Terror For The Holidays?
reasa
Join Date: 2002-11-10 Member: 8010Members, Constellation
Join Date: 2002-11-10 Member: 8010Members, Constellation
in Discussions
<a href='http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3775771/' target='_blank'>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3775771/</a>
I know allot of people take these "alerts" in stride, but this looks a bit more serious, and I have that bad feeling in the pit of my stomic about it.
Any thoughts?
I know allot of people take these "alerts" in stride, but this looks a bit more serious, and I have that bad feeling in the pit of my stomic about it.
Any thoughts?
Comments
I have a feeling we'll have some peaceful holidays <!--emo&::skulk::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/skulk.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='skulk.gif'><!--endemo-->
MOVE TO CANADA!
[/subliminal messaging]
Waiting for terror to strike a blow...
Where we all listen
To Ridge's position
While Bush spins this like a pro.
<!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo-->
Like normal people? Dunno about you, but whenever I hear the crisis terrorism threat level thingy has been raised I just grin and laugh. Honestly, what good does it do but strike fear into people? How many times can the government raise and lower the level before people stop caring? "<i>Indicators 'perhaps greater now than at any point' since 9/11</i>" is a lot like the reasoning behind the last raise, hmpf.
Honestly, try taking these warnings less seriously as there is nothing you can really do about them. Ducktape and aluminum siding will save neither us nor the soldiers we have acting as police in Iraq. If you ask me, they're using this warning system as a way to say "Oops, we told you it was going to happen!" in case something ever does happen again rather than have people come back and say that the government knew about it and did nothing. This way it just looks like they're trying.
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I know allot of people take these "alerts" in stride, but this looks a bit more serious, and I have that bad feeling in the pit of my stomic about it.
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Reasa, this is going to sound odd, but I have a strange feeling as well. When I woke up this morning and checked my local news site and saw this, I had a foreboding sensation that this one might be real. Don't know why really, I've been trying to convince myself that it's just the same as the hojillion other warnings that have been issued, but it's not quite working. *shrug* If it is real, then there's nothing we can do to stop it, and if it isn't it must have been that triple fried egg and chutney sandwich I had last night <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
Like normal people? Dunno about you, but whenever I hear the crisis terrorism threat level thingy has been raised I just grin and laugh. Honestly, what good does it do but strike fear into people? How many times can the government raise and lower the level before people stop caring? "<i>Indicators 'perhaps greater now than at any point' since 9/11</i>" is a lot like the reasoning behind the last raise, hmpf.
Honestly, try taking these warnings less seriously as there is nothing you can really do about them. Ducktape and aluminum siding will save neither us nor the soldiers we have acting as police in Iraq. If you ask me, they're using this warning system as a way to say "Oops, we told you it was going to happen!" in case something ever does happen again rather than have people come back and say that the government knew about it and did nothing. This way it just looks like they're trying. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Thats what I'm sick of...that the media has found a way to exploit people on such a fundamental level to sell commercials, and our government plays right into it. Ryo makes a good point about saving thier **** from lawsuits tho.
What good would a flashing orange sign do if a bomb fell on your head anyway? Poeple would be "prepared" to clean up the mess? They dont make me worry personaly, but they do make alot of people worry. Its like some kind of "fear conditioning" system training us to fear everything, when weve got nothing more to fear than we did 5 years ago. Scince its been in place, it always goes up around the holidays.
*EDIT* The swear filter diddnt catch a profanity. I've fixed that.
Like normal people? Dunno about you, but whenever I hear the crisis terrorism threat level thingy has been raised I just grin and laugh. Honestly, what good does it do but strike fear into people? How many times can the government raise and lower the level before people stop caring? "<i>Indicators 'perhaps greater now than at any point' since 9/11</i>" is a lot like the reasoning behind the last raise, hmpf.
Honestly, try taking these warnings less seriously as there is nothing you can really do about them. Ducktape and aluminum siding will save neither us nor the soldiers we have acting as police in Iraq. If you ask me, they're using this warning system as a way to say "Oops, we told you it was going to happen!" in case something ever does happen again rather than have people come back and say that the government knew about it and did nothing. This way it just looks like they're trying. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Thats what I'm sick of...that the media has found a way to exploit people on such a fundamental level to sell commercials, and our government plays right into it. Ryo makes a good point about saving thier **** from lawsuits tho.
What good would a flashing orange sign do if a bomb fell on your head anyway? Poeple would be "prepared" to clean up the mess? They dont make me worry personaly, but they do make alot of people worry. Its like some kind of "fear conditioning" system training us to fear everything, when weve got nothing more to fear than we did 5 years ago. Scince its been in place, it always goes up around the holidays.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Exactly. It does far more harm than it does good, as well as showing the terrorists that we truly are living in terror, or at least make it look like that. However, we should still be slightly cautious. We can't completely become delusional to the possibilty of another terrorist threat. The thing is, though, there's nothing <i>we</i> can do to stop them. We can only hope that maybe this time the government can do its job a little bit better.
