Great post, Pap. Spot on.
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News, or bad news as it is, is relative. The closer to home the more we are concerned. It is like the old thing about a plane crash. Any Brits on board? No. Ok it is not as important then. Paris is directly linked by a railway line and feels very close these days. The more miles you put between an incident the less connected we feel I think. Mrs SOG and I were in Paris in the summer and were going to go back for the weekend last week for a few days but didnt in the end because Mrs SOG had a bad back. I was in a meeting yesterday with a neighbour who kept checking his phone because his neice lives in Paris and he was waiting to hear from her (she is fine). Paris could easily be London. The lives are non the less precious to those lost around closer to home but I think we feel less of a connect. For probably all of my life the Middle East has been a war zone. I didnt hear the news until well after the Paris massacre but I admit I didnt bat an eyelid and was totally focussed on the Paris news. Perhaps if the killings in Paris happened every week I would become immune to that news too eventually. It is a deeply sad state of affairs when we become numb to the killings of other human beings but it happens every frikkin day. Terrorist attacks or domestic attacks (we were still talking about the horrific murder by the step brother and the dismemberment of his step sister the day before the Paris attrocities) it seems like they are endless. We live in a wonderful world full of amazing things but there are many of the human race who leave a black stain behind them.
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Strange that I should go to a football related website to get some insight into this atrocity.
Itās impossible to try and encapsulate all this shit, but lots of posters have offered different slants, which is useful for me. I think the Northern Ireland comparison on Saintsweb may be valid in that most people donāt realise they are passive participants in a war and the atrocities that happen are forcing them to realise that they are in fact active participants. Similarly, the people who devise these acts are cynical psychopaths who probably get a kick out of causing death and mayhem.
Finally, I do feel that even if the world was a peaceful place but still with the imbalances that exist, we in the Western world would still have a blase attitude toward the āstarving millionsā. We always have done. āWeā have been the lucky ones. Whether this act was meant to make us more aware of this fact or not, we should really consider whether āourā levels of consumption are sustainable. By wanting and getting stuff, āweā in the west are implicitly denying our fellow humans.
If there was ever a time for a peaceful revolution this is it. Probably achievable through westerners giving up 30% of their wealth to the rest. Except the only mechanism to do this seems to be violent.
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Agee with your sentiments above. I have sat through countless news reports of killings and atrocoties, too many. Last night Mrs SOG and I both had tears streaming down our cheeks while watching the Paris update. At the time I couldnt understand why as this one is not necessarily any worse than all those that have gone before, but now I am thinking that we are both sick and tired of the constant senseless killings. I am sure that we feel no worse than anyone else but what really can the normal man and woman in the street do to make a real difference?
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Youād think it was a parody account. Just seen someone reply their dog has written a poignant article regarding the incident how sheās a ājournalistā (is that what sheās meant to be?) Is beyond me.
100% correct, in the media all you get is hysteria. On here you get some very balanced views. The media do some good work, but I do feel they fuel the fire a lot of the time, playing into the hands of the groups that carry out these attacks.
Also I was very pleased to read this. I feel it is very important to carry on as normal. Also with the euro championships in France next year.
Northern Ireland is a very very different thing altogether, that conflict is/was about a state or the existance of one that was/is deemed illegitimate by many in and around it (I dont I belive in democracy but that is another issue), this is not about driving out a perceived occupier but terror to incite a religeous war, baiting in effect.
I spoke about the role of the media in these circumstances over on Saintsweb. The media, particularly news agencies play a huge role in how we see the world.
They are massively responsible for huge swathes of the Islamaphobia that has permeated Western countries since September 11. This, of course, is exactly what the terrorists want. I got myself into arguments about how the face of Terror has changed over the years, with some adamant is just another word for a Muslim.
This is of course nonsense. As has been said a lot in the last few days, if Islam was a religion of blood, of terror, of aggression, with over 1.5 Billion followers - the rest of us would be fucked.
However, what is appalling is how news site continue to propagate that myth. This impact is compounded when the same agencies bend over backwards to wave away terrorist attacks by, usually, white guys of either a Christian/Atheist background. Think of Dylann Roof. Dude who was an active White Supremacist, posed with guns and the Confederate Flag. Targetted a black church, killing several innocent black people. This wasnāt talked of as a terrorist attack, but you can bet your bottom dollar that if a Muslim man (or woman) carried out the same attack and posted pictures of themselves with a Quāran or the ISIS flag - it would have been a terrorist attack.
