Possible "Terrorist Incident" in Westminster, 4 killed

[Jamzmania]

Random shootings and bombings don't already affect our lives?

Not past media reporting. Not in the UK.

Unless you lived in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, I expect.

[Dooom35796821595]

Not past media reporting. Not in the UK.

Unless you lived in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, I expect.

The troubles were in London as well, quite a while before Islamic terrorism was the problem it is today.

[The East Marches II]

Unless you lived in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, I expect.

The troubles were in London as well, quite a while before Islamic terrorism was the problem it is today.

So time for concrete peace walls in London?

[Vassenor]

So what you're saying is we shouldn't be concerned about a group of people who are ideological opposed to our entire society and out to kill people??

I mean, it's part of living in a big city after all.

It's generally considered poor form to deliberately misquote people.

[Dooom35796821595]

The troubles were in London as well, quite a while before Islamic terrorism was the problem it is today.

So time for concrete peace walls in London?

How is that significant to the topic?

[Aelex]

It's generally considered poor form to deliberately misquote people.

It's also considered poor form to point out the speck of sawdust in someone else's eye when you have a plank in your own. :^)

[The East Marches II]

So time for concrete peace walls in London?

How is that significant to the topic?

It solved the Northern Irish from tearing each other apart. It isn't Britain's first run in with terrorism as you pointed out so why not use a time tested method?

[The Empire of Pretantia]

Random shootings and bombings don't already affect our lives?

Not past media reporting. Not in the UK.

Tell that to the people whose lives it affected.

[Dooom35796821595]

Not past media reporting. Not in the UK.

Tell that to the people whose lives it affected.

More are affected by other crimes and accidents, but you don't see them getting global news coverage. It just feeds a narrative of fear and paranoia.

[Great Nepal]

Not past media reporting. Not in the UK.

Tell that to the people whose lives it affected.

Transparent appeal to emotion is transparent.

[Aelex]

Transparent appeal to emotion is transparent.

If I was you, I wouldn't be so eager to throw stones inside glass-houses. :^)

[Great Nepal]

Transparent appeal to emotion is transparent.

If I was you, I wouldn't be so eager to throw stones inside glass-houses. :^)

I don't think you understand what that metaphor means.

[Neu Leonstein]

People going out to deliberately kill as many other people as they can is not something that should simply be dismissed like an accident.

Well sure. But I actually agree that it would be better not to spend as much of our mental energy on this. What happened was tragic for the people affected, and a tragedy for London as a whole.

But there is no way to look at this rationally and think it should be on the evening news for the next two weeks. A couple of years ago, a crazy guy marched into a cafe next to where I was working at the time. He took a few people hostage, eventually the police stormed the place and two people died (plus the attacker). The man was schizophrenic, was convicted of a bunch of sexual assaults and charged with a conspiracy to kills his wife. While on bail pending trial, he decided to do this awful thing. And he took a little black flag with white Arabic writing with him to wave at the cameras.

That little black flag changed everything about the story. All of a sudden he was a terrorist, and the media coverage turned it into something huge. For days after the event, you had people show up to put flowers all over the road. As in, you literally could not get down that road because of the massive crowds standing in line to put flowers on the floor. You still have tourists photographing the cafe.

On more or less the same day elsewhere in the country, another apparently deranged person (a lady, this time) stabbed her eight children to death before attempting to kill herself. No one even remembers.

You call something "terror", and in the immortal words of Ledger's Joker, everyone loses their minds. Maybe it really would be better to not call this tragedy in Westminster a "terror attack", but just what it is: a deranged person who drove his car into a crowd of people and then stabbed someone. Don't even mention their names. Don't put their picture on TV. Apart from really discouraging others who inspire to do something that gets the world's attention, it would allow a lot of people to go through their lives happier people.

[Aelex]

I don't think you understand what that metaphor means.

I very much do, which is precisely why I find liberals like you whining about appeal to emotion to be particularly funny. :^)

[Great Nepal]

I don't think you understand what that metaphor means.

I very much do, which is precisely why I find liberals like you whining about appeal to emotion to be particularly funny. :^)

Do feel free to quote me.

[The Empire of Pretantia]

Tell that to the people whose lives it affected.

More are affected by other crimes and accidents, but you don't see them getting global news coverage.

Islamic terrorism is a global issue, so it gets global news coverage.

Tell that to the people whose lives it affected.

