The November 2015 Paris Terrorist Attacks

[Kreekakon]

You may have all heard of this already since it was extremely large news, but for those who haven't:

On the evening of 13 November 2015, a series of coordinated terrorist attacks happened in Paris which has resulted in over 100 deaths and many more injured. These attacks were the deadliest in France since WW2.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has since claimed responsibility for the attacks.

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I don't have much to say on the attacks themselves beyond the obvious reactions, but I have a few things to say regarding some of the actual reactions of other people to the whole thing. Mostly originally posted by me on Skye or reddit so copy pasta for the most part:

Regarding the France attacks I've been seeing a lot of people disscussing "selective grief" and how people only showed this sort of attention to France and not other countries.

It's an unfortunate thing that ultimately comes down to how our society has been conditioned. No one gives a damn about Syria or other related countries because in our mind's eye, it's something "to be expected". However France getting attacked is something that was "not part of the conventional plan" so everyone loses their minds.

However here's another thing to consider: It sucks, but the reality is that our compassion and empathy just simply cannot be everywhere at once. If we're going to complain about it being unfair that France is getting attention while Syria isn't, is it really possible to follow up on that complainant and give every single related incident in the world the attention it deserves?

That's the ideal world but it's too big a burden to bear for any of us to follow up on and more importantly I don't believe that any of us have the mental capacity to GENUINELY want to give every incident this attention because we'll eventually burn out our ambition. We can't save everyone no matter how much we think we can.

So while it's worth pondering on the happening of selective grief, I think more importantly is to help where we can and be thankful that at the very least the world has banded together to help this one incident.

I'd say the proper thing to do is to acknowledge yourself as an individual that there are attacks going on elsewhere. But getting pissy about the entirety of society focusing on one thing is not worth it because it's a losing battle

I also don't dislike that people are switching their FB avatars because it is a gesture of showing respect for the event and raising awareness of the whole thing.

I like to look at it as people doing "the least they can" in showing respect as opposed to the negative view of them trying to feel good about themselves by participating in "slacktism". It's the exact same action but approached/viewed from different perspectives and motivations, and I like to think of people in a better light.

Any of you also have thoughts on this? Would love to hear them!

[i3670]

Why I think this is big news incomparison to Syria. First of: there is a conflict in Syria between several hostile groups whose goal is to destroy each other. The GOAL is to kill your opponent whereas the GOAL of the Paris attack was to kill civilians. That is an important difference. Civilians die in the conflict aswell but they are not the main target. Do not take this the wrong way, I do not condone the killing of civilians in any way.

Second: It's so far away from the conflict. There isn't a war in Paris and you wouldn't expect there to be an armed attack.

[Mudbill]

I'm sure attacks in Syria are well documented and reported in Syria itself. It's more local news. Syria is far away from the West, and so we have little influence there and get little influenced by what happens there. It sucks, but in all honesty it doesn't affect us, and so it's difficult to force oneself to care about it.

Paris is another deal, because it's something we all know and love. It happened in Paris, and it's comparable to any other modern western place. It could've happened in your own hometown. The similarity is frightening for the people of the West, because it's a familiar environment.

And yes, as sad as it is, it is for the West by now expected to be like this in Syria. It's not news that another target was bombed because it happens all the time. Not everything can be news. It's mostly just the unexpected.

There are some people blaming the immigration for these attacks, but I saw a comment that sums it up pretty well: "For those who blame the immigrants for these attacks, don't you see that these are the people the immigrants are trying to run away from?" I do agree with it, but at the same time I can't feel like the immigration itself had no effect on this. The whole immigration situation is a huge decoy for extremists to slip past the guards and into the West. Some even say the whole movement is for this exact purpose, and that that is why ISIS is bombing Syria. I don't quite believe that, but I see no reason to fully doubt it either. ISIS is powerful. They are also very smart. If you needed to hire an insider, they would be the people to talk to.

[Romulator]

I'm not going to comment personal views because knowing me, I'm going to say something rather over the top or a bit out there, but I nonetheless simply choose to ignore it, since I treat any attack which is labelled as terrorism to be a voice. If the voice is a cry for attention, and the attention is not given, it goes away.