This sort of thing isnāt alone. In fact, statistics suggest that White Supremacy has killed twice as many people in the US since 9/11 than Muslim extremism. This receives a fraction of the attention that āMuslimā extremism does. And as has been, rightly, highlighted extensively the past few days the biggest victims of āIslamicā extremism are Muslims themselves. Again, we do not see anywhere near as much attention given to this. I totally agree with papās excellent post on the previous page. I do wince slightly at #PrayforParis or the Facebook photo changes. Iām almost certain that 99.9% of the people that use these are doing so with good intentions and from the right place. But, it makes me feel a bit uneasy against the backdrop of what else is going on. That said, I do take on board the point SoG makes about Paris, and the ease at which we identify with Parisians. Which, I guess, is the point of these attacks. But again, we must not let ourselves fall into this circle. We are all just people. The people losing their lives in Beirut matter just as much as those in Paris. We should question why the media donāt treat them as such. We should question why retalitory attacks carried out by the US and others kill hundreds of innocent people, and we hear so little about that. Let it not be forgotten that this is a huge recruitment tool for groups like ISIS. Itās the innocent, moderate majority of Muslims that suffer most. Iāve seen the following image doing the rounds, and for me, it presents a powerful image of what happens in the aftermath of these sorts of attacks.
We must not let ourselves fall for this. We must not play into the hands of the murderous, heinous individuals. We must not give them what they want. We must demand better from our media, and our news agencies.
Iām sorry this has been a long, rambling post, but a final point I wish to make is how reckless and vulturistic 24/7 rolling news is. Whenever any such attrocity takes place, and someone Tweets about it they will be inundated with Journalists requesting interviews. The desparation to be first to get out a stroy means fact checking, and decency, go out of the window. The most extreme case of this, I have seen has happened over the past 24 hours. A man named Veerender Jubbal, a Sikh Canadian, had a photoshopped image of himself spread around the world. It was claimed he was one of the attacker on Friday night. It was picked up by news stations and newspapers and seen by millions of people.
Nevermind it was the most blatantly faked picture around. Nevermind he was wearing a fucking turban (seriously, how fucking ignorant must you be?!). Got to be the first to get that story out. Fucking scum. Think of the fucking danger that places an innocent man in. And this is exactly how hatred spreads, how ignorance goes unchecked, and ultimately the divisions that lead to these attacks grows wider.
Again, Iām sorry. I know Iāve gone on. But thereās been a lot to be upset about the past 48 hours.
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Originally posted by @Sadoldgit
Agee with your sentiments above. I have sat through countless news reports of killings and atrocoties, too many. Last night Mrs SOG and I both had tears streaming down our cheeks while watching the Paris update. At the time I couldnt understand why as this one is not necessarily any worse than all those that have gone before, but now I am thinking that we are both sick and tired of the constant senseless killings. I am sure that we feel no worse than anyone else but what really can the normal man and woman in the street do to make a real difference?
Sadly itās the way of the world atm,and itās not gonna change anytime soonā¦on a side note, I remember saying to my late brother in law about 25 years ago during a discussion about war and terrorism, āone day theyāll be putting bombs in sporting stadiums etcā
Originally posted by @jet-sounds
Originally posted by @Sadoldgit
Agee with your sentiments above. I have sat through countless news reports of killings and atrocoties, too many. Last night Mrs SOG and I both had tears streaming down our cheeks while watching the Paris update. At the time I couldnt understand why as this one is not necessarily any worse than all those that have gone before, but now I am thinking that we are both sick and tired of the constant senseless killings. I am sure that we feel no worse than anyone else but what really can the normal man and woman in the street do to make a real difference?
Sadly itās the way of the world atm,and itās not gonna change anytime soonā¦on a side note, I remember saying to my late brother in law about 25 years ago during a discussion about war and terrorism, āone day theyāll be putting bombs in sporting stadiums etcā
Non specific about who was gonna be conducting these acts btw, it just cropped up in general discussioin.
Iāve just āunfriendedā someone of FBā¦a complete Islamaphobe who ranted on at length finally suggested Germany are going to need another āAdolf figureā to rid them of their problem. 
The solutionā¦the final solutionā¦replace word āJewā with āMuslimāā¦do they realise what they are actually saying. 
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Iāve deleted nearly 20 people the last couple of days. Sure itās no great loss to them, but good riddance.
Edit: changed what was probably a poor choice of word.
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Breaking: New panic in Paris. People seen running is panic in Paris at Plaze de la Publique
Jesus fucking Christ, please no more. Please.
Edit: Now given the all clear
It only comes back to this, if you are an ignorant, gullible, idiot. Which, you have repeatedly proved you are on the subject of Islam. This is all bollocks. Stop it.
Iām far from gullible, you simply wonāt answer the question as it makes you feel uncomfortable, you havenāt the balls to answer it even to yourself, the Catholic faith is a sham and homophobic, why is that not the same for Islam you inverted racist?
Haha inverted racist. Barry gold right there. Anyway, keep shouting at lamp posts. Iām not arguing with you on this thread.
Worth noting, āinverted racistā is classic racist rhetoric. Something Barry has been called on before.
No, its you running away and changing the subject as you are an inverted racist. Forum gold is seeing you tie yourself up in knots at trying not to condemn such a religion. You cant even bring yourself to admit it, that says an awful lot, at least I have the balls right or wrong to call it.