Transparent appeal to emotion is transparent.

Doesn't mean I'm wrong though.

[Great Nepal]

Transparent appeal to emotion is transparent.

Doesn't mean I'm wrong though.

Given how you've failed to provide evidence of me trying to use appeal to emotion as transparently as "omgg talk to the victims!!1!!", I'm going with you were wrong or you dont know what stones and glass house metaphor means. Either works really.

[Vassenor]

It's generally considered poor form to deliberately misquote people.

It's also considered poor form to point out the speck of sawdust in someone else's eye when you have a plank in your own. :^)

[Ifreann]

Unless you lived in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, I expect.

The troubles were in London as well, quite a while before Islamic terrorism was the problem it is today.

Remember how in the Troubles, the UK started training children to fight the IRA and set about on a campaign to expel the Irish from Europe?

[Dooom35796821595]

The troubles were in London as well, quite a while before Islamic terrorism was the problem it is today.

Remember how in the Troubles, the UK started training children to fight the IRA and set about on a campaign to expel the Irish from Europe?

I don't remember the troubles period, bit before my time.

[Fartsniffage]

The troubles were in London as well, quite a while before Islamic terrorism was the problem it is today.

Remember how in the Troubles, the UK started training children to fight the IRA and set about on a campaign to expel the Irish from Europe?

We tried all that in the 1850's. Didn't work.

[The East Marches II]

The troubles were in London as well, quite a while before Islamic terrorism was the problem it is today.

Remember how in the Troubles, the UK started training children to fight the IRA and set about on a campaign to expel the Irish from Europe?

Ian Paisley's lot and their tacit approval says yes.

[The East Marches II]

Remember how in the Troubles, the UK started training children to fight the IRA and set about on a campaign to expel the Irish from Europe?

We tried all that in the 1850's. Didn't work.

Clearly it did, they flooded my country unfortunately

[The Empire of Pretantia]

Doesn't mean I'm wrong though.

Given how you've failed to provide evidence of me trying to use appeal to emotion as transparently as "omgg talk to the victims!!1!!",

Turning on the news would give enough evidence that we have a problem.

I'm going with you were wrong or you dont know what stones and glass house metaphor means.

And I'm the one who doesn't know what I'm talking about, right?

[Calladan]

I was in a student in Manchester when the IRA (or whoever it was) blew up the Arnedale centre. And I worked at Blackpool Tower through three or four bomb threats (none of which turned out to be real), plus there were two or three at the various schools I've been to.

Every year at The Tower we received a security lecture - what to do about suspicious packages, what to do if you thought someone was acting strangely - that sort of thing.

And since I was born in the early 70s, there have obviously been a boat load of attacks by The IRA, by The REAL IRA (because the other one was fake? or just people in funny hats? I never entirely got that!), by other home grown loonies (to quote Yes Prime Minister) and - more recently - by other Irish dissidents and (obviously) various Islamist/Radical Islamic groups and people who are apparently inspired by them.

While it is true these things impact on your conscious and subconscious, and you can't ignore them, the truth is they really haven't changed my life all that much. Being in Manchester while it was bursting into flames didn't make me scared to be in Manchester, or scared to take the train. I had a hospital appointment about six weeks after the bombings on the 7th of July back in 2005 and I had no qualms about going down to London for it.

(If anything I am now slightly more scared of the security services over-reacting and shooting me than I am of being blown up/shot/stabbed/run over by a terrorist. But that's because of four things - a) I generally have a backpack with me, b) I generally have headphones in and can't hear anyone talking to me, so if the police were to tell me to stop and I couldn't see them, I probably would ignore them, c) when I am in London I am not a tourist - I am either their on business or going to a hospital so I am usually walking somewhere with purpose and measured stride and d) my heart ticks. Literally it ticks! But anyway - I digress).

So - yeah. The attack on Wednesday is not going to change my life. While it is tragic for those who lost loved ones, and probably life changing for those who were caught up in it, for me it is (as bad as it sounds) just another thing that has happened and life goes on - I don't see it changing my life all that much.

And despite Trump Jr.'s gods-awful attempt to misquote him, The Mayor of London was right - big cities do now live with the threat of a terror attack, and it is part of being a big city. But given how well the entire phalanx of emergency services responded on Wednesday, I would say we (the population in general) are in good hands (my worries about being shot aside, obviously!).