desensitizing yourself- good or bad?

[Zack]

Didn't Brevik successfully desensitize himself with fake violence?

If you want to do anything, rehearsing it virtually, whether mentally or through a video simulation, isn't a terrible idea.

Well, seeing some random guy get murdered in a movie probably won't get much of a reaction out of me. On the other hand, I imagine that seeing some random guy get murdered in real life would be quite shocking/traumatizing. Similarly, even though I've killed countless people in video games, I seriously doubt I'd be able to actually kill someone in real life.

 

[Kyriakos]

What if, in the eyes of god, those innocent NPCs killed in video games also count as people?

 

[Borachio]

I react to seeing a random guy get murdered in a movie. Am I not supposed to have suspended my disbelief?

 

[Zack]

What if, in the eyes of god, those innocent NPCs killed in video games also count as people?

Then he's an idiot.

I react to seeing a random guy get murdered in a movie. Am I not supposed to have suspended my disbelief?

Then you're not desensitized? I'm not sure what your point is.

 

[Kyriakos]

Given an expanded enough pantheon, some deities are bound to be 'idiots'. Eg Loki got his own self raped by a stupid horse.

 

[Borachio]

Then you're not desensitized? I'm not sure what your point is.

That being desensitized to fake violence is a step on the road to becoming desensitized to real violence?

Which may not be a bad thing, depending on what your aims are.

But sure, if you can watch a movie of fake violence and be unmoved then that might just mean you don't "believe" in the movie. If I watch something and don't suspend my disbelief (i.e. it's so poorly executed that I'm simply not engaged by it and it just looks fake and it's simply actors pretending) I feel I'm wasting my time. And that happens.

 

[Zack]

You're taking me too literally. I mean that is a much less severe reaction than to actual violence.

 

[Borachio]

I think you're right. But I also think they're qualitatively very similar. At least, I imagine so. I've never actually seen someone be murdered. But judging from the similarity of other experiences, that's what I'd hypothesize.

It's what we as human beings do all the time, I think: rehearse possible future scenarios to see whether the outcome is something we'd want or not, or how we'd handle the feelings of it. It's what children do when they play at stuff.

 

[caketastydelish]

 

[Terxpahseyton]

Yeah, I know, trapped within a polarized debate as you are, certain faction hate the thought of desensitizing
But it most certainly is real, conditionally of course.

The military has used drills to get people to mindlessly kill since many centuries. The emphasize is on 'mindlessness'.
Target - Trigger
That is how you get your soldiers to loose empathy. Make it a simple motorized exercise.
And yep. Video games do the same thing. Tough luck. The military knows so since a while. And makes use of that knowledge.

Oh yea - most people do that exercise and still don't kill anyone. Yabba Yabbba. It most certainly is also true that game or movie violence is very well fought off by personal sentiments, habits and possibilities of the people subjected to it.

As long they are civilian, that is.

Violent media of that kind is a poor instigator of actual violence. If you are not thrown into a situation of violence.

The thing is - poor does not mean none. It IMO most certainly still is one.
And what is comes down to is that millions of people effectively say 'Well, really, we are sorry for those hundreds or thousands or whatever of poor jabs killed on account of violent media... but we really like our violent media. So, yeah, that is life. Sorry."

The issue is - such a story flies right into the face of modern public dogma.
But confronting that clash would also fly right into the face of other modern public dogma.

So some cute proxy debates happen. And the Internet can amuse itself with getting all political about them.

I am just sick of it, though.

 

[Domen]

That last pic isn't that different from Hyde Park.

(unless they are dead, which is likely, i suppose :\ ).

Always check what the link says: "War-Dead-Iraq-War-Memorial-Dead-Americans.jpg"

They are not dead, they are 2500 living people, lying on the ground and this way commemorating 2500 U.S. soldiers KIA in the Iraq War:

http://www.popularresistance.org/wp...War-Dead-Iraq-War-Memorial-Dead-Americans.jpg

Even the description at the bottom of the photo says "this is what 2500 dead Americans looks like". ^^

BTW - weren't there actually more than 2500 Americans killed in the Iraq War ???

 

[Domen]

The worst for me was Djibouti in Africa but I had been other places like Nicaragua where you can't eat outside without beggar kids coming. I'm not saying its like that all over the country but it was in Granada. Here it's common in the bazaar area but not that bad. Usually I just see like one or two and sometimes women who are entirely covered including their face who are begging. I really draw the line at people touching me and either loudly object or just keep walking quickly. Maybe that's not the best way to deal with it but that's what I do.

