Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler OT: beheading video...should one watch?

Interesting! Bren, you seem to blame the US for the thousands of Iraqis who died during the sanctions regime. You must have missed the memo. Billions stolen by Saddam Hussein and his French, Russian and Chinese cohorts. The money that got through did make fine additions to his collection of super palaces while babies starved - but then again, you didn't eat unless you got a government ration card and the Ba'athist Nazi regime had better things to do with their money, the Food for Oil Money. But Bren, makes you feel good to blame the bad old USA, knock yourself out.

You don't really believe the propaganda that the US killed 2500 civilians a day during the bombing campaign of Iraq do you? I suppose it fits in with your world view, so who cares if it's nonsense.

It's very instructive to learn from someone so highly evolved, so seeped in the cruelty of US policies that the images of people sawing off the heads of living human beings doesn't move you. It's personal, It's horrible, it's murder. Doesn't bother you? You are special.

I downloaded two terrorist beheading videos earlier.

One of the men, Eugine, was still trying to breathe after the saw was halfway through his throat and what I was thinking of is wheather the audio effects were added by them because he couldn't have been alive that long after he had his throat sawed into. I thought they added the effects to make it look more gruesome and sickening, since Hensley died instantly after his throat was cut yet Eugine was still making noises that sounded like these doctored artifacts halfway into the video.

I can't believe I could watch that and only be thinking about that. I didn't make any expressions that'd lead one to think I was watching a real man have his head cut off opposed to a downloaded sitcom. I didn't feel disturbed by it at all. I'm appalled with myself and wish I never saw them. I'm more appalled with how I reacted to what I saw than I am with what I saw. The price to pay for curiousity, I suppose. I can just imagine what horror the person felt as this was just about to happen to him, and as it was actually happening to him, but I'm not nearly as disgusted by it, if much at all compared to the others who've posted their reactions. The worst case scenario in watching this was that I'd laugh as if it was a movie and go 'ouch', but I was at least able to realize that this was real and not something to laugh at in the context that 'he got owned', as I wouldn't be able to live with myself if that was how I reacted to this kind of thing. I won't be downloading any more of these, and the talk radio shows that say Americans have a 'responsibility' to watch these beheading videos are out of their mind. It was a retarded decision for me to watch these in the first place. I wish I hadn't.

In reply to:

---

I just think it odd that something like this that hardly touches anyone's life (you don't know the person beheaded, or his family, never met the guy, probably don't even know his name) has a large group of people cooked up into war fever, wanting revenge... but for each of us who have lost a friend or family member to something that is preventable (everyone here has lost someone to cancer, heart disease, petty crime, corporate crime) but hardly anyone honours this loss with the same intensity.

---

Preventable vs unpreventable is one way to look at it, but intentional vs unintentional is another. No one specific person inflicted cancer on a person. Drunk driving is preventable, but a drunk driver hitting a person wasn't intentional. I think it's easier for people to forgive mistakes and accidents than for them to forgive intentional executions.

Actually, 2x6... in regards to sanctions, you can take your pick of any of them... Iraq, Cuba, Libya, Burma, Iran, Zaire, Angola...

... some of us have longer memories than the news of the day at CNN.

Getting any deeper into the politics of this would be something more for the politics thread, which, in the best interest of goodwill between people here, I don't read.

You completely failed to see my point in my posts about numbers and causes of deaths and instead reverted to "My Country Right Or Wrong Defensive Position #363".

Bren R.

In reply to:

---

No one specific person inflicted cancer on a person.

---

True, usually it takes an entire industry (ie: tobacco).

In reply to:

---

Drunk driving is preventable, but a drunk driver hitting a person wasn't intentional.

---

I still see this as kind of a "but your Honour, I spun the cylinder and pulled the trigger, it's not like I knew which chamber it would stop on" issue.

Just looking for people to open their minds on the numbers of people lost each year and maybe rethink their reactions to these.

Bren R.

If US policy is not to trade with certain countries, that's our policy, even when it may be a wrong policy as in the case of Cuba, or a right policy as in the case of Myanma. International sanctions against Libya and Iran make sense to me, but then again if you have an affinity for totalitarian terrorist police state regimes in search of nuclear weapons, well then maybe you disagree.

As to those poor Palestinian children who you so kindly refer to as "sappers," perhaps you approve of a culture which makes rock stars out of kids who strap explosives to themselves in the hopes of killing Jews in pizza parlors and busses, for a promise of 72 virgins. But hey, their parents are proud and get large checks from Saudi charities for their children's sacrifice. So, hey, Bren, if you see that carnage as heroic, that must be "Let's Stand Firm With the Nazis of the World If They'll Stick a Finger in the Eye of Bad Old USA and its Friends, # 363."

BrenR,

RE:
"I'm really surprised this bothers anyone... a single person dying? Come on, the media hardly covers megadeath (not the band - the tongue in cheek term for over 1000 people killed) but some guy getting his head sawed off is news?"

I'm not saying you are wrong, however I read the paper everyday and watch or listen to the news. I'm disturbed 80% of the time by what I learn from it. I try not to dwell on things I can't directly control as a result I'm outraged.
Now reading something in black and white or listening to some well dressed news guy is a hell of a lot different than seeing some poor guy slowly getting his head cut off and hearing him gasping to get his last breath of air is the most impacting tragic event I’ve been exposed to. Yes, there are lots of tragic events around the world but we don’t see it on video. We don’t see the babies getting slaughtered, women being raped and 1000 of people being massacred. If videos where available the same way the decapitation was I think more people would be more understanding to how jacked up this world can be. I’m fortunate enough to not allow myself to become desensitized by the $hit that takes place around the world.

Now if the terrorists would have just shot the man and allowed him the freedom to a quick death I don’t think this would’ve been a huge topic. The way these evil bastards murdered this man is what I am so disturbed about. These bastards don’t give a $hit about our freedom, our western culture (this includes Canada) and obviously life in general. They would be more than happy to kill us all the same way.

Just my opinion….

In reply to:

---

"Now if the terrorists would have just shot the man and allowed him the freedom to a quick death I don’t think this would’ve been a huge topic. The way these evil bastards murdered this man is what I am so disturbed about."

---

Goodness gracious, tleigh, please don't take this wrong, but, do you think we might be getting a bit desensitized to evil ... to cruel murder? Do we need a sadistic, dramatic means of accomplishing murder before it outrages us?

Murder is just that. None of it is acceptable. My point was just what you pointed out. I'm upset about all murder, I just don't think the video would have been available for us to see if they would of shot the men. Do you understand what I meant to say now?

I also didn't take it the wrong way you pointed out exactly what I wanted to get out.

Tom

I made no equations. I simply proposed that we look at what are the real world effects of different perceptions and actions in order to find a course through life with less conflict and violence. If the beheaders are using poorly constructed equations I do not find particular value in other poor constructions as a response.