misanthropy

[fromaway]

You know, sometimes I'm not sure what I find most upsetting about the Manitoba bus murder: the fact that it happened or the fact that so many supposedly "normal" and "decent" people are using it as an excuse to be horrible

Comments

[thatames]

A few years ago, a girl I used to work with was involved in a terrible crime (baby-stealing). I read about it on the internet. Anyways. She had a very obviously Latino last name, though her family had been in the US for many generations. While poking around the internet looking for info on the crime (because I was horrified/fascinated someone I knew could have done such a thing) I can't tell you how many blog posts and message board posts about how obviously this was due to those damn Mexicans getting over our border. THE HELL? She was born here like any of us. This happened because she had mental problems and should have been getting treatment, not because of her ancestry. Goddamn.

[thatames]

None of us are perfect, but at least our first thought upon a tragedy is "how can I make this about minorities sucking?"

Ugh.

[fromaway]

(Ha, sorry about the deleted comment; for future reference it was the same as the one below, just a bit shorter.)

Well, that is true (there's a missing "not" in your sentence, obviously, heh).

[thatames]

OBVIOUSLY YES I MEANT "NOT"! I am not some minority hater! Oh geez. INTERNETS!

[fromaway]

Well, people who couldn't infer the "not" from the context are dumb anyway.

[thatames]

Heh, good point. Still, I just imagine people stumbling across this entry and seeing my comment out of context and thinking I'm some minority-hatin' ass.

[fromaway]

Always good to be careful. :)

[fromaway]

I find it really depressing how confident some people are in their total pig-fucking ignorance. Not that I'm immune to that, I'm sure I have stupid opinions of my own, but ugh.

I mean, I don't think people in their right minds do things like stabbing strangers on crowded buses for no apparent reason. Rational people do violent and evil things, but not like that. So reading a lot of these comments, I'm like...what? What are you doing, trying to explain this as if it were normal understandable behaviour? Do you understand it?

[thatames]

I think that's what happens though, it's that some people of lesser intelligence can't handle not having explanations for everything so they shortcut and make shit up and rely on prejudices instead of accepting the awful truth that some people are just nuts and stab strangers on crowded buses.

[fromaway]

It's not even intelligence, is the thing. I mean, some people find it easier to handle genuine complexity, sure, but I think it's more emotion and personality traits driving the "let's find a really simple explanation and if I can't find one I'll just make some shit up" reaction.

[thatames]

I dunno, I think something to do with intelligence drives that as well. But I guess if you're prone to fly to fast judgments and have certain prejudices, that overrides everything. Ugh.

[fromaway]

We may be defining intelligence differently, too. I think it's possible to be a very smart, intellectual person and still be a complete idiot about people because I see it all the time, and also everyone gets dumber under the influence of strong emotion.

[thatames]

Yeah, I realized that as I commented to your last post. I guess the sort of person you're talking about isn't necessarily someone I'd define as intelligent, though that may not be fair of me.