Are we really at more danger, or have we all become smarter and more paranoid?

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In times like this, I talk to my grandmother quite often. I've been talking to her a lot lately, because she has been through a lot of wars and scares. And even though I disagree with her on a lot of issues, I have to respect her when it comes to any general sense of something BAD about to happen. And no one can really be a psychic about all of this, but she keeps telling me "hey, I avoided German bombs in Egypt, I was ready to pack during the Cuban missile crisis. All of this happening now is just a bunch of baloney. Don't worry."

Has the internet and other technological advances or the further commodification of news, or outlets like this just made us so extremely thin-skinned about all of this shit? Stepping back, it does a little ridiculous to get all freaked out, considering we've all been in more dangerous situations in the recent past. And in most cases, we* all came through ok.

Isn't ILXOR just as guilty of feeding paranoia, intentionally or not, than CNN?

(*we being the audience and ancestors of the people I'm talking to here on ILXor. Of course, wars go on everyday in more unstable regions in the world, and there's never a time some major population isn't being persecuted or savaged, and those situations aren't any less important of course)

― donut bitch (donut), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 20:31 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm beginning to wonder that myself. I'm actually glad of the fact I'll be away from ILX for the weekend (I'm visiting a friend), so I can concentrate on other things and, generally speaking, just calming down a bit.

I think this has been the best news source for me here simply because there's a lot of good opinion and impassioned questioning going on. It's been grand and then some. It is also starting to drive me up a wall -- not because there's nothing to worry about, but because obsessively dwelling here and reviewing those threads is impeding everything else I'm trying to do, whether that's help people in Reserves or concentrate on my writing or what have you.

Again, there's plenty to feel concern over and fear. PLENTY. But there always has been, there always will be.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 20:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Smarter? I doubt it. More paranoid? I know I am. More at danger? From what?

The issue at hand is that those of us who are worried, based on the information we have so far, probably aren't seeing the threat in its proper perspective. I'm in DC, but I probably am at greater risk of getting in a car accident while evacuating DC than of getting hit by a terrorist attack.

― j.lu (j.lu), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 20:42 (twenty-two years ago)

If the goal of this terrorism is the defeat of the US, the best time for terrorist attacks would have been the days and weeks immediately after 9/11. That nothing happened suggests either the US government had better controls on terrorism than what has been presented via the media -or- AQ had nothing else planned and their camps, recruitments, training, etc. amounts to nothing more than military masturbation.

Because there are more terrorist groups than AQ, including many domestic groups, I tend to believe the former.

Remember that the ‘terror scale’ had once before been elevated to orange and the populace collectively shrugged. Now, along with elevating the status, the government has also suggested putting together water, duct tape, plastic, canned food, evacuation routes, etc. By putting the scale into the context of planning something tangible, it becomes something less abstract, and therefore more conducive to paranoia.

― No One (SiggyBaby), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 20:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Emergency planning in general is just a good thing regardless. Living in earthquake territory, I'm well aware of it!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 20:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Not to sound fatalist, but I don't worry about things that I have no influence over. I'd like to be aware of impending doom, but I won't let that info taint the time I got left

― Oops (Oops), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 20:45 (twenty-two years ago)

I seriously worry about anyone who becomes paranoid about THE WORLD EVENTS as a result of reading ILXOR.

By the way, I hear there's a really big ATTACK planned for somewhere soon... maybe Britain or America, or maybe somewhere else where you find British and American people... or maybe somewhere else entirely. so be careful.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 20:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Intensifying the Hysteria

The government is putting out fake terror alerts and a fake bin Laden tape to drive the public into a crazed panic

― gygax!, Wednesday, 12 February 2003 20:48 (twenty-two years ago)

FWIW, I agree with your grandmother. A realistic assessment of the threat to you as an individual from an act of terror would rate the risk as almost negligible.

