Thread: Zombie style attack in Miami Florida

  1. #16
    Lurking whiteflags's Avatar
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    I think 99% of people in this thread were talking about the absurdity of the event and not the circumstances which led to the event at all. Brewbuck in particular thought the whole "zombie" perception was wrong and malicious; for some reason, that means that everyone buys (or even cares about) the circumstances that led to the perp's mental state.

    A debate on "chemical misuse" or whatever never arose out of this.

    I'm not holding it against a police officer for making observations, having thoughts and opinions, etc. What I do find alarming is the ABSOLUTE INSANITY and COMPLETE, UTTERLY UNFOUNDED CREDULITY with which the media and general public seem to have swallowed their own malarky, hook, line and sinker.* Like: zero reasoning skills. Pathetic. Maybe everybody is on crazy drugs. You people need to smarten up
    In other words... guys, guys, I think the television news might be really sensationalist! I have to inform the world!
    Zombie style attack in Miami Florida-133824243499-gif

  2. #17
    Officially An Architect brewbuck's Avatar
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    I had forgotten this thread. MK27, I thought it went without saying that I also feel for the victim. You're reading something into my lack of stating something, which is speculation. Now, I wasn't making a point about drugs or mental illness or homelessness or zombies. I am saddened by how the media takes an event, adds a bunch of hyperbole and sensationalism, and blasts it on the air for over a week in order to make a profit, all the while ruining the lives of many people who are unfortunate enough to be involved.
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    I find myself chilled when I read this. It is unbelievable!

  4. #19
    spurious conceit MK27's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by whiteflags View Post
    In other words... guys, guys, I think the television news might be really sensationalist! I have to inform the world!
    Yes, I realize my premise is not very startling. But: while I also know practically no one will bother to read this, millions will still sit and watch the same uncritical tripe over and over again as if it was not what is really repetive and ridiculous (but familiar and comforting, like pablum ).

    This incident in particular struck a chord in me from the very beginning, and, as it now seems, is a particularly grotesque example of the phenomenon, IMO.

    I also am really bothered by the lack of accountability, vis, that you really will not see anything on the news now about how the whole "bath salts" scare was generated by innuendo. To me this represents a rather large blind spot in the Western psyche (honestly) that does have everything to do with the concept of "drugs" and how that concept is used and abused.

    This is not (just) because I think "drugs" are an important political issue in Western society, but because the fallout from that has broader implications and this fiasco is a grade A illustration of such. During my lifetime (I'm 39) I've watched a worsening trend (which, no doubt, started long before I can remember noticing it) whereby people have abandoned their marbles and their sense of empathy because, very literally, they consider an absurd proportion of social problems to be about "drugs" when they are not. For example, and this is very common, a few weeks ago a otherwise intelligent and thoughtful friend of mine was telling a story that involved "that crazy street guy who's always high" in her neighbourhood. I asked how she knew that he was high all the time and her answer was, "You can just tell by the way he acts".

    Very common. This seems to be a realm in which everyone has become an expert in psychopharmacology and behaviour simply because of Dr. Phil and the kind of pure sensentionalism represented by the "bath salts" issue.

    Once upon a time we had concepts of mental and psychological malease that we used to explain the odd behaviour of people with problems (we also had concepts like evil and sadistic, which I think apply in this case -- this person was not crazed or crazy, he was just bad). And long before there was drug use in the modern sense, it was commonly understood that some small percentage of the population did, in fact, have clear mental/psychological problems (and some other percentage of the population are clearly evil and sadist, but not "crazy" in the same dysfunctional way).

    But it seems to me we do not have that anymore -- instead of trying to understand what is wrong with other people, etc, we just decide "they're on drugs" and the answer to all these kinds of social problems is to "get people off drugs" which is utter, utter bull.........

    A debate on "chemical misuse" or whatever never arose out of this.
    Are you sure? I honest, honestly see this as akin to a point in history where someone could make a blatantly racist joke and, when publically criticized for it, could just turn around and say, "What are you talking about? I'm not a racist, I'm just like everyone else. There's no problem here, stop being silly". Better yet, some of them would half way believe it.

    Consider:

    Quote Originally Posted by VirtualAce post #6
    It has been determined it was due to a family of illegal drugs called 'bath salts' which is known to produce hallucinations and mess with the brain more than old school LSD.
    Interesting. And yet when I heard this whole story on the news, it seemed obviously ridiculous, and oddly familiar ("crystal meth -- the crack of the 90's", >_< etc). It's the pretty new clothes on the proverbial emperor. And yet here we have someone who has not just swallowed it all hook line and sinker, but seems eager to regurgitate it, too.

    Quote Originally Posted by brewbuck post #7
    I've dealt with people in very unusual, serious mental states before (both mental illness and drugs), and although I've never seen anything like THAT happen, I can imagine how it could.
    Again, I do not understand why some people are determined to believe that this was just a nice guy who went haywire -- which is way more far-fetched that the more level-headed reasoned perspective, this was a bad guy who did bad things to people and on this particular day it caught up with him.

    I'm also confused by the implication that there were "victims" beyond the homeless guy who was attacked:

    Quote Originally Posted by brewbuck
    I wasn't apologizing for this guy, I am saddened by the effect this is having on everyone who knew him. Not only did he go nuts, harm somebody, and get killed, he's "the zombie guy." That will follow those people for the rest of their lives.
    As I said before, why do you focus on feeling sorry for the friends and family of the perpetrator? Feel sorry for the real victim. If instead the perp had been found naked in a playground attacking someone's six year old, NO ONE would be saying this kind of crap. They'd be horrified that a violent sadist would behave so brazenly and probably also glad he was shot to death on the spot.

    Which is why, again, I think it is all about predjugdice, where it comes from, and how it affects thinking in all kinds of irrational ways. From people that I'm pretty sure are smart enough to know better. The fact that they evidently are not to me demonstrates how deeply the brain can lie awash.

    Quote Originally Posted by phantomotap
    I find it funny that you are playing the "sheeple" card in defense of drugs while comment on the nature of "sheeple".
    Not sure if I quite follow that, but to be clear, I'm not really trying to defend drug use, or at least not primarily. What I'm trying to do is point out how our (absurdly mythologized) concept of drug-use has become so intensely inflated that we evidently, by and large, can no longer see the world objectively when we consider people on "the fringes" (tho geographically, usually somewhere urban and poor) of society -- people with serious probably physiological/neurological problems who have always existed and probably always will.

    How we treat them is up to us. I think there are a lot of ways people reconcile their self-image as "caring human beings" with the reality that their behaviour more often represents the callous disregard for suffering that makes them modern and normal...

    Ok, back to the books ...
    Last edited by MK27; 06-29-2012 at 05:26 AM.
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  5. #20
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  6. #21
    and the hat of int overfl Salem's Avatar
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    Talking of zombies, stop digging up old threads.
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  7. #22
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    I'll post what want, when I want.

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