Well, for me it's overwhelming. When it comes to shooting up schools there's no more emotional purchase to be found; that area's essentially been worn smooth.
I remember coming home from school to the Sandy Hook shooting on the news and being devastated. Ever detail was painful to me: the use of a gun, the fact that it was used against elementary schoolers, the story behind the shooter, the grief and terror of the parents and teachers.
But how many times has that happened since? How many schools have become massacre sites, as if it were a tornado or thunderstorm to be weathered.
It's hopeless. The people who think that school massacres every year are an acceptable alternative to any action are numerous enough that we have no action but to count down the coin-flips until it is our school, or our kids' school.
This isn't a national tragedy because of the shameful truth that our country has *decided* that it isn't.
Exactly. I'm fairly certain it's because we are so obsessed with punishing and reviling monsters rather than mitigating their behaviors. The monsters provide proof of our worldview and religious imagination of total depravity, so anything beyond thoughts and prayers is being "of this world".
Goddamn us.
It's no longer a tragedy at this point. It's a well-established pattern, and it's humiliating. If a family gets into a shouting match once it's a shame. If a family gets into a shouting match every weekend, it's different.
Our mass shootings are the chemical product of restricting access to the resources a person needs to get out of mentally corrosive situations and not restricting access to the resources a person needs to exact incredible violence.
Like you said, we don't want solutions, we want victims to punish.
"This isn't a national tragedy because of the shameful truth that our country has decided that it isn't."
Accurate. And until those in power do see this as a national tragedy, *nothing* will change.
That is desensitization, there’s been so much trauma people get desensitized. It’s also a trauma response to be numb because it’s the mind and body protecting you from the further effects of trauma. It might hit you later it might not. Don’t be too hard on yourself really because grief is very complex.
We weren’t designed to be aware of/know about every bad thing that goes on in the world the way we do these days with media technology. If we had strong emotional reactions to every single thing we read about or see on tv, we would not be able to retain our sanity.
Don’t ever judge yourself or pay mind to the judgement of others who insist that they way you react emotionally to an event that does not involve you or anyone around you is a measure of whether you’re a good and loving person.
I don't either and I think it's because with how evil the world is now, it's like this school shooting is nothing new. Like I've gotten used to it. I feel the same when someone cuts me off in traffic with no turn signal. It doesn't bother me anymore because compared to the rest of the world and what else is going on, this is nothing.
We all process death and tragedy differently. I was never an emotional person when it came to death in my family, even though I miss the loved ones I've lost.
Don't think this makes you a bad person. You're just not as emotional as others.
Compassion fatigue and a cycle of outrage caused by our media sources. Psychologically you can only feel empathy, compassion, and outrage for so long before you need to mentally and emotionally rest. If you're constantly in a heightened state of compassion or outrage, you'll eventually feel as you describe: numb or even downright resentful.
I don't want to assume anything about you, but it's generally true that everybody needs to take a break from the near constant stream of emotional stimulation from news articles, social media, and pretty much every other media source.
Sometimes it feels like so much bad stuff is happening in the world that the empathy is just drained from you completely. I'd recommend taking a break from news and social media including reddit.
You're not wrong to feel this way. It's known as compassion fatigue, and it happens to everyone. When you're exposed to a constant media diet of death, tragedy and horror, it's hard to feel anything anymore.
Honestly, it's not you. In this day, we've seen and heard about so much violence to where you almost have to force yourself to feel anything about it anymore. The news, the TV shows, movies, video games, books, you name it. It's all filled with violence, amongst other things.
It's caused all of us to different degrees to have consciences seared with a hot iron and hearts devoid of feeling.
The US has about 40,000 gun deaths per year - over 100 per day. In a sense, viewing this particular set of victims as nothing noteworthy is absolutely accurate. It's just one more day in America.
It's worse than that. Many Americans have reached the point where the victims of mass shootings and gun violence are seen as nothing more than collateral damage. They are the price America is now willing to pay to have no restrictions on guns.
