Why are people in Indianapolis going postal.

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   / Why are people in Indianapolis going postal. #221  
My point is, according to the statistics (which always make me a bit skeptical), a cop is 18 times more likely to be shot to death by a black man than a black man being shot by a cop......yet when’s the last time you heard extensive media narrative about cops being mass murdered by black men? I haven’t heard really anything outside of officer Daniel Faulkner being murdered by Mumia Abu Jamal back in 1980.
No, the majority narrative is the other way around.
The numbers-to-narrative/outrage don’t make sense.
I always count on my fingers when I run across statistics like that. Cops gun down about 1000 people a year. Without splitting them up by race, that would mean 18,000 cops are shot to death each year. A quick google finds that 49 cops died by gunfire in the US in 2020.

Your statistic is just racist hate propaganda.

 
   / Why are people in Indianapolis going postal. #222  
We have a mental health crisis in this country.
That, coupled with a moral compass omission.
When the morality of a nation is on a sliding scale there is no right or wrong.
There is only my right and your wrong. (Grammar error intentional)
Then, all we're left with is a struggle for power and Big Brother will come and straighten it all for us.
George Orwell: 1984
 
   / Why are people in Indianapolis going postal. #223  
Human nature seems to preclude your altruistic wishes... I'm wondering if we are what we are?

I wonder why this human nature you speak of applies to such great extent to America, still the greatest country in the world. Why aren't there nearly as many mass shootings, or worse, school shootings in any of the not so great countries on Earth? Are they all spineless people suppressed by their governments because they don't all have so many guns? Or they don't have mentally ill people?
 
   / Why are people in Indianapolis going postal. #224  
A shooting in Kenosha WI that left 3 dead this morning and another in Austin TX that left 3 dead today. I'm blaming all of us. I truly think it will take all of us to work together to act in a more friendly manner. It would be a tough thing to accomplish but wouldn't it be nice to make the world a better place? I really wonder what kind of world we are leaving future generations. Just because we can act with hate and anger doesn't mean we should.
Sorry but “being more friendly” would not have stopped the killing in Austin at any point.
 
   / Why are people in Indianapolis going postal. #225  
I wonder why this human nature you speak of applies to such great extent to America, still the greatest country in the world. Why aren't there nearly as many mass shootings, or worse, school shootings in any of the not so great countries on Earth? Are they all spineless people suppressed by their governments because they don't all have so many guns? Or they don't have mentally ill people?
In most of those countries the governments do the mass killing.
 
   / Why are people in Indianapolis going postal. #226  
This is an exceptional post:

I would like to discuss the portion I highlighted, and this:


I believe the ailment America and most of the west suffers from is multifaceted but the main component is media, with a large sub-component being social media. For the older population probably the "news" is the biggest factor and for the younger population probably social media is the bigger factor. Those in the middle suffer a double whammy.

I quit following "the news" a few years and my mental health improved significantly. But I still had a fly in my ointment. It got worse over time. After covid hit, it was downward spiral. I couldn't believe half the population is so stupid because they believe "this" and the other half is so stupid because they believe "that." And I couldn't believe how hateful they all were in throwing their ideologies at each other. The world seemed like not such a great place.

So before getting to the mental state where I was ready to quit the world, I quit the thing that was influencing me to think how bad it is*. Since then, my only "social media" experience is forums like this, and I mostly stick to the technical threads and leave threads like this unread. The only reason I skimmed this is one to see if anyone brought up the reason why "going postal" is a term.

Since then, I have been a much happier person. Since then I have more time for things that matter. Since then I experience the world as it is, not as how Facebook wants me to think it is. Which brings me to:

* In case you didn't know, Facebook AI curates your feed to show things that it knows will get you fired up. They've figured out that things which make your blood boil, generate more engagement (more ads seen, more money made) than pictures of cute kittens. They give you just enough cute kittens to keep you from feeling like it's an absolute cesspool of rank butthurt, but in fact, it's an absolute cesspool of rank butthurt. ON PURPOSE. Facebook is a cancer of society and I think it and every other social media platform plays an appreciable yet unfortunately unquantifiable role in nearly every major tragedy like this one.

Please, quit social medial. You will be glad you did. It matters not how many uplifting memes you read, share, or re-share. You're playing a game that is rigged against you and they wellbeing of society, and you're just a pawn.
I have noticed that many people are not good at reality. The World Wide Web is a web of lies, but it is also a point of access to experts in every field. I limit the number of lunatics in my Facebook feed by unfriending and/or blocking them. I have a couple cousins who have drunk the Kool-Aid, and keep them around because we're related, but if the rest of them start pumping the propaganda machine I dispose of them.

Keeping contact with my friends over social media has been an important survival skill during the pandemic. Those friends are young parents involved in raising children, professional musicians who have seen their livelihood vanish as public venues shut down, other dog owners and dog raisers, etc. Sometimes I pick up a phone, or video call.

Thanks to Facebook contacts I met a noted artist who has been the subject of TV specials and has done museum shows. He was living in the ghost town of Andrews near the Nevada border. He had a standard poodle with Addison's disease, and was 3.5 hours from the nearest vet. He chose our place to re-home his dog because he could not care for her there. It turned into a friendship. In the next couple of weeks I will buy a tapestry from him that is the artists copy and one of two. He designed the painting, and then it was shipped to China, where skilled craftswomen wove intricate details into the fabric one thread at a time. My wife and I have been art collectors for decades, and, where possible, buy directly from the artist. Without social media this would never have been possible.

I agree that the mass of Facebook is just propaganda memes. If people can't create their own content, I don't keep them as friends. Most of the memes are lies. Some of them have been carefully crafted by professional propagandists to seem credible, but taken as a whole they warp people's perception of reality.
 
   / Why are people in Indianapolis going postal. #227  
Please don't think me stupid enough to not realize that being a LEO is a very dangerous job.
Being a cop comes in at around #17 on a list of the most dangerous jobs. OSHA keeps stats. The guy nailing down shingles on your house has a better chance of being killed or crippled on the job than a cop. The really dangerous jobs are commercial fishing, logging, and farming. The guy who collects your garbage has a more dangerous job than a cop.


The problem with police work is not the danger, it's the confrontation. A continual diet of crap from the people they deal with drives them crazy. Militarization of police forces doesn't help, because they hire officers who learned police actions on the streets of Kandahar, who perceive any confrontation as potentially deadly.
 
   / Why are people in Indianapolis going postal. #228  
12 of my high school friends went right into law enforcement with 2 year degrees and academy...

It tends to be a very close knit group... Been to a few get togethers where I was the only non Leo there and it is when they can speak freely... even a private Face Book post can lead to dismissal

They worry about bringing the job home and more than a few had spouses opt out...

I recommend citizen rise along if offered... between Oakland and neighboring cities and Sheriff it really puts things into prospective.. not sure how many would react being spit on and taunted...

Most say we can do this the hard way or easy way... some take that to heart and heard one say you kill me and my family will be rich and you might as well be dead because your life is over...
 
   / Why are people in Indianapolis going postal. #230  
You have no idea. I was reading something about China, and in areas where you already couldn't breath, they set up GIANT incinerators, and some other mind blowing unhealthy complex, I can't think of.
I go outside and all that fresh air hurts my nose! lol
In the 70s or 80s the next county over had a ramp leading to a giant incinerator for dump trucks to back up, schools and department stores had smaller incinerators too, not to mention the burn barrels in people's back yards. It's difficult to believe now.
 
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