Let's try and get 1,000,000 replies to this post

The world only mourns for Europe.

Not really. We all mourn the deaths of some people more than others, because we feel closer to some people than others.

I've been to Belgium more than once. I have friends who live in Brussels. I know someone who was in Brussels when the attack happened.
I've never been to Lahore. I have no friends in Lahore. I know noone who was in Lahore when the attack happened.
Do all lives matter equally? Yes. Am I equally angry about both attacks? Yes. Do they both touch me in the same way? No.
And isn't that why the Western press writes more about Brussels than Lahore?
 
And isn't that why the Western press writes more about Brussels than Lahore?[/QUOTE]

I would go along with this. There are a lot of posts on social media these days about how bombing etc of non-whites/non-western people doesn't get as much coverage. Does that necessarily mean there is some conspiracy or inherent racism? I don't think so, most of the pics I see on social media highlight mass killings which they say didn't get the same level of media coverage as, for example, the attacks on Paris and Brussels. But surely it makes sense to give more coverage to events which are closer be it geographically or through some 'special relationship.' And for the most part I have heard of the events/killings featured in these posts and I generally am just exposed to Irish/UK mainstream media (I rarely trawl the net for 'deeper' news stories).

I watched UK and Irish news shows last night (BBC and RTE) and the first headline and story on both was the bombings in Lahore.

Also, there may be an element of over-saturation. I live in the UK and we have been hearing about war/mass killing in places like Iraq and Afghanistan quite a lot for the past decade and more. Events in these countries probably need to be pretty 'spectacular' to be deemed 'news worthy' by editors/producers.

Yes, all lives matter but are news papers/stations in the business of compassion and fair reporting? No. They are mainly in the business of increasing ratings/readers.
 
It just doesn't make any sense how any of this junk could be true.

Junk? Yes. And no.
First of all, there are tons of conspiracy theories which are no longer called conspiracy theories, but history.

There are people that don't trust the government. They are the market for conspiracy theories. This is a spin story for them. Both camps, pro-conspiracy and debunk-conspiracy, are arguing about steal beam properties and jet fuel characteristics. The only facts for discussion about this story are - 1) a lot of Americans died on their home soil 2) the U.S government knew about it beforehand.

Edit :

I literally hate this forum software. This is the typical Web 2.0 megaresponsive junk, not only it's logic is horrid as it's constantly sending async shit via JS even while I'm typing this while in reality it should not fucking run until I submit, yeah I know now I have persistance if I don't finish my post and walk away. Guess what fuckwit, leave persistance to my browser, if you weren't so keen on mangling DOM state via stupid javascript then my browser could keep it's own cache perfectly valid even across reboots. And the dumbed down UI just went full retard and I can't disable emoticon rendering and i'm trying to list two stuff as A) and B ) , the B ) gets rendered as B) , I can't disable it from post editor, I don't want to go to profile options to see if there's an option there , I don't want to hack around HTML or BBCode to achieve my goal, in each and every 'classic' (eg obsolete in your web dev circle jerkoff eyes) forum software there's an option right in the post editor.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I literally hate this forum software. This is the typical Web 2.0 megaresponsive junk, not only it's logic is horrid as it's constantly sending async shit via JS even while I'm typing this while in reality it should not fucking run until I submit, yeah I know now I have persistance if I don't finish my post and walk away. Guess what fuckwit, leave persistance to my browser, if you weren't so keen on mangling DOM state via stupid javascript then my browser could keep it's own cache perfectly valid even across reboots. And the dumbed down UI just went full retard and I can't disable emoticon rendering and i'm trying to list two stuff as A) and B ) , the B ) gets rendered as B) , I can't disable it from post editor, I don't want to go to profile options to see if there's an option there , I don't want to hack around HTML or BBCode to achieve my goal, in each and every 'classic' (eg obsolete in your web dev circle jerkoff eyes) forum software there's an option right in the post editor.
An old complaint of mine. I constantly need to do More Options to get things right. Try to copy paste in a post without a hassle. Terrible.
 
I can, but if you make a claim, you have the burden of proof. I'm not playing this game with other rules.
 
Come on Zare, I don't believe that the U.S. government knew it beforehand (either). Let's have it. We won't scorch you to death if the arguments on wikileaks are not showing that fact. ;)
However, if they are... :innocent::D
 
Last edited:
The US Government was aware that Al Qaeda was planning an attack in the USA, and that they were likely considering terrorism with airliners. This information was not well treated by the Bush administration, specifically Condoleeza Rice, who was the National Security Advisor at the time.

They were not aware of the date, location, and scale.
 
Ahmed Shah Massoud was telling them for months and was assassinated like the day before the attack IIRC

also Mossad named all the people involved before the attacks too
 
Ahmed Shah Massoud was telling them for months and was assassinated like the day before the attack IIRC

also Mossad named all the people involved before the attacks too

That speaks more about defensive ineptitude rather than a conspiracy. I mean, similar stories have been happening recently. Turkey couldn't stop ISIS and PKK attacks despite knowing who the possible attackers would be, Belgium couldn't stop ISIS attack despite being informed of a possible attack very soon, etc.
 
Hang on there Flash, I never said this is a conspiracy, e.g. govt conspiring against citizens. This is complete ineptitude to provide even basic security against a bunch of cavemen with cash, as a sole world's superpower, then intentionally lying to populace about the fact, then spinning it up into conspiracy theory space, only to lick ass of big $$$ who are cheering for war anyway, earned with the lives of American youth overseas. You don't go to war to abroad if you declare something as internal security error, not a great external threat.
 