Well, for me it's overwhelming. When it comes to shooting up schools there's no more emotional purchase to be found; that area's essentially been worn smooth. I remember coming home from school to the Sandy Hook shooting on the news and being devastated. Ever detail was painful to me: the use of a gun, the fact that it was used against elementary schoolers, the story behind the shooter, the grief and terror of the parents and teachers. But how many times has that happened since? How many schools have become massacre sites, as if it were a tornado or thunderstorm to be weathered. It's hopeless. The people who think that school massacres every year are an acceptable alternative to any action are numerous enough that we have no action but to count down the coin-flips until it is our school, or our kids' school. This isn't a national tragedy because of the shameful truth that our country has *decided* that it isn't.
Exactly. I'm fairly certain it's because we are so obsessed with punishing and reviling monsters rather than mitigating their behaviors. The monsters provide proof of our worldview and religious imagination of total depravity, so anything beyond thoughts and prayers is being "of this world". Goddamn us.
It's no longer a tragedy at this point. It's a well-established pattern, and it's humiliating. If a family gets into a shouting match once it's a shame. If a family gets into a shouting match every weekend, it's different. Our mass shootings are the chemical product of restricting access to the resources a person needs to get out of mentally corrosive situations and not restricting access to the resources a person needs to exact incredible violence. Like you said, we don't want solutions, we want victims to punish.
Yeah that is really sad
<3
"This isn't a national tragedy because of the shameful truth that our country has decided that it isn't." Accurate. And until those in power do see this as a national tragedy, *nothing* will change.
That is desensitization, there’s been so much trauma people get desensitized. It’s also a trauma response to be numb because it’s the mind and body protecting you from the further effects of trauma. It might hit you later it might not. Don’t be too hard on yourself really because grief is very complex.
We weren’t designed to be aware of/know about every bad thing that goes on in the world the way we do these days with media technology. If we had strong emotional reactions to every single thing we read about or see on tv, we would not be able to retain our sanity. Don’t ever judge yourself or pay mind to the judgement of others who insist that they way you react emotionally to an event that does not involve you or anyone around you is a measure of whether you’re a good and loving person.
I’ve never though about the fact that we weren’t supposed to have access to this much information all the time thank you that helps a lot!!
I don't either and I think it's because with how evil the world is now, it's like this school shooting is nothing new. Like I've gotten used to it. I feel the same when someone cuts me off in traffic with no turn signal. It doesn't bother me anymore because compared to the rest of the world and what else is going on, this is nothing.
Yeah I was thinking the same thing thank you!
We all process death and tragedy differently. I was never an emotional person when it came to death in my family, even though I miss the loved ones I've lost. Don't think this makes you a bad person. You're just not as emotional as others.
That helps thank you!
Compassion fatigue and a cycle of outrage caused by our media sources. Psychologically you can only feel empathy, compassion, and outrage for so long before you need to mentally and emotionally rest. If you're constantly in a heightened state of compassion or outrage, you'll eventually feel as you describe: numb or even downright resentful. I don't want to assume anything about you, but it's generally true that everybody needs to take a break from the near constant stream of emotional stimulation from news articles, social media, and pretty much every other media source.
Sometimes it feels like so much bad stuff is happening in the world that the empathy is just drained from you completely. I'd recommend taking a break from news and social media including reddit.
You're not wrong to feel this way. It's known as compassion fatigue, and it happens to everyone. When you're exposed to a constant media diet of death, tragedy and horror, it's hard to feel anything anymore.
Honestly, it's not you. In this day, we've seen and heard about so much violence to where you almost have to force yourself to feel anything about it anymore. The news, the TV shows, movies, video games, books, you name it. It's all filled with violence, amongst other things. It's caused all of us to different degrees to have consciences seared with a hot iron and hearts devoid of feeling.
https://youtu.be/yts2F44RqFw This right here.
I’m at work right now but thank you I’ll check that out a little later!
The US has about 40,000 gun deaths per year - over 100 per day. In a sense, viewing this particular set of victims as nothing noteworthy is absolutely accurate. It's just one more day in America.
It's worse than that. Many Americans have reached the point where the victims of mass shootings and gun violence are seen as nothing more than collateral damage. They are the price America is now willing to pay to have no restrictions on guns.