Dumb/Great Facebook Status {merge} [No Names] - Part II

PTH2009 wrote: »

So everyone's profile background is the French flag now.

Somebody somewhere will make this attacks about them to get attention 'well at least my family are safe here in Ireland ' etc

As someone who did do that, I think it's a nice thing to do. I love Paris, I have French relatives, I couldn't believe what I saw last night... I suppose that's me making it all about myself :rolleyes:

Could you imagine that happening in Dublin and you'd French people snarking about people making a tiny gesture on social media? Get over it, I don't remember such shock at a terrorist atrocity since 9/11, and if people want to do something small to show their support for a country that's always been a friend to us, what harm.

It'll all be back to normal next week until the next massacre happens.

"How did people no what roads to take before Google Maps was invented???"

Not really stupid, but I did have to step away from the Facebook today with all the French flags flying every way.

It was terrible attack. But it was quite small and stuff like this does happen quite frequently around the world. Not perpetrated by the same people everywhere, but innocent civilians being murdered for little reason.

It's terribly selective. The country is Western, the city is beautiful. This all makes it worse apparently.

I know many people will disagree with me here, but that's how I feel about it!

Tarzana2 wrote: »

Not really stupid, but I did have to step away from the Facebook today with all the French flags flying every way.

It was terrible attack. But it was quite small and stuff like this does happen quite frequently around the world. Not perpetrated by the same people everywhere, but innocent civilians being murdered for little reason.

It's terribly selective. The country is Western, the city is beautiful. This all makes it worse apparently.

I know many people will disagree with me here, but that's how I feel about it!

That's fair enough, it can be a tad overbearing at times. On the flipside, it never ceases to amaze me the amount of experts on Middle Eastern death toll that come out of the woodwork after tragedies like this. '120 people were killed at a hootenanny in Turkmenistan but nobody seems to care about them because they've brown skin. Just saying. ' The fact is they didn't care about them either until they were a handy statistic to prove how much more socially aware they are than their Facebook friends.

Gererreh Tona wrote: »

I don't disagree with you. It's nothing more than attention seeking through faux sympathy.

I've observed similar with the ice bucket challenge, overnight everyone became super-concerned about motor neurone disease and had to raise as much money as possible for the cause. I would be shocked if even 1% of the people who participated in the ice bucket challenge have donated to a MND charity this year. Why? Because it was nothing more than a flash in the pan attention grab from insecure individuals disguised as sympathy for MND sufferers.

This article may interest you. http://time.com/money/4000583/ice-bucket-challenge-money-donations/

"Even if most donors don’t know what the letters “ALS” stand for or anything about the illness, it’s hard to look a $115 million gift horse in the mouth."

kunst nugget wrote: »

That's fair enough, it can be a tad overbearing at times. On the flipside, it never ceases to amaze me the amount of experts on Middle Eastern death toll that come out of the woodwork after tragedies like this. '120 people were killed at a hootenanny in Turkmenistan but nobody seems to care about them because they've brown skin. Just saying. ' The fact is they didn't care about them either until they were a handy statistic to prove how much more socially aware they are than their Facebook friends.

But the point is many people, me included, aren't experts on the Middle East or other areas of the world where there is conflict... but we aren't the ones putting up French flags and we at least acknowledge that the unrest that is happening elsewhere is no less important, even if we don't know the ins and outs. It's because we realise that we don't know enough about the situation to jump that ol' bandwagon.

A lot of people putting up those stupid flag profile pictures are as uneducated but likely also have a clue that innocent civilians die in horrible ways all around the world every few days.

And if someone is highly educated on world politics and puts up a French flag profile pic, WTF is that about?

Tarzana2 wrote: »

But the point is many people, me included, aren't experts on the Middle East or other areas of the world where there is conflict... but we aren't the ones putting up French flags and we at least acknowledge that the unrest that is happening elsewhere is no less important, even if we don't know the ins and outs. It's because we realise that we don't know enough about the situation to jump that ol' bandwagon.

A lot of people putting up those stupid flag profile pictures are as uneducated but likely also have a clue that innocent civilians die in horrible ways all around the world every few days.

And if someone is highly educated on world politics and puts up a French flag profile pic, WTF is that about?

I wasn't attacking you about it, just pointing out what some people are prone to doing. This article illustrates it perfectly:

https://medium.com/@martinbelam/you-won-t-read-about-this-in-the-media-but-b275d46fd51f

I was one of those people that put up a stupid flag profile picture, hands up. I debated about doing it for a couple of hours but said feck it in the end. I got engaged to my wife in Paris and it holds a special place in our hearts and the slaughter of young people at the concert I found very shocking.

Is it worse than what happens in the Middle East? Definitely not. Is putting up a French flag profile some how saying that white European lives more important than brown Middle Eastern lives? I don't think so. Sure some people will hold that viewpoint but I think an attack on a city like Paris, that many of us have visited, and that was basically an attack on western ideals is going to resonate more with many of us on this side of the world. There's always going to be a certain amount of parochialism that means things that are closer to us are going to have more impact.

Toto Wolfcastle wrote: »

Today FM posted on FB that they'll no observing a minutes silence at 11 and the only 3 comments on the post are 'what about the thing that happened in that other country' type of replies. Fcuk off, it's a nice gesture.

And last week I bet they didn't even know that other country existed.