Create a climate of fear and people will sacrifice freedom on the altar of security.

US death stats 2013.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm
Total Number of deaths: 2,596,993
Intentional self-harm (suicide): 41,149
Motor vehicle traffic deaths Number of deaths: 33,804

Anyone got stats for terrorist deaths in the US ?
Here's a clue - you are more likely to be killed by a toddler.

Wibbs

I reckon it goes very deep and the recent stuff is well... pretty recent, but the background is there. When they kicked the British out, they became proud of their independence(rightfully) and various skirmishes with the Spanish and Native folks as they forged a country increased this. The "circle the wagons, we're under attack" became the order of the day for a peoples forging a new nation.

They also got a whole host of religious outcasts from Europe looking for a new world but with the paranoia of the old country coming along for the ride. They also saw dissent, the "other" from within, from African ex slaves, to the Irish, the Italians, the Jews, the Mexicans, the huddled masses that may in time become "us". And when they do become "us" they still identify with their non "us" origins. I'm "german/irish/jewish/italian/swedish/mexican/other[delete as applicable] American/ All of this made the culture overall quite oddly independent, insular, inward looking, while looking at the outside with a gimlet eye from the local to the national and because of the sheer size and variety of climate and peoples they could. Ireland is small, far more a mono culture, we have to look outwards, the US is enormous, they don't.

That independent streak is why I reckon neither communism, nor fascism ever took a wider hold. Not because of the inherent wisdom of the culture, after all Germany was and is a giant of world culture, but more that those isms are "unAmerican", centralised, dependent and pervasive. One size couldn't fit all. Their culture's fascination with firearms, bewildering to most of the world is also down to this independence vibe. Add in the lowest common denominator media which is getting worse, an increasingly downgraded first and second level educational system(and third level isn't immune of late either) and it's the perfect setup for viewing the world through exclusively American eyes and yep paranoia comes in on the heels of that. Add in the idea that the American dream(tm) is the best way, an idea that many in other cultures buy into, or abhor in near equal measure and you can see why circle the wagons comes back in

Look at the flic Pulp Fiction. Where the two dudes are discussing one guys sojourn in Europe. The entire (v nicely written) scene is a conversation about how others do "America" differently. That scene in an unintended sense* sums up a lot of this aspect of American culture. "it's the little differences" Royale with cheese.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Pkq_eBHXJ4

And pretty much every top end civilisation came to the same table on this score, with America it's more pronounced for historical and cultural reasons and their media and the viewpoint of the rest of the world feeds into it.




*and I fully believe it was at the time. Tarentino had come off the back of a mini world tour because of his breakthrough film and that sense of the same, but other came through. No doubt he subsequently sees it as insight on his part, but yep I believe you, thousands wouldn't.

Bongalongherb

Possibly from normalising the introduction of pharmaceutical drugs to a young mind for a generation.

Wait till ye see the next generation of Pharma drug-addicts in high places. I just got an itch there, it must be itchassemblism there must be a drug for that, will it make me paranoid ? it sure will. Will it make me invade another country and kill everyone ? it sure will, but with added paranoia if I take a few more.

Speaking of paranoia. Ireland is very closely assimilating itself into paranoid nut-cases just as much. Or over-the-top politically-correct insane idiots.