If they are begging just for food, then why don't you give (or buy) them some food ???

Usually beggars ask for food but take only money, and when you want to give them food they reject (that's my experience - I never give money). That's how you distinguish "fake" beggars who make money begging, or people who want to buy alcohol or drugs, from hungry people really needing help.

I was in a restaurant, a beggar came asked me for money to buy a meal. I told him I would buy him a meal - he just left. He wanted money not food.

 

[luiz]

Always check what the link says: "War-Dead-Iraq-War-Memorial-Dead-Americans.jpg"

They are not dead, they are 2500 living people, lying on the ground and this way commemorating 2500 U.S. soldiers KIA in the Iraq War:

http://www.popularresistance.org/wp...War-Dead-Iraq-War-Memorial-Dead-Americans.jpg

Even the description at the bottom of the photo says "this is what 2500 dead Americans looks like". ^^

BTW - weren't there actually more than 2500 Americans killed in the Iraq War ???

4,491 is the latest number.

 

[bhavv]

This one isn't too bad, but it made me lol:

http://caliser.com/9-celebrities-who-ruined-their-faces/10/

'This Korean model/singer takes the cake, or rather the cooking oil. A woman who was once among the beautiful elite became so compulsively inclined toward plastic surgery that when doctors cut her off she injected herself with cooking oil. The result was so drastic and horrific that the all the attempts to reconstruct proved insufficient to reverse the damage she had wrought. However, the attempts at least brought her back to her happy place – under the knife.'

Lolololololol. But then again she is just a stupid cow and deserves being ridiculed.

'Im one of the top 5% most beautiful humans in the world ... Lets inject my face with cooking oil'.

 

[Domen]

Which third world countries are just as comfortable to their populace as to the average American?

"Comfort" and "happiness" are not synonyms. I've been watching documentaries by Polish traveler W. Cejrowski - the series is called "Boso przez świat" ("Barefooted across the world") because he travels barefooted. He visits tribes still largely untouched by civilization (recently I've watched an episode with the Himba people) as well third world countries. In many cases they live happy lifes, perhaps healthier (except that when they actually get sick then their access to modern medicine is limited) and less stressful than people in the first world. The Himba are still largely untouched by civilization but the governments of Namibia and Angola plan to change this soon. Usually this transition from traditonal lifestyle to civilization (or rather to third world "broken imitation" of it - because we know how badly it works there) causes suffering and shock.

4,491 is the latest number.

Thanks, so almost twice as high.

 

[bhavv]

That's another point, just because people live in what seems like worse conditions to us, doesn't make them worse off.

Humans are a highly adaptable species, and adjust to the environment in which they are raised. They can be perfectly happy in poorer places as that is the environment they have adapted too.

This isn't the same thing as taking a human from a more modern and wealthier upbringing and sticking them in a poor place, that's not adapting.

 

[Domen]

Cooking oil made her even more beautiful (if on the left is "before" and on the right is "after" - or no?):

Usually on the left is "before" and on the right is "after", but maybe here they made it inversely. ^^

But then again she is just a stupid cow and deserves being ridiculed.

It's a proof that brain > looks because without a brain you can have perfect looks and still **** it up.

 

[bhavv]

LOL?

Cooking oil turned her into the blob on the left, google her for more pics.

There's people who actually argue 'awww, poor thing with body dismorphic disorder who never got any help' ...

WHO ELSE IN THIS WORLD DO YOU SEE INJECTING THEIR FACES WITH COOKING OIL????

 

[Kyriakos]

Not really a cool thing to joke about, though

Some people just face far more crap than others..

(And yes, people with BDD can do all sorts of horrible things to their own self, cause in their mind they mostly look nasty to begin with).

 

[NovaKart]

If they are begging just for food, then why don't you give (or buy) them some food ???

Usually beggars ask for food but take only money, and when you want to give them food they reject (that's my experience - I never give money). That's how you distinguish "fake" beggars who make money begging, or people who want to buy alcohol or drugs, from hungry people really needing help.

I was in a restaurant, a beggar came asked me for money to buy a meal. I told him I would buy him a meal - he just left. He wanted money not food.

Normally I don't have any food on me or the time to take someone to a restaurant and in Djibouti I didn't speak any Somali and I saw beggars often enough that it really did desensitize to me it a lot.