Why Have We Become So Desensitised

[nailit]

To the needs of other humans???
Im sick of seeing 'jokes' about the guy that fell from a plane on my FB feed.
This was a guy that was once loved by someone (his mother maybe)….

Same with the homeless.
Just becomes the norm to see people wrapped in sleeping blankets etc.

[1ozzy]

G'day Smow :-)

[Smowball]

You ok? I can’t sleep as usual lol

[1ozzy]

Natter about nothing in general on going driveabout then ;-)

[Eleena]

Morning.
Regards the homeless, because their needs are complex ... how does the man in the street begin to solve their issues? We can do our 'bit' in small ways, but that's all it is, a bit. As has already been said, there will always be the vulnerable,it's a much bigger problem than giving food or money over. I don't think most have become desensitized, we still have empathy! What we don't have is enough knowledge to tackle drug addiction, alcoholism .. and homelessness.

[10ClarionSt]

It was ok to laugh about the loss of a human life on this web site, re that guy who fell out of the plane, but when somebodys' cat died recently, some people on here lost all sense of reality. Including AB Editor, I would suggest.

[1ozzy]

Including?

[vetuste_ennemi]

I mourn the death of my cats more than that of the stowaway, certainly.

[Deskdiary]

Crikey - Calico's piety and her scorn for others knows no bounds.

I couldn't give a tinker's cuss about this prat, the homeless or anybody else who who has no bearing on the life of me and mine, and I really don't get people who have expressed sympathy for the man on the plane or his family - in fact, I find that really odd because you don't know them and never will know them.

For me it is events as a whole that affect me, such as the Borough Market attack, rather than the individuals affected by events - because I don't know them individually.

As long as me and mine are hunky-dory, that's all I'm interested in. Yes that's very selfish, but so what?

Cue the "what if a person affected were a member of your family" pointless argument. I don't care about 'whataboutery' arguments as they are entirely futile.

[Prudie]

Well my input will be of little value after that but I don't think we have become desensitised at all, it's always been like that. Tasteless jokes about death and disasters have been made all my life, it's probably some human coping mechanism. It is a feature of the AB community however to either outpour sympathy or take the opposite camp and dismiss, sometimes with derision. Read your local news, mine reports on the death of a cyclist today, it's some tragic death most days but we don't have to state our upset for all to see. The guy in the plane certainly deserves no more sympathy than 'ordinary' people who are suffering. I don't get why ABers felt such a need to take him to their hearts. Not seen much sympathy for the poor bloke the body landed next to.

[sanmac]

An excellent post, Prudie.

[ladybirder]

Agree with Prudie.

[Peter Pedant]

// What on earth are you talking about, Calicogirl? It means what it says.//

and it says that Nigh is a tight lipped .....
well said Calico, well put and as you might expect I understood every word.

there is a lot on AB of well expressed comment followed by the usual foo wot dat abart den?

[pixie374]

I haven't read the rest of the posts yet... but I don't think we have become desensitised as such, more desensitised to things reported in the media, because there is just so much, some of it not even accurate, constant and fairly "removed" from us. How people react on the surface to a tragedy, is not the same as how they would behave if they were there, and the same with joking about something, a very human way of coping anyway. It doesn't imply a genuine disregard of other people or lack of concern. It would do if you were saying these things to families of victims, but as a general reaction here, I wouldn't take it too seriously as a guide to character.

[gness]

You may change your mind when you’ve read some of the posts, Pixie.

[jennyjoan]

I too thought it terrible for the guy that the body landed next too. What a terrible shock for that person.

Only it happened you could say it was "made up".

[naomi24]

pp, chase your mouth, there's a good chap. It's escaped your brain again.