I'm thinking this latest raising has less to do with the holidays and more with Bush trying to playdown the Patriot II act that he signed earlier this week.
Theres your freedom. Triggered as the government sees fit. These terror alerts are just a switch to increase public support. Blind people.
Its hard to describe, I wasn't ever directly affected by the IRA, or any of the other flavours of Republicanism, and what I observed as an outsider was the each attack provoked tuts of dismay, and the usual disgust, but then you get on with the rest of your life.
Anything else, and you're either a) letting the terrorists achieve their aims, or b) going to get directly involved, campaigning, or signing up.
Maybe its not settled in your national conscious yet that you're under threat. Think back to McVeigh and Oaklahoma, though. IIRC your press was suggesting that right-wing militias were on the verge of massive terror campaigns. Did it affect you? Then, possibly. Now, I doubt you've thought about it in months.....
Besides, what if we get attacked when the "threat" is low? How does this alert level change anything? Weve always been living with imminent danger looming on the horizon. As shocking as 9-11 was, you'd have to have pretty niave to actually beleive it never could have happened until it did. Weve always been the target of terrorism at home and abroad. The sheer scale, planning and coordination of 9-11 was more than anyone imaginied I think, and is only a result of underestimating our enemy, not a lack of intelligence on thier plans. If anything, were a bit safer now, because though the threats are the same as before, we wont dare underestimate another enemy again.
I'm also not sure even half our population thought a terrorist attack on our soil would ever happen after Pearl Habor. Hell, I don't even think people knew how much people hated us throughout the world, as they surely know now. We've probably tripled the amount of hatred by going in Iraq, which is far worse than what we would have faced by not going in there.
And we are still underestimating our enemies. Kim Jong Il has publicly said he has nukes and would be willing to fire them on the west coast of the USA. But there we pratically chose to leave him alone and assume he's crazy. Meanwhile, we were planning a full on military strike on Iraq for a <i>possiblity</i> of any sort of illegeal weapons. What have we found? Ground to ground missiles that fire a few feet too much. Mmmm.
I watched a relevant program over the weekend. In Hawaii, they installed a tsunami alert system back in the 60s to prevent human catastrophes following undersea earthquakes somewhere in the Pacific "rim of fire." Any time an earthquake happened (and there were a lot, just varying magnitudes) they would sound the alarm, indicating one would be coming within X hours. Many times the supposed tsunami would be no more than a foot high. The locals soon got tired of the constant alerts with no real threat, and the "cry wolf" syndrome took over. Then one day it happened... another alert except the locals this time decided they would all gather at the ocean front and watch this latest one come in, figuring it'd be like all the others... small and harmless. Maybe a few feet at best. Except this time it wasn't, it was the real deal, and hundreds of people lost their lives. The alarm did it's job, but no one paid it any attention.
The same thing is happening here. There isn't anything people do differently when the "terror alert" is raised. It's a stupid, pointless system. The objective is to instill fear and uncertainty, nothing more. The more afraid you are, the less objective and rational you are. You are more willing to sacrifice your civil liberties and are more willing to buy into what the military is doing if you remain scared and afraid.
I watched a relevant program over the weekend. In Hawaii, they installed a tsunami alert system back in the 60s to prevent human catastrophes following undersea earthquakes somewhere in the Pacific "rim of fire." Any time an earthquake happened (and there were a lot, just varying magnitudes) they would sound the alarm, indicating one would be coming within X hours. Many times the supposed tsunami would be no more than a foot high. The locals soon got tired of the constant alerts with no real threat, and the "cry wolf" syndrome took over. Then one day it happened... another alert except the locals this time decided they would all gather at the ocean front and watch this latest one come in, figuring it'd be like all the others... small and harmless. Maybe a few feet at best. Except this time it wasn't, it was the real deal, and hundreds of people lost their lives. The alarm did it's job, but no one paid it any attention.
The same thing is happening here. There isn't anything people do differently when the "terror alert" is raised. It's a stupid, pointless system. The objective is to instill fear and uncertainty, nothing more. The more afraid you are, the less objective and rational you are. You are more willing to sacrifice your civil liberties and are more willing to buy into what the military is doing if you remain scared and afraid. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
While I agree, I dont think that frightening us is the governments intent. The media sensationalizes the alert beyond the governments design imo so they can sell commercials. Fear is a very fundamental human emotion and its easy to exploit, and easy to keep us "tuned in".