Hang on there Flash, I never said this is a conspiracy, e.g. govt conspiring against citizens. This is complete ineptitude to provide even basic security against a bunch of cavemen with cash, as a sole world's superpower, then intentionally lying to populace about the fact, then spinning it up into conspiracy theory space, only to lick ass of big $$$ who are cheering for war anyway, earned with the lives of American youth overseas. You don't go to war to abroad if you declare something as internal security error, not a great external threat.

Wasn't an answer to you.
 
Not really. We all mourn the deaths of some people more than others, because we feel closer to some people than others.

I've been to Belgium more than once. I have friends who live in Brussels. I know someone who was in Brussels when the attack happened.
I've never been to Lahore. I have no friends in Lahore. I know noone who was in Lahore when the attack happened.
Do all lives matter equally? Yes. Am I equally angry about both attacks? Yes. Do they both touch me in the same way? No.
And isn't that why the Western press writes more about Brussels than Lahore?

Missing a point here. A journalist's job is to inform people. Not express sentiments. It's fine if the workers of a media corporation don't really feel an attachment towards what happens outside the West. But it's not fine if attacks of the same manner receive drastically different coverage just because it's a different continent and different peoples.

I would go along with this. There are a lot of posts on social media these days about how bombing etc of non-whites/non-western people doesn't get as much coverage. Does that necessarily mean there is some conspiracy or inherent racism? I don't think so, most of the pics I see on social media highlight mass killings which they say didn't get the same level of media coverage as, for example, the attacks on Paris and Brussels. But surely it makes sense to give more coverage to events which are closer be it geographically or through some 'special relationship.' And for the most part I have heard of the events/killings featured in these posts and I generally am just exposed to Irish/UK mainstream media (I rarely trawl the net for 'deeper' news stories).

It does not make sense. This isn't some random dude talking about stuff in a local pub, this is news. The non-coverage of these events perpetuate the idea that these attacks are "normal" in the Middle East, Pakistan or Afghanistan. They're not. They never were, they never will be. It seems extra hypocritical because of the history involved in the background of these attacks. Western interventionist policies are a massive reason why there's so much chaos in these regions. To play such a big role in what caused this to happen and then not caring about the victims is astonishingly hypocritical and self-centered.

One of the biggest propaganda tools of these Jihadists organizations is that the West raped their countries, and now don't give a shit what happens to them. Surely the West can do better than to feed into this, right?

Yes, all lives matter but are news papers/stations in the business of compassion and fair reporting? No. They are mainly in the business of increasing ratings/readers.

And should that be the case?
 
Missing a point here. A journalist's job is to inform people. Not express sentiments. It's fine if the workers of a media corporation don't really feel an attachment towards what happens outside the West. But it's not fine if attacks of the same manner receive drastically different coverage just because it's a different continent and different peoples.

Yes, a journalist's job is to inform people. And a journalist working for a British news outlet has a job to inform British people.
Should a British newspaper devote the same column space to a terrorist attack in Lahore as they would for a terrorist attack in London?
Then what about, say, a city commuting distance from London - i.e. Brussels? or Paris?

This isn't about a journalist's sentiments. It's not about it being a different continent. It's about it being one step further removed from the interests, concerns, experiences etc. of the journalist's audience.
 
Flash, you say 'non-coverage,' but that's my point; there is coverage, just not as much as, say, Brussels.

As for what you say RE history and Western interventionist policies, totally agree.

Each agency only has so much air time/column inches so they cant cover it all.
 
Flash, you say 'non-coverage,' but that's my point; there is coverage, just not as much as, say, Brussels.

As for what you say RE history and Western interventionist policies, totally agree.

Each agency only has so much air time/column inches so they cant cover it all.

It's not like the attacks in Brussels and Labore happened on the same day. They were about a week apart. I find it hard to believe that a terrorist attack that killed 72 people can't find enough coverage because the time and space isn't sufficient. There aren't a lot of things that concerns the world than that.

Then what about, say, a city commuting distance from London - i.e. Brussels? or Paris?

This isn't about a journalist's sentiments. It's not about it being a different continent. It's about it being one step further removed from the interests, concerns, experiences etc. of the journalist's audience.

Meh. You're also a flight removed from Turkey and Pakistan. Arbitrary distances don't mean anything. If Athens was attacked by ISIS, you better believe the coverage for it would be way more extensive than the attacks in Istanbul and Ankara, despite Greece and Turkey being neighbours.

You're fooling yourself if you think Eurocentrism is not one of the premier issues at hand here. It's not just media sources, it's the political condemnation and the reactions from peoples of Europe that are concerning. People think it's "normal" for 60 people to die in an attack by ISIS in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and what have you. You never see a minute of silence held for victims in the Middle East. Those people live in fear of getting killed in attacks every single day. When a Western city gets attacked, the entire world stands up against terrorism, peace demonstrations are held, a minute of silence is held at every event, hell, leaders get together in order to show strength. Not the case when it happens in the East.

Perspective is a major thing here. You might not realize it. But comparing the coverage and reaction attacks in Paris and Brussels receive here and the attacks in Ankara and Istanbul received in the West certainly touches a nerve.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top