The Impact of constant violent events

I was reading this article from the Telegraph and I wanted to raise the question here aswell. I think it is one that needs to be talked about too.

It seems we cannot go a week without an act of terrorism, police related shooting, and now, Coup d'etat. The connectivity of our modern world amplifies this and makes it worse, as you now can hear about an event in china within minutes on your cell phone.

How is this constant cycle of violent acts affecting you. Personally, mentally, your life style.

Are you afraid of large crowds? Are you angry at a certain group of people? Maybe you just don't want to live on this planet anymore. Are you coping?

Tell me below how you are handling all this? It can help to get it out!

Feel free to discuss others feelings as well, but please keep it G rated!

I honestly am sad all of this is happening. No one deserves to be hurt unless they did bad things. It doesn't affect me too much since no one has been affected personally but I'm still sad about this stuff all happening.

It's honestly made me so depressed that I can't even find any motivation to continue trying to get my career life set up. I just end up thinking there's no point because by the time the election comes, the world will have pretty much collapsed.

So now I'm just playing video games until November, at which point I will probably die because Police State USA

Do I fear large crowds and people in general? Certainly—for me this goes without asking. I can't go for a walk at night anymore without having to constantly look around at me, I can't even go out in daylight without doing this. If a person, family, or any sort of group of people is coming towards me on a walk—I turn the other way and take another route. In big cities this is even worse for me, my safe spot is the mall but even malls have their risks these days. I'm in fear daily whenever I go outside, sometimes I don't even feel safe in my own home, but I take relief in the fact that we're a small town of about 200, we here are some of the safest.

Even as a person living in Canada, one of the most stereotypically-friendly places (FYI, it's not all that), I still have my fears as an LGBT+ citizen, and I still have incredible anxiety towards the fact that tons of awful things are happening just three hours south of me in the USA, and that they're happening to begin with. The rest of the world's not doing any better, even if the recent coup d'état is mostly under control—that happening just proves it's capable of happening, that's where our world's going.

in an awful, awful way i suppose i've sort of gotten used to it. when i wake up and there's a terrible incident that's gone on somewhere in the world, obviously i'm hurt & upset but i'm not surprised and it doesn't seem to do any psychological damage. i'm not sure if that's to do with my low empathy ( not low compassion ) or something else, but the constant cycle of violent acts doesn't seem to be affecting me personally... makes me seem sort of cold, i know; it's not that i don't care & it doesn't hurt, i just can't feel other people's pain i suppose?

that's not to say, however, that it's not changing minor things in my life style. i've always been afraid of large crowds; but now, living in a major city and following events like this, it's certainly gotten a bit worse. my city was a target for a minor terrorist threat a few years back ( it was quickly stopped ) and i can't help but think about what an obvious target we are. in addition, terrorism as a whole has made me much more terrified of public transport; i'd much rather walk than get a train, bus or plane just because of how common transport-related violence is.

in contrast, the aftermath of these attacks and watching the people who rush out to help has actually almost done something positive. witnessing so many people working hard & saving lives & preventing future attacks makes me more determined than ever to follow a career path that involves helping others; perhaps even helping the families of those affected deal with the trauma. i think that's one strength humans gain from witnessing these events; a unified will to be stronger, to do better, and to protect others from these events reoccurring in the future.

as for who i'm angry at... i suppose i'm the same as everyone else; angry at the people who commit these heinous, violent acts & the ones who administrate the order. i don't know enough about the attacks to be angry at the government, so most of my anger is dealt to the people directly responsible.

#thiswaslong

Re: police shootings. Within a 28 day period this month, there were three men shot by NZ police. Two dead and one injured. All mentally unstable, drug-addled violent threats. This is quite odd considering police shootings here are typically far apart, though last year had a spate of close shootings as well. These aren't related - it just happened to be a bad week for crystal meth users, apparently. Note that police here are not typically armed with lethal weaponry (I believe only diplomatic corps and airport police can carry firearms at all times) and that armed police most often fall under a different classification altogether, the Armed Offenders Squad. These are the people called out when a threat is confirmed to be armed and either it has been immediately determined normal weaponry will not subdue them or previous attempts have been made and failed. Most cops are armed with non-lethal weaponry like pepper spray and batons. Anyway, the point is that fatal incidents are typically quite few and far apart in comparison with the rest of the world. But a key difference is that two fatalities within a four day period has already resulted in calls for reviews on police firearms. Which is quite a dramatic response in comparison to, well, you know which country. Bit of a ramble here, to be honest. What I'm trying to point out is how low the threshold for bloodshed apparently is here.