First, assess the risk of your city being a target. Next, assess the chance that the attack will be successful. Then calculate the number of dead or injured likely to result from a successful attack of various types. Then calculate the casualties as a percentage of your city's population.

Finally, understand that these factors are cumulative, and you'll come to understand that it's about as likely as being hit by lightning. Lightning kills several hundred people every year, so it isn't an infintesimal chance. And if you live in a high-frequency area for lightning storms, you learn to adjust your behavior for it. But it's not as if you have to live in daily fear of it.

― Aimless, Wednesday, 12 February 2003 20:49 (twenty-two years ago)

DB's gran is OTM. I hope. My mum always tells me to stop being silly about things like this, and I used to worry about everything when I was younger, I gotta a pretty good grip from the age of 18 onwards. Recently, though I've started worrying again, avoiding the tube and stuff like that, and it's not cool. The news isn't helping, so I'm going to try and avoid it. It's not easy when you feel the government is using the threat of terror, to make you support a war that probably won't have much affect on terrorist networks and could make things worse. I live in London, and I should be used to the threat of terror, I mean my home town was bombed by the real IRA only a couple of years ago. So, I think I will leave it at this for all my comments on terror and war, and try and work myself out of this rut.

― jel -- (jel), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 20:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Nobody's frightened because nobody is in much danger. Even if terrorist warnings aren't pro-war propaganda, I'm not scared because, on the tube, on the street, at the airport, I'm at least as stupidly wary of people pushing me under trains, 14 year olds stabbing me, customs fingering me, as I am of other possibilities. When it comes to harm done to my own body, I don't discriminate according to motivation. I don't welcome any of it. And all of it's unlikely. (If there's another September 11th-scale bang tomorrow, and there won't be, US residents have a 0.01% chance of dying.) And the war that's coming isn't going to lead to any bombs landing on my house (in near-central London). I'm sure of that, just now. Are there any Iraqi ILXers?

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 20:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Here's a direct link to that second article gygax refers to:

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_1747.shtml

Assuming the sources are on the level, it does all sound very spin-like.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 20:57 (twenty-two years ago)

(excellent post Eyeball)

― jel -- (jel), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 20:59 (twenty-two years ago)

I seriously worry about anyone who becomes paranoid about THE WORLD EVENTS as a result of reading ILXOR. By the way, I hear there's a really big ATTACK planned for somewhere soon... maybe Britain or America, or maybe somewhere else where you find British and American people... or maybe somewhere else entirely. so be careful.

DV, I think you missed my point.

There's nothing wrong with the interesting array of opinions, mostly left, on ILXOr, expressed here. And it has been the most intriguing and intelligent forum that I've encountered as far as political discussion goes. But just like any commercial news outlet, when it comes to allowing people who are more sensitive and scared about the world situation right now to just step back and think more deeply about, ilxor is just as bad as anything else.

So many individuals are competing to get their points across, however well though out -- or not, that it feeds into that rather self-destructive funk and hopelessness just as much as hitting cnn.com . And it makes me less likely to want to listen.

I just wish there was a message that would pop up on ILE every now and then saying "hey, maybe it's time for a break for a while?".

sigh.

― donut bitch (donut), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 21:04 (twenty-two years ago)

http://weeklywire.com/ww/images/snack_right.gif

― Amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 21:07 (twenty-two years ago)

that was brilliant, amateurist. But you forgot the link to Nabisco or Keebler or whoever sponsored the message. :)

(See, maybe considering ILXOR a news outlet is the first part of my silliness.. just MAYBE YOU THINK?)

― donut bitch (donut), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 21:16 (twenty-two years ago)

I see your point Donut Bitch. I don't read all of ILXOR so I don't get the same sense of being swamped by it.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 21:18 (twenty-two years ago)

(If there's another September 11th-scale bang tomorrow, and there won't be, US residents have a 0.01% chance of dying.)

Having redone my sums, I think this should be 0.001%. Same difference.

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 22:08 (twenty-two years ago)

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