This plane being shot down, while Israel begin a ground invasion in Gaza with the 'staunch support' of my country's government. The world has gone insane.

I don't even know what to say any more about this world. I guess there will always be some for of war and fighting between and within countries.

I don't understand why people are still shocked by bad things happening in the world. After the Holocaust and Jeffrey Dahmer I think it's safe to say that nothing has been, is, or ever will be off the table.

Jam bands are off the table.

and Dahmer only scratches the surface in a long line of serial killers.

I'm optimistic and always aspire to something better, and a lot of people are like that. It's one of my favourite things about humans.

The same two billion years of biological and cultural evolution have led led both Ted Bundy and Martin Luther King Jr. to be the men they were, and that doesn't diminish the actions of either. It only makes sense to see humanity for what it is if you're going to have any realistic optimism for its future development, or else you're just sticking your head in the sand. I'm optimistic about humanity's future as well. Our appreciation for life in general seems to be at an all time high. We're talking about giving dolphins legal protection as persons for god sake. But on the other hand we're still molesting children, raping women, obsessing over the lives of celebrities to the point of stalking, bullying children to the point of suicide, and engaging in almost never ending war. It is what it is.

Look on the bright side, would this had happened 80 years ago it would have sparked a world war. I don't think that'll be happening anytime soon.

I wonder what conspiracies this will spark. I'm going to keep an eye on my high school stoner friends' Facebook feeds, I'm sure something will pop up soon.

I certainly hope not! The plane that got shot down over the Ukraine will potentially spark a potentional war with Russia (if it's proved to be them) or maybe it will force Russia to get out of Ukraine from intense political pressure and sanctions. Is it crazy that I'm stocking up on food and survival products? I'm very safe in NZ but you never know what's ahead.

Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer, Hell's OTP forever.

lol mr wang yeah

No words.

R.I.P.

I understand the need for them, but **** the cops.

Those EMTs shocked me even more. I hope nothing happens to me in their area. What kind of bull**** was that?

Former dictator/kidnapper/murder sues over being portrayed as such in a video game: Manuel Noriega sues over 'Call of Duty' video game - CNN.com

OMFG. I am so so sad to see this. ****ing piece of trash cops, there was absolutely NO reason for choking a guy. I have seen this **** too often with American cops (cops are corrupt in loads of countries though!). They made absolutely NO effort to perform CPR or anything. If that's not racism, I don't know what it is.

RIP dude, you seemed like a great guy.

To be fair we don't know that it is racism. We can assume, but there isn't anything in that video that you could say is racist.

Yeah you're right, I'm just ticked off. There was no justification to treat him like that. I just felt like they targeted him because of either conscious or subconscious bigotry, I might be wrong though.

British inventor Colin Furze builds butt to fart at France - UPI.com

Unrelated:
http://dailyhealthpost.com/according...ever-recorded/

There were riots and deaths over a cartoon. This does not qualify as "I can't believe".

^ Is correct.

Remember though this is the Daily Mail, they are known for their agenda ridden articles.

:confused:

It's clear what they're trying to do with this.

I couldn't remember which British paper was the bad one, but I was also dubious about how they were using phrases that were obviously said by one or two people and using it to paint an entire incident. Still, it doesn't sound good.

Maybe for you it is, I certainly can't believe how horrible people can be to Jews still.

Well it's understandable that a lot of Muslims and non-Israeli middle-easterners would have issues with Israel, which would naturally transfer to Jews in general in many cases, and with the more extreme elements of Islam it's even less surprising that they might sympathize with the poster boys for Antisemitism. The scale of this (or so it appears from an American reading on the internet) is worrying, but not all that surprising given recent history.

I don't really hear about it where I am so don't really know much about the tension between Muslims and Jews. Thanks for the explanation batty. :)

Well like I said, I live in 'Merica, where we have a relatively high number of Jews, but not a whole lot of Muslims, so we don't really get to see much in the way of tension between the two groups, even assuming there is any on our side of the pond. It's mostly the occasional European news feed and rumors that we have to go on. It's why I'm cautious to come down too much on either side of the argument about supposed issues with middle-eastern immigration to Europe. Still, when there are riots over a cartoon it doesn't exactly say that all the problems are in the "other side's" heads.

Young MH17 victim has eerie premonition of crash

Some Final Destination ****

I guess I shouldn't find this unbelievable, but...

Pakistani mob kills two children including a baby and their grandmother after 'blasphemous' Facebook post - Telegraph

The religion of peace strikes again.

It's easy to say that isolated extremists don't necessarily reflect a people as a whole, but since Pakistan is supposed to be a democracy I think laws like this certainly do. **** Pakistan.

There are Jews (mostly the Zionists extremist and the government) that are horrible to the Palestinians though. They are treating the civilians in a similar way the Nazis treated Jews in the past. I believe this is where their rage is stemming from, however I don't agree with hate-crimes towards Jewish people (or anyone for the matter of fact) in general. But can understand their plight.

Both Hamas and Israeli government who are behind the reckless bombing are ****ing terrible though. The Palestinian citizen death toll has reached over 1,000, a big amount being children. Mostly because they are playing a children's game of NO YOU started it. No YOU. NO YOU!

Is it? I've seen the opposite happen with very little thought. There are many contries that like to think themselves as the poster boy/girl for democracy yet put through or uphold laws the general populace do not agree with. An Ochlocracy might reflect the views of a people, a democracy doesn’t have to.

Within limits. The chance of the US passing similar laws about blasphemy as exist in Pakistan and Afghanistan, both democracies, is absolutely zero. We may have religious nuts here, but the groups strong enough to have any real influence are not extreme enough to even have any desire to. They might try to get Intelligent Design taught in schools or what have you, but they're never going to get any laws passed that make blasphemy punishable by death (blasphemy can potentially receive the death penalty in both Pakistan and Afghanistan). And even if by some horrible anti-miracle they tried then the rest of the populace would have none of it. It's just not a possibility. I also don't really see the possibility of a mob of Americans burning down someone's house and murdering children over a blasphemous Facebook page.

And while I'm sure the people on the extreme end of the religious spectrum don't represent the entire population of Pakistan, the fact that they are numerous and powerful enough to have significant influence on the government suggests that if they are on the far, low end of the bell curve representing the strength of the Pakistani people's religious beliefs then the middle, where the most people would lie, is probably still much more religiously extreme than your average Western country.

The status quo in many western countries is vastly different to that of Pakistan or Afghanistan, no matter how alike people in either country think pluralistic ignorance plays a major role in how their country progresses politically. In the US a lot of pluralistic ignorance surrounding religious extremist movements has been dissolved, it makes it a lot easier to speak out against it. In a different political climate you could pick the same US citizens holding the same views only to find them less willing to express said views no matter what those around them actually think.

So are you saying that you think that the average Pakistani actually holds much the same relatively secular views as your average Westerner?

No, I doubt it. Religion still plays a much more important role in those countries. I do however feel the number of people in those countries who do not agree with the more extreme end of the spectrum may not be too far off from your average westerner, that the same social phenomenon thought to be responsible for racial segregation in the US and the prohibition may be the issue here and that laws passed in a democratic country or an insignificant ammount of open oppostion may not be proof in of itself that the people of that country support any of it.

What Is Pluralistic Ignorance? (with picture)