Second bit about American police shootings/brutality in general - how odd it is that people start seeing the rampant brutality (particularly when race is involved) only when middle-class White America cannot ignore it any longer.

Anyway, I'm fine, which speaks a lot about my relative status and where I live. Yadayada yes broke and trans but ultimately in an area where I can assume my physical safety is not at risk, either from ideological terror, police wrongdoing or outright war. So I can't say my mentality has been that adversely affected by the recent goings on. I have more intimate matters causing harmful effects to my wellbeing than the tragic events in communities not of my own. Well, the Pulse shooting horrified and infuriated me more than I expected of myself, but it was still somewhat muted compared to what I thought I would be like. Or what I should be like. I've noticed an increasing exhaustion from just keeping up with the actions of an exponentially more terrified world. Even my anger at the various injustices, usually fiery and unquenchable, is unable to keep going so consistently. That's what I'm worried about.

I am wary of certain groups of people. I mean, I mostly always have been, but I'm more aware of the potential for violence. Anytime I see a bunch of men hanging around and being sort of loud or obnoxious I worry that they'll want to start something either because they think they can do whatever they want or because they feel like something in the world is threatening their masculinity and they want to strike angrily at someone. That kind of thing happens all the time. The terrorist attacks recently feel like they're just that taken to an extreme. And when you have all these events that pit different groups of people against one another I feel like more and more people are going to get caught up, either as victims because they similar enough to the "enemies" in some sociopath's mind, or as perpetrators of violence themselves because someone, somewhere either encouraged them or didn't stand up to violence and hatred and basically said "Yeah, this is okay to do."

It is pretty exhausting and it makes me want to hide away, ignore it, distract myself with other things. It seems overwhelming and most of the time the only thing I feel I can do is iterate my views and hope somebody somewhere listens to my or anyone else's plea to calm down and not resort to violence and have some compassion and understanding.

I'll keep mine short but I find myself getting more and more cynical with every event. Are we really a species worth surviving if we can't even go a week without causing some horrible massacre on ourselves?

I don't blame any ethnic or religious groups for the events (though I do blame religion as a concept for some of it.) After all, we're all just people and if anything we all need to lean on each-other to get through this terrible time...

Arsenic said:

I'll keep mine short but I find myself getting more and more cynical with every event. Are we really a species worth surviving if we can't even go a week without causing some horrible massacre on ourselves?

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Something about this particular kind of cynicism strikes me as... I can't identify it. I want to say self-centered?
It's not an uncommon reaction, mind you, but it rubs me the wrong way to see such erasure of the good aspects of humankind because it is easier to focus on the awful rather than the good, or even the average. It just seems a bit self-involved to question whether we are worthy of survival because of the existence of numerous bad apples.

Harley Quinn said:

Something about this particular kind of cynicism strikes me as... I can't identify it. I want to say self-centered?
It's not an uncommon reaction, mind you, but it rubs me the wrong way to see such erasure of the good aspects of humankind because it is easier to focus on the awful rather than the good, or even the average. It just seems a bit self-involved to question whether we are worthy of survival because of the existence of numerous bad apples.

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The issue is that constantly being bombarded with awful news about humanity at its worst leads you to believe that humanity has no positive aspects. More so if you are someone with depression.

And today another terrorist attack in a train.
To tell you the truth I was a little scared when the coup started in Turkey... the relationship between my country and Turkey is not the best.
I'm mostly angry with the people and the government here ago don't give a shit.
But no, I'm not afraid.
I think that the most media make you afraid but I don't know why.
Besides, what can you do abou this if you are scared?
Stay at your house forever? That's not a solution.
You should continue your life and your routine.
This is the way I see it in my country. No terrorism attacks yet here and I hope never.
That's it and sorry for my bad English.

Arsenic said:

How is this constant cycle of violent acts affecting you. Personally, mentally, your life style.

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I think the news is frankly boring and untrue. Not untrue in the specific events it portrays, but untrue in it's portrayal of the world and how it is at all times.

People feed off of the news and actually take what's happening to be true all around. As many of you said, you have a lot of fear going out, or get more depressed, because of the news, and I have a solution for that. Stop watching/listening/hearing from others about the news. It's exactly what I've done for years, and it's a good thing that I did.

