Does anyone else feel like...something isn't right,

[MacCruiskeen]

Really -- very seriously -- it's an instant cure for any personal malaise, any feelings of powerlessness, fear, depression, etc. Just drive over there and ask (say) the next-door neighbours, or the Iman and worshippers at the local mosque, or the family doctor/dentist, OR try and find some of the 50-60 surviving witnesses, OR look in at the Malik/Farook house itself and see if there are still any of those countless family photos lying around, you know, those orphaned albumsful, the family snaps the world's press took a damn good look at and then decided not to show us.

Family snaps usually show couples side-by-side, most especially if they've just had a baby together.

You'll be doing yourself and the world a favour. At the very least, you'll have helped to silence my conspiracy nuttery ["Ffs, he never shuts up about it!"] by demonstrating that Ms. Malik was not in fact child-sized, not in fact much shorter (maybe even taller) than her six-foot husband, maybe even an actual Amazon.

It'll be a Christmas present to the planet.

[DrEvil]

^^Yes - go there and harass all those people and wish them a Merry Christmas while you're at it, and then pop by Newtown and ask the parents if they're really sure their kids are dead.

[MacCruiskeen]

^^Yes - go there and harass all those people and wish them a Merry Christmas while you're at it, and then pop by Newtown and ask the parents if they're really sure their kids are dead.

So that's why you call yourself evil.

[brainpanhandler]

Acceleration. Yes. That distinguishes the times we are in and also, the fucking climate is fucked up. We have truly fucked the planet up; at least for life as we know it.

I agree that when fire was first harnessed there were probably many which felt the world had turned upside down and muttered/grunted about how something wasn't right.

This is different.

Isn't climate change a continuation and variation of the "MAD" idea of mutually-assured nuclear destruction that most or all of us here grew up with?

No, not really. Psychologically I suppose they are both manifestations of a sort of freudian thanatos that our species seems to be in thrall to, but, no not really. Perhaps if you imagine dozens of hydrogen bombs going off in super slow motion over a span of several decades.

The belief that human beings can and may be in the process of destroying themselves as a species, and even the entire planet.

It's passed into the belief that we are in the process of destroying ourselves as a species, and even the entire planet. At least for me and I think for perhaps a majority. If not consciously then subconsciously. It's a darkening egregoric cloud that seems to shroud all my interactions with the rest of the apes. It's everywhere.

This is almost certainly a new concept for the individual psyche to have to integrate and live with.

New within the scale of our existence as a distinct species on the planet? Yes.

Terror Management Theory is all about how death anxiety gets sublimated/displaced into frantic cultural activities such as war, social reform, art and industry, and how it's probably been there since the dawn of civilization (being what caused it to dawn). So now we are born into an awareness not only of our own individual mortality but that of the species, that everything we do is all leading to dust.

That's a pretty tough awareness to live with because it constantly reminds us of the futility of the very activities we were once able to pursue, to keep at bay the awareness of our mortality. People can no longer pass the buck of meaning to the next generation, when they know they might well be the last .

Beauty itself, the sheer beauty of our reality and our planet, is one of the only experiences in this plane of existence that makes me wonder if there is a God. Why should it exist? When Beauty is darkened I have no reason to be here except to huddle next to other apes and offer them my warmth.

[DrEvil]

^^Yes - go there and harass all those people and wish them a Merry Christmas while you're at it, and then pop by Newtown and ask the parents if they're really sure their kids are dead.

So that's why you call yourself evil.

Yup.

For the record: I know you don't think they were all crisis actors, but you sometimes sound like those who do.

[MacCruiskeen]

^^Yes - go there and harass all those people and wish them a Merry Christmas while you're at it, and then pop by Newtown and ask the parents if they're really sure their kids are dead.

So that's why you call yourself evil.

Yup.

For the record: I know you don't think they were all crisis actors, but you sometimes sound like those who do.

Aha. Do you ever talk anything but complete and utter shite?

[DrEvil]

^^Yes - go there and harass all those people and wish them a Merry Christmas while you're at it, and then pop by Newtown and ask the parents if they're really sure their kids are dead.

So that's why you call yourself evil.

Yup.

For the record: I know you don't think they were all crisis actors, but you sometimes sound like those who do.

Aha. Do you ever talk anything but complete and utter shite?

No. Do you?

What is the evidence for your latest theory? Two witnesses saw three people, and no one has explicitly said that one of them was small and child-like?

Why is it that every time there is a mass shooting you're screaming from the roof tops that it can't possibly be them, it's a setup, you just know that they're innocent because look - this little detail doesn't add up with what this witness said or what this cop said or what this grainy youtube video shows and OMG the blood in this picture doesn't look right, none of which proves anything. All you have is speculation and some strange details, but you just know.

Tl;dr: Your standards for evidence are shit.

[coffin_dodger]

Hooray - a spat!

[brainpanhandler]

You two go get a room. On edit: you three.

[DrEvil]

Eh, I've said my piece. I'll shut up.

[MacCruiskeen]

What is the evidence for your latest theory?

What "theory"?? Look up the word in a dictionary.

Two witnesses saw three people, and no one has explicitly said that one of them was small and child-like?

Three witnesses at least saw three people. And yes, no one out of the 50-60 surviving eyewitnesses has "said that one of them was small and child-like." Although by all accounts she was.

Can you think? Can you think why that might matter?

If you think that is unimportant
Why is it that every time there is a mass shooting you're screaming from the roof tops that it can't possibly be them, it's a setup,

No I'm not. That's a plain lie. But absolutely typical of you. Because you can neither read nor think -- or, if you can, you choose not to whenever it doesn't suit you to do so.

you just know

Ah-ah. Stop right there. Look up "burden of proof". (I tire of repeating myself. Can you think?)

that they're innocent because look - this little detail doesn't add up with what this witness said or what this cop said or what this grainy youtube video shows and OMG the blood in this picture doesn't look right, none of which prove anything. All you have is speculation and some strange details, but you just know.

Look up "burden of proof".

Tl;dr: My pet peeve with you is that your standards for evidence are shit.

Look up "burden of proof". (Ffs.) My pet peeve with you is threefold:

1) that you are incapable of thinking (you have never heard of "burden of proof", for example). or even of reading (QED):

2) that you go out of your way to piss on me in passing with a disgustingly sanctimonious, witlessly shitstirring and deliberately pointmissing post (which you were then too cowardly to retract and not to half-retract, incompetently):

3) that you are a kneejerk defender of all things sourced to "sources". (QED).

[coffin_dodger]

Please continue. It's like watching a joyless soap opera. Quite compulsive.

[MacCruiskeen]

That's your second witless and pointless contribution to this thread, Mr. Dodger. Seek your entertainment elsewhere, eg on the telly.

[coffin_dodger]

Oo, the arbiter has spoken. I'll be quiet now, sir.

[MacCruiskeen]

Right, I must be an "arbiter" to be bored or irritated by you and your crap.

Ffs. Carry on. Watch the telly. Say anything you want, however witless or pointless. I'm not the boss of you.