The Current Events Thread

[Reyo]

No, even then a torso injury is still leagues less complicated than a limb injury. Most preventable battlefield deaths are caused by gunshot wounds to the limbs, and that's because of the bullet having a high chance of hitting that major artery. You puncture your lung, you're still breathing. It just sucks to breath. You are losing blood, but blood loss via the brachial artery is way way worse than blood loss via a pulmonary vein. Even with the eventual tension pneumothorax you have a better chance of surviving a gunshot wound to the chest because it takes minutes to develop, and is fixed with something as simple as sticking a needle in your chest.

And that's not a valid reason to assume he was actively looking to fulfill some superhero fantasy. We do shit we don't want to do every day, despite being told have to. We do it not because we have some delusion of vigilantism, we do it because we feel we have to, because if we don't bad things will happen. It was probably why he joined the neighborhood watch in the first place. Of course, even that is an assumption into his motives, no more founded in evidence than your theory that he's trying to be batman.

[D-vid]

Fact is he had no business doing what he did. He was told by the people who know what they're doing a lot better than him (or at least that's expected of them) to not do it, yet he still did. Thinking "I have to do it, who else will?" even though you were told not to, is exactly that. Thinking you're some kind of hero when you're not.

[Reyo]

I'm not saying what he did was right, I'm saying that trying to predict his motivation for having done it is rather pointless. All it does is attempt to add an emotional mark to the story with unreliable sources. You can make Zimmerman look bad by talking about his futile attempt to fulfill some dream of vigilantism, or make him look good by talking about his drive to defend his neighborhood despite being restricted by "the man." The truth is I agree with you, he should not have persued Treyvon after being told not to by the proper authorities, but the question isn't whether or not he should have followed the direction of the police, it was whether or not the shooting was justified given the situation.

If you want to try and say that it wasn't because he disobeyed direction from the proper authorities, then that's fine. I'm also inclined to agree that such a fact is relevant to the question, and makes Zimmerman look less innocent, but trying to bring in his motivation for why he disobeyed that direction is just trying to pander to everyone's emotions with information you can't possibly know.

[Lambeth]

I think one thing the whole fiasco does show is that race is really just a dumb social construct. A dumb social construct that a lot of people prop up and legitimize but dumb all the same.

[TheStranger]

Yeah, but pretending the social construct doesnt exist and that no motivation is ever racist is ridiculous.

[SaintCrazy]

I do agree that the media/public is making way too big a deal out of the racism involved. It may have played a part but it was never really the main issue.

Folks who go out of their way to over-emphasize the "racistness" of a situation only seem to perpetuate the cultural divisions between people further.

[Mete]

Bingo on that last part there. Also works for other social issues.

[Madican]

One thing that I found "interesting" was how the media portrayed Zimmerman as a white-Hispanic, not either/or. It was technically accurate, but strange, since the media also refers to Obama as black, not white-black. So why the sudden distinction if not to play on the racial angle?

[Kamak]

I actually didn't hear that he was hispanic until halfway through the trial.

I thought this was a kinda typical white on black violence that gets everyone in a frenzy to demonize one race and exemplify the other from how the media handled it before that.

[TheStranger]

One thing that I found "interesting" was how the media portrayed Zimmerman as a white-Hispanic, not either/or. It was technically accurate, but strange, since the media also refers to Obama as black, not white-black. So why the sudden distinction if not to play on the racial angle?

I thought Obama was half samoan, not white? Or am I thinking of someone else

[Lambeth]

It may have played a part but it was never really the main issue.

From your perspective. Probably doesn't feel like that if you're black.

[Madican]

At some point though it becomes a persecution complex. Al Sharpton is a fantastic example of this. Absolutely every single white-on-black crime he calls a hate crime, whether it really is or not, whereas any black-on-white crime is not racially motivated at all.

I think that inventing a racist motivation is far worse than a crime that actually is racist, because it's painting someone as something they're not.

[Lambeth]

I don't think Zimmerman is racist but I do think the system is. It's not a complex if statistics prove it's true.

[Madican]

When a crime is called racist when there is no racism involved that is a persecution complex. I'm not talking general statistics, I'm talking about instances where Al Sharpton has said something was racially charged and fucked things up. I hate the man, he has blood on his hands and acts as if he's squeaky clean. His lies have murdered people.

[Lambeth]

who?