So many people have neurosis, fear, and anger at these events that don't involve them, and that in most cases they are powerless to stop. They don't involve you or even need your approval, they happen. People live in fear of these things, but they don't even attack the root cause of them. They just attack specific instances, police killings here, a mass shooting there, and then they try to stop future instances by stopping what they believe to be the cause. A mass shooting? Take away guns! News flash, if I am deranged enough, I will simply buy an illegal gun and kill whoever my "targets" are. A law wont stop me from a crime of that scale. That's not the answer. Below is.

To the people who said that responses to these incidents have had a positive impact, on you, so much that you actually want to go out and help, that is great! Seriously, pursue that. To those who are depressed, don't just sit there and hide away behind games or whatever. You can't changes the events you hear about, but how about prevent the ones you don't? It is a duty as a member of a community to try to help keep that community alive. Why not become a volunteer at an animal shelter? Maybe a firefighter? Heck, you don't even need to go that far. Why not join a youth club, or even just a community get together? Play cards with the older people of your communities, listen to their stories. Help people cross the street. Pick up garbage.

You know, the same stuff you're hearing about now has happened before. Lets not pretend that there weren't gangs in the 50s, young guys who were thuggish. Lets not pretend that muggings or rapes didn't happen either, because they did. But you know, people back then still lived their lives, and would play cards, go outside, etc. What do most people do these besides cope and moan and whine about all of these problems? What do they do besides hide behind their screens and pretend it doesn't happen?

Again, lets not pretend like people haven't done bad sh*t to each other since humanity's inception. That's part of living in the world, part of being a human with free will. But you know, its not nearly like that all the time. A group of young guys comes down the street, and they are perceived as "thugs". Really, they are just a group of buddies hanging out on a Friday. Someone walks toward your direction at night at a fast clip and he's a "rapist". Actually, his wife just called him and told him she's having contractions. To make up these stories about not realistic, nor true. So don't pretend it is.

Finally, that is not to say you shouldn't protect yourself. If someone is for sure mugging you or about to rape you, you use whatever tools to defend yourself. But to think every person is scary without proof is just a state of delusion.

Thanks for reading.

I am genuinely surprised at you folks. Not that your sad about crime, but at how shocked you are. Crime is crime, there has always been crime and there will always be crime. For those that are genuinely interested, I urge you to use the FBI's UCR database. I urge you to inform yourself and others.

For example, I took the number of violent and non-violent crimes reported (very, very different from statistics) from Los Angeles Police Department's data from 85'. During which, there were 777 reported murders that year alone (the key here is crimes reported).

Watch the murder/manslaughter numbers for the following years:

85' 777
86' 834
87' 811
88' 736
89' 877
90' 983

Alright, you could do the math I'm sure, but I'll do it for you: that's 5,118 murders/manslaughter in a span of 5 years. Keep in mind, these numbers are what the LAPD has collected, which means there were, very likely, murders that were never found, substantiated, or discovered to be murder/manslaughter. Now let's look at some of the 00's.

To be fair, I'll start at and throw in a bonus of two years:

05' 485
06' 480
07' 395
08' 384
09' 312
10' 293
11' 297
12' 299

These numbers are at the local level, by the LAPD alone. You might say that those numbers don't mean anything. True, they may not convince many of you of a decrease in murder or non-negligent homicide but there they are.

2,945 murders in a span of seven years.

Further more, the last time California itself (state wide) made it past the 3,000 murders/manslaughter was back in 95'!

Nationwide, for about the past decade we've been hovering at around 14,000 to 16,000 murders/manslaughter a year on average. We haven't seen numbers this low since the good ol' sixties folks. These are, again, reported numbers. Not estimates, figures or guesses.

Take into account that we haven't had the ability, the tactics, or the miraculous tech that we have now. Social media has blown up the way we hear about things. A million, billion voices all clamouring and shouting over one another to be heard.

You're safe, for the most part. Your parents, most likely, had it worse off than you in terms of homicides. However, violent crimes have gone up. We're hovering at about 1.2 million each year since 09'.

Keep in mind, that at no point in time have we seen a dramatic decrease in terms of the nation's population total. It would make common sense that where there are people, there is crime. Where there are more people, there is more crime.

You guys just didn't get to see it as often. We now have youtube, imigur, twitter, facebook, Google, online news sources, reddit, Tumblr and the beat rolls on.