I know. Wishful thinking, but that's how I have always been. Was a very similar event when there was a suggested terrorist attack 5 minutes by car from my house here in Australia. I didn't react and just moved on. People have since forgotten about it.

I'll also leave this here. Whether you have a Facebook or not, you should be able to view that particular video. It was on the news today, spoken by Waleed Aly in his segment Something we should talk about, a moment in the program where he discusses a topic of interest, often unbiased, but communicates a point of reassurance.

https://www.facebook.com/theprojecttv/vi...154568441/

[Kreekakon]

I'll also leave this here. Whether you have a Facebook or not, you should be able to view that particular video. It was on the news today, spoken by Waleed Aly in his segment Something we should talk about, a moment in the program where he discusses a topic of interest, often unbiased, but communicates a point of reassurance.

https://www.facebook.com/theprojecttv/vi...154568441/

This is a very good video. He brings up a very obvious but also important point that we should all bear in mind:

ISIS is the enemy that we are looking towards (Whether or not they were really behind the attacks), not Muslims as a whole.

[Filizitas]

Wow. There were like hundreds of other attacks on different folks... ever heard of that plane from russia that got shot? No?

Well it was a public flight and nobody cares... and suddenly france has an attack and everybody loses there mind.

I pray for all of them but this is really not fair at all...

[Kreekakon]

Wow. There were like hundreds of other attacks on different folks... ever heard of that plane from russia that got shot? No?

Well it was a public flight and nobody cares... and suddenly france has an attack and everybody loses there mind.

I pray for all of them but this is really not fair at all...

I actually touch on my thoughts about this mindset in my opening post, and how one can maintain a positive yet realistic mindset. You should go read it and tell me what you think!

[Slanderous]

Wow. There were like hundreds of other attacks on different folks... ever heard of that plane from russia that got shot? No?

Well it was a public flight and nobody cares... and suddenly france has an attack and everybody loses there mind.

I pray for all of them but this is really not fair at all...

First of all, I strongly disagree with most of your points - we don't know what caused the plane to crash. The fact that ISIS claimed to shoot it down is another side of a coin. They can say whatever they want to, but there is no proof for that. I can as well go and yell out that it was Russians who attacked Paris, but I won't do it since there is no proof for that, and I don't have enough evidences to draw such a theory. Fact - check before posting.

Then you also gotta realize that this happend in EUROPE. It could happen (and can still happen sooner than you all think) in any bigger European city - London, Berlin - that's just the beginning of the long - going list. Those folks came from their shitty ISIS - occupied territories and started shooting civilians. There's a diffrence between ISIS fighting with their enemies, who are trained and specialized soldiers, and slaughtering a whole mass of innocent people. It's not Syria where their war started and where it goes over and over - it's a diffrent teritory, a diffrent continent that did NOTHING wrong but having a shitty leaders that can't do anything about ISIS. They want the West to attack them with greater forces so they could use their support. They want people to fear them. And so far, it goes smoothly.

In my opinion, we should leave the Syrian war and ISIS for the men that take part in it - it's stupid, risky, and dangerous to attack someone that does not have brakes, which is perfectly summed up with the unforgivable tragedy. Untill they start thinking about conquering Europe as their next target, we should leave it all alone, wait, make people more conscious about the danger, strengthen the security forces, the military and wait for the bastards to show up.

It greatly pains me to see Europe being slowly conquered by islam. Remember that the worst islamistic countires were once a cradle of art, culture and technology. And soon the same fate awaits Europe if people won't wake up.

May the victims of the senseless shootings find an easy rest. I pray for the families, relatives, friends of the murdered to find peace, and I pray for every single man on Earth to have a full, great and safe trip right here. There is no excuse for this kind of actions. That is against the whole humanity, every single being.

R.I.P

[Red]

Saw this coming; after all, we're in the same war we put our nose in. Expecting nothing in return would be just ridiculous. We bomb them, they bomb us. We kill them, they kill us. And is there a better place to ruin in revenge than Paris? We'll see how long Eiffel will stand still at this rate. I agree with latter posted; a war never ends with what it has began from. Often the opposite is the solution.

[Googolplex]

ISIS is the enemy that we are looking towards (Whether or not they were really behind the attacks), not Muslims as a whole.

Not every Muslim is a terrorist, but to be serious, very often there are other general problems with this religion/civilization.