On a side note, I watched a bunch of news teaser talking about how every family in america had "unseen killers" lerking in thier homes...tune in at 11, turns out, Our toothbrushes have bacteria on them!!!! and if we multiplied these bacteria ten million times and ate it, it would kill us!!! True **** story.
To think that this is somehow particular to the Bush white house more than any other is to be ignorant of politics and history - all politicians do this. You just ignore them and get on with your life.
I mean, wouldnt it just be better if, instead of having to tollerate them, they just cut the crap and stopped putting them out?
what about children who see this kind of thing and cant tell that its just crap to scare the masses? they grow up with a warped sense of what really happened.
on the subject of wether this is classed as a conspiracy or not, I think that
a) this is not the first time this has happened.
b) the american government would never make these warnings without considering the fear it would provoke in the population. (come on guys, they are like the most uber paranoid government in the world, they consider <i>everything</i>.
perhaps the reason they come out is to 'look as if they give a damn', and perhaps its to scare the population into war mode or whatever. Personally I think its somewhere between the two. But to say they either thought there would be no panic, or they thought the panic would merit 'looking as if they gave a damn' is imho a little bit naive
Honestly, how much of your day do you lose by hearing a 30-second talking head sound clip on the news? You should be complaining about the HOURS of advertising you get.
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->what about children who see this kind of thing and cant tell that its just crap to scare the masses? they grow up with a warped sense of what really happened.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I grew up being told (correctly) that I was about 15 minutes away from Soviet nuclear annihilation, as did my entire generation. We turned out fine.
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->b) the american government would never make these warnings without considering the fear it would provoke in the population. (come on guys, they are like the most uber paranoid government in the world, they consider <i>everything</i>.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yes, they are much more paranoid than say, Stalin or Hitler or Saddam. Not.
Tempest in a teapot would describe this topic nicely.
I recall a 20/20 special with John Stossel... many years ago now... titled "Are we scaring ourselves to death?" He had a bunch of people on, ordinary citizens. He ran down this list of potential threats to human life, and whether we should be spending time and money on addressing them. The items were relatively rare things, like dying in a plane crash, contracting some disease etc. Most of the audience was completely in agreement with spending as much as possible to completely reduce even the most rare causes of death. When Stossel brought up alternative solutions to things that would save money and the environment, with the added cost that they would be more dangerous, most of the audience was adamant in its opposition. One example he brought up was using something other than electricity to heat homes and cook food. Electricity is expensive, generating electricity is harmful to the environment, it's not efficient for generating heat, etc. If an alternative were to become available that solved those problems but came at a cost in terms of risk to human life, would you be for it or against it? Most were against it. Then he mentioned that the alternative is natural gas, and he asked those same people whether they used natural gas in their homes. Of course, they were all pretty stunned and couldn't think of a reasonable response.
His point was that people are only afraid of something when they are told of the potential danger. People do not think about the fact that driving a car is one of the most dangerous things you can do, while travelling by plane is one of the safest. Yet most people are comfortable in their cars while many are completely scared of flying. John Madden rides in a bus because he's completely afraid of flying, even though flying by plane is safer and faster.
Now, whether or not people abuse this human character flaw or not is an entirely different topic, and one worthy of discussion all by itself. In "Bowling For Columbine," Michael Moore hit on this topic and pointed out that Canadians do not live in constant fear the way Americans do. Why? What is different up there? They do not lock their doors. Americans have multiple locks and gated communities. We are constantly bombarded with fear. Canadian news does not sensationalize the way American news does. Why are we so different? I personally do not think it is purely "CYA" and a bunch of former lawyers just protecting their butts. No one seems to be suing the FBI, the CIA, and the Bush Administration for 9/11.
Honestly, how much of your day do you lose by hearing a 30-second talking head sound clip on the news? You should be complaining about the HOURS of advertising you get. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
firstly. yes, its a pretty petty topic, but so what?
It doesnt really come down to how long these broadcasts/ announcments are.
its really not appropriate to compare them by length.
it comes down to what people think about the world.
dont you think it sucks?
or do you think its cool to make a population paranoid and scared like this?
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Really, you shouldnt be complaining at all.
Now, I take them with a grain of salt.
I blame the media 100% for this warning system becoming ineffective, they over hype it so much that when the attack doesn’t come, people are like "well that was pointless". It's a perfectly fine system, just the way of delivering it to the people is broken.
To think that this is somehow particular to the Bush white house more than any other is to be ignorant of politics and history - all politicians do this. You just ignore them and get on with your life. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Best. Post. Ever.
I got a very good chuckle.
No kidding. Between 'The Day After' and 'Red Dawn', I had more or less come to terms with the fact that I was destined to get my **** blown off by age eight.