My point is the news tells you that you're in constant peril. And by the same token, the same people argue against owning firearms and CC laws. Makes you wonder, huh?

One man stranded on an island makes it very hard to be a murderer. Unless he already ate the friend he was stranded with.

http://www.ucrdatatool.gov/index.cfm

CoffeeDrink said:

I am genuinely surprised at you folks. Not that your sad about crime, but at how shocked you are. Crime is crime, there has always been crime and there will always be crime. For those that are genuinely interested, I urge you to use the FBI's UCR database. I urge you to inform yourself and others.

For example, I took the number of violent and non-violent crimes reported (very, very different from statistics) from Los Angeles Police Department's data from 85'. During which, there were 777 reported murders that year alone (the key here is crimes reported).

Watch the murder/manslaughter numbers for the following years:

85' 777
86' 834
87' 811
88' 736
89' 877
90' 983

Alright, you could do the math I'm sure, but I'll do it for you: that's 5,118 murders/manslaughter in a span of 5 years. Keep in mind, these numbers are what the LAPD has collected, which means there were, very likely, murders that were never found, substantiated, or discovered to be murder/manslaughter. Now let's look at some of the 00's.

To be fair, I'll start at and throw in a bonus of two years:

05' 485
06' 480
07' 395
08' 384
09' 312
10' 293
11' 297
12' 299

These numbers are at the local level, by the LAPD alone. You might say that those numbers don't mean anything. True, they may not convince many of you of a decrease in murder or non-negligent homicide but there they are.

2,945 murders in a span of seven years.

Further more, the last time California itself (state wide) made it past the 3,000 murders/manslaughter was back in 95'!

Nationwide, for about the past decade we've been hovering at around 14,000 to 16,000 murders/manslaughter a year on average. We haven't seen numbers this low since the good ol' sixties folks. These are, again, reported numbers. Not estimates, figures or guesses.

Take into account that we haven't had the ability, the tactics, or the miraculous tech that we have now. Social media has blown up the way we hear about things. A million, billion voices all clamouring and shouting over one another to be heard.

You're safe, for the most part. Your parents, most likely, had it worse off than you in terms of homicides. However, violent crimes have gone up. We're hovering at about 1.2 million each year since 09'.

Keep in mind, that at no point in time have we seen a dramatic decrease in terms of the nation's population total. It would make common sense that where there are people, there is crime. Where there are more people, there is more crime.

You guys just didn't get to see it as often. We now have youtube, imigur, twitter, facebook, Google, online news sources, reddit, Tumblr and the beat rolls on.

My point is the news tells you that you're in constant peril. And by the same token, the same people argue against owning firearms and CC laws. Makes you wonder, huh?

One man stranded on an island makes it very hard to be a murderer. Unless he already ate the friend he was stranded with.

http://www.ucrdatatool.gov/index.cfm

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That last comment is 10/10. We both addressed the same point, me with personal ideas and you with statistics.

I grow more and more cynical with each passing day, honestly. Being someone from the United States, I've almost grown completely numb to the idea of mass shootings and all the war we have perpetuated because of special interests. Doesn't matter who we elect in the next cycle, the issue of war will only continue to escalate and worsen. No one is going to actually do anything about gun violence or police brutality. The powers that be don't want anything to be done about any of it. We'll elect another puppet this year with empty promises and falsehoods and things will continue as they are and people will vote again, rinse, repeat. Tensions will only continue to escalate as "trade deals" like the TPP come to pass and become law.

I honestly fear for future generations because it doesn't seem like anything is getting easier or better. I feel like the answers should be simple, but they aren't.

In short, I pretty much feel like George Orwell's 1984 is an accurate prediction of the eventual future. I really don't want to be around to see it.

BubbleBeams said:

I grow more and more cynical with each passing day, honestly. Being someone from the United States, I've almost grown completely numb to the idea of mass shootings and all the war we have perpetuated because of special interests. Doesn't matter who we elect in the next cycle, the issue of war will only continue to escalate and worsen. No one is going to actually do anything about gun violence or police brutality. The powers that be don't want anything to be done about any of it. We'll elect another puppet this year with empty promises and falsehoods and things will continue as they are and people will vote again, rinse, repeat. Tensions will only continue to escalate as "trade deals" like the TPP come to pass and become law.

I honestly fear for future generations because it doesn't seem like anything is getting easier or better. I feel like the answers should be simple, but they aren't.

