Seems a weird angle. Misogyny is pretty seriously bad in and of itself. It wouldn’t be harmless if it weren’t correlated with violence.
Also news that makes me happy, from that CBC article you linked, is that he joined the Canadian Armed Forces but was asked to leave 16 days into his basic training:
A senior official with the Forces said Minassian wasn’t adapting to military life, including in matters of dress, deportment and group interactions in a military setting but that “there were no red flags and nothing that would point to anything like this.”
Keeping people like Minassian away from our military is always a good thing. I guess some system is working well, even in the face of this tragedy.
Oh, i agree, but there is a strong strain of thought here in the USA at least that things like misogyny or racism are “just opinions,” and that seeks to downplay the seriousness of such beliefs. I was simply pointing this case out as a rather clear if extreme example of what is, as you say, already a destructive thing.
Problems in Indonesia. A family (pictured below) carries out 3 separate bombings at christian churches in Surabaya (my wife’s home) yesterday.
And a couple just blew themselves up at the main police station. CCTV footage of this and one of the church bombings are online…while not graphic as such, it’s still very upsetting and disturbing to see. I can’t believe how lax security was at the police, considering what occurred yesterday.
This is an old photo; the boys are/were 16 & 18 and the girls 9 & 12. The girls were with their mother and all had explosive devices…that’s all kinds of f#cked up.
Talk about child abuse. Programming kids to be part of this sort of madness is about as evil as it gets. But it’s not limited to Muslims, by any means. There are plenty of Christian fanatics who practice similar forms of indoctrination, for instance. The only reason you don’t see them blowing up stuff I think is that the cultural context is different, but you do see things like the Branch Davidians in Waco (though whether those folks were Christians, technically, is another question).
TBC I wasn’t implying anything re Islam, just commenting on this particular situation.
I suppose I am more “invested” in it as I have a Javanese Muslim wife and have spent a lot of time in Surabaya. Indeed I am supposed to be going for an extended stay (12 months +) later in the year so these developments are concerning.
With 50+ dead and thousands wounded, and with larger numbers expected tomorrow, tensions just keep going up and I can imagine attacks against the US in retaliation.
In a jarring contrast, Israeli forces shot and killed at least 55 Palestinians and wounded more than 1,200 during mass protests Monday along the Gaza border, while just a few miles away Israel and the U.S. held a festive inauguration ceremony for the new American Embassy in contested Jerusalem.
I see how Trump is never more fired up and excited then after an attack in America, not even sure he thinks this is a downside.
These deaths are directly upon his head.
I am offended by the way the Chicago Tribune phrased that (not you Quaro obviously) . 50 odd people were just shot dead, who gives a shit if it “cast a shadow” over some pathetic little fucking ceremony somewhere.
The parents are just pure evil. What kind of scumbags do that?
While there is no direct link yet between this situation, the recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel and Indonesia, my wife (who is in Jakarta right now for the start of Ramadan) has said she and her friends/family won’t be going to McDonalds or Starbucks or the like anytime soon…
Well I suppose they feel they will be going to Paradise as a result of their actions so they can rationalise it that way.
Fortunately the vast majority of people don’t subscribe to those beliefs.
I am not sure the politics of this is so cut and dry as many suggest, but this is not a good look for our government. Couldn’t it have been done without fanfare?
Ivanka looked and sounded like she thought she was a contestant on a TV game show.
Things like this drive home just how vast the mental gap is for me to understand these events. I cannot fathom, and I’ve tried, what could possibly drive such a thing. A family? Mass murder? At churches? My experience and resultant world view is sufficiently different that I lack the background to grok this.
You clearly have a deeper connection and understanding. I’m sorry. I wish I had more to say or offer to you and your family. I agree it’s all kinds of bad. I hope everyone you know and love in Surabaya is safe.
I don’t think you’re alone in being unable to understand it.
Thanks very much for your kind words, I appreciate it.
Nor can I.
The best I can come up with is that the human mind is incredibly complex. To me it seems like the old “Us versus Them” mentality taken to an extreme. I think we’re all guilty of it to some degree, but taking it to this degree is just totally off-the-charts. These people (and by that I mean ANY group of extremists) seem to work really hard at creating enemies, where creating friends would probably be more productive at furthering whatever cause they’re after.
And it’s 4:20 a.m. and I’m very tired, so I guess I’m just stating the obvious now, but this shit just really upsets me, every time it happens. And apparently, stating the obvious is the best I can do.
My best wishes to you and yours, @UtilityDogAK.
Oh, sorry, no, I wasn’t meaning to imply anything of the sort! I was just jumping ahead, mentally, and pondering the broader picture and the usual responses to things like this.
[quote=“TheWombat, post:260, topic:130044”]
Oh, sorry, no, I wasn’t meaning to imply anything of the sort! I was just jumping ahead, mentally, and pondering the broader picture and the usual responses to things like this.
[/quote]Z
It’s all good, I didn’t think you were.
Thanks a lot! Seems to be calming down…3 families involved, 13 of the them (I think) dead plus their dead & injured victims. I gather there’s a lot of anger in the country, especially over the involvement of the children.
The US should move all its embassies to Jerusalem.