Friday, April 19, 2013

One of the most ridiculous reactions to terrorism in Boston...

...is to point out that more people choke on chicken bones or drown in latrines or bleed out from paper cuts in a year than die in terrorist attacks.

This is life. No one gets out of it alive. When someone takes it during a celebratory event, that's different - particularly when it terrifies a lot of people.

Other ridiculous reactions are to equate (1.) the killing of the innocent with the killing of the guilty, and (2.) the unintentional killing of the innocent with the intentional and long-premeditated killing of the innocent.

What is wrong with our moral compass that this claptrap always seems to get churned up in the wake of a tragedy?

At least the conspiracy theorists that talk about false flags have their basic moral intuition straight. They're just bizarrely credulous and paranoid. That's not good, of course, but for the most part they seem to be able to make the distinctions outlined above.

UPDATE: This is like saying "Arson? Why are you so upset about arson? Do you realize how many more fires are started by accident in a  year? Way more than are started by arsonists! It's really terrible that people get so worked up by and want to do something about arsonists."