In short, I pretty much feel like George Orwell's 1984 is an accurate prediction of the eventual future. I really don't want to be around to see it.

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Well, again, this is something that people can't control. The puppet on stage isn't America, nor does it represent it. It's peoples weaknesses that have allowed this current state of affairs. Again, none of that shit is true, it's just a ploy to get you to either a fearful mindstate, like most of the people in this thread, or to get you a numbing, depressed state, such as that you are in.

The solution is again, to unite our communities by doing what we can, not do nothing, or live in fear, or think it's all hopeless. That's a recipe for failure, and it separates everyone, which is exactly what they want.

Life is what you make of it. Your actions define who you are to others. Do nothing and you are nothing. Help out, and you become somebody. Shit, this country is in such a state that you don't even know your neighbors in an apartment complex! Like, really, it's pathetic and degrading. We aren't sheep, ao lets stop acting like them, and act like actual human beings.

Thank you for reading.

XSE said:

Well, again, this is something that people can't control. The puppet on stage isn't America, nor does it represent it. It's peoples weaknesses that have allowed this current state of affairs. Again, none of that **** is true, it's just a ploy to get you to either a fearful mindstate, like most of the people in this thread, or to get you a numbing, depressed state, such as that you are in.

The solution is again, to unite our communities by doing what we can, not do nothing, or live in fear, or think it's all hopeless. That's a recipe for failure, and it separates everyone, which is exactly what they want.

Life is what you make of it. Your actions define who you are to others. Do nothing and you are nothing. Help out, and you become somebody. ****, this country is in such a state that you don't even know your neighbors in an apartment complex! Like, really, it's pathetic and degrading. We aren't sheep, ao lets stop acting like them, and act like actual human beings.

Thank you for reading.

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Oh, trust me, I'm an avid supporter of change and do what I can to help make that happen. It's just a very uphill battle and sometimes the struggle gets very discouraging and exhausting. So, yeah I'm a bit cynical about everything but that hasn't lowered my desire for change. I still like to think things can be fixed and resolved and improved.

OP just wanted to know how we were feeling about all of it, so I let my cynicism come out, is all. lol

XSE said:

It is a duty as a member of a community to try to help keep that community alive. Why not become a volunteer at an animal shelter? Maybe a firefighter? Heck, you don't even need to go that far. Why not join a youth club, or even just a community get together? Play cards with the older people of your communities, listen to their stories. Help people cross the street. Pick up garbage.

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I more or less agree with the majority of what you've (and Coffee) said so far, except for this part. How exactly does this help at all? Just "doing what you can" and "Life is what you make of it. Do nothing and you are nothing. Help out, and you become somebody" quite frankly sounds a bit naive to me. Doing something does not automatically make you "something/somebody". There is no guarantee that doing what you can will actually have any impact or meaning.

CoffeeDrink said:

You guys just didn't get to see it as often. We now have youtube, imigur, twitter, facebook, Google, online news sources, reddit, Tumblr and the beat rolls on.

My point is the news tells you that you're in constant peril. And by the same token, the same people argue against owning firearms and CC laws. Makes you wonder, huh?

Click to expand...

I agree that mass media is always trying to make you anxious because that's what makes you buy stuff without thinking it through, but that's the same for people who fall on different sides of the gun debate. MSNBC and FOX will both want you to be scared - usually of different things on the whole, but still.

I think that is different from some of the social media. Social media seems to be putting the spotlight on events that the mass media wouldn't normally bother with, or at least wouldn't give much attention to.

So, yeah, we are getting more images and messages about violence, but depending on the source it's not going to be the same message or be done for the same purpose.

Nah said:

I more or less agree with the majority of what you've (and Coffee) said so far, except for this part. How exactly does this help at all? Just "doing what you can" and "Life is what you make of it. Do nothing and you are nothing. Help out, and you become somebody" quite frankly sounds a bit naive to me. Doing something does not automatically make you "something/somebody". There is no guarantee that doing what you can will actually have any impact or meaning.

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This depends on what kind of impact you're talking about. Talking with your neighbors isn't going to change the world, but it might make a big difference if one of your neighbors is, for instance, living alone because their children have all moved away. It's just a matter of scale. Plus little things can sometimes have big effects. If police forces go out and get to know the communities they work in and people get to talking with one another that could lead to better interactions between the groups, meaning more support for the police and less violence from the police.