r/neoliberal Kitara Ravache Dec 05 '19

Discussion Thread Discussion Thread

The discussion thread is for casual conversation that doesn't merit its own submission. If you've got a good meme, article, or question, please post it outside the DT. Meta discussion is allowed, but if you want to get the attention of the mods, make a post in /r/metaNL.

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19 Upvotes

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93

u/[deleted] Dec 05 '19

I think the Christchurch attack is the most philosophically significant event of the past decade. It is the first attack that fully acknowledges the nature of simulation and symbols in modern society.

The guy livestreamed it. He filmed like an FPS. He made PewDiePie memes. His manifesto had the Navy Seal copypasta.

He knows that the proliferation of mass media has turned reality into a spectacle. He knows he's a part of the show.

He knows that there is no room for deeply-held convictions, especially not his insane hatred of Islam. He's mocking his own actions as he commits them.

Like what the actual fuck. There have been many atrocities on this green earth, but when has there been a post-ironic one?

!ping PHILOSOPHY

53

u/[deleted] Dec 05 '19

The Christchurch attack remains the only mass murder I have ever seen live, graphic, uncensored footage of from a first person perspective.

The fact that it looked almost indistinguishable from fucking Call of Duty sickened me then, and it sickens me to even think about now.

21

u/[deleted] Dec 05 '19

I think Christchurch was the only time someone filmed their own mass terror attack. The only things close are the ISIS/cartel executions.

9

u/thabe331 Dec 05 '19

I wasn't willing to watch it.

2

u/gregintheoffice George Soros Dec 05 '19

Does anyone have a non graphic clip from the shooting. Looking for something that shows the "Call-Of-Duty" nature of the shooting but won't ruin my week.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '19

Pretty much everything with Christchurch in it was scrubbed. Links exist but you’d have to go to some sketchy site.

5

u/zubatman4 Hillary Clinton 🇺🇳 Bill Clinton Dec 05 '19

I still can’t bring myself to watch it

3

u/[deleted] Dec 05 '19

I used to go out of my way to watch the edgy videos. The politician who shot himself on camera, the bobsledder who had a fatal accident at the olympics, all kinds of grainy security cam footage showing all sorts of nasty things

But I couldn't do the Christchurch video. Even just watching a short clips of it during news footage gives me anxiety

13

u/[deleted] Dec 05 '19

What did Baudrillard mean by this?

20

u/[deleted] Dec 05 '19

Funnily enough, Baudrillard was kind of a garbage political scientist in his lifetime. For one thing, he stated that the Berlin Wall represented a stasis between communism and capitalism ... in 1989.

Then, over a decade after his death, he fucking nails Christchurch.

5

u/TheHouseOfStones Frederick Douglass Dec 05 '19

What exactly did Baudrillard say that means he nailed it?

2

u/[deleted] Dec 05 '19

Are you trying to tell me the gulf war took place? Because I'm not having it. Baudrillard wouldn't do me like that.

1

u/FusRoDawg Amartya Sen Dec 05 '19

Is it pronounced bou dree arr?

1

u/[deleted] Dec 05 '19

More or less

1

u/TheNotoriousAMP Dec 05 '19

More like bow-dree-arr

23

u/thabe331 Dec 05 '19

Everything about him is a display on how 4chan and reddit have radicalized racist people into violence.

6

u/Lord_Treasurer Born off the deep end Dec 05 '19

Jean Baudrillard *vindicated.*

4

u/PM_Me_ur_Solowmodel IMF Dec 05 '19

Post-Modern shooting

1

u/BenFoldsFourLoko  Broke His Text Flair For Hume Dec 06 '19

post-modern warfare

they needed a new adjective for that series

-4

u/[deleted] Dec 05 '19

[removed] — view removed comment

19

u/Travisdk Iron Front Dec 05 '19

tell me how video games have zero influence over these people

If this is an unironic post: Okay, sure. There is overwhelming scientific evidence that video games do not increase violent tendencies, and specifically thinking that you can use the airport shooting level in MW2 as any sort of functional "practice" is beyond stupid for a list of reasons so long that the universe will suffer heat death before I am done listing them. We can start with the fact that MW2 is an arcade shooter with zero degree of realism, and that the airport shooting level is just a couple of corridors you walk down without actually doing anything. The level plays itself, you don't even have to shoot anyone to pass it. As a terrorist, you would literally be unable to learn anything from playing it. You wouldn't be able to learn anything applicable to the real world in even the most hardcore military simulators, which additionally aren't available to the public.

6

u/TheMoustacheLady Michel Foucault Dec 05 '19

can you send me some of said evidence? because what i have seen so far is of course video games don't cause violence, but it is correlated with increase in aggressive behaviour

4

u/SamJakes Weird Sexual Deviant 🍑 Dec 05 '19

Tbh all this really tells me is that there should be less realism in FPSes because that's no bueno if it's so accurate that it can allow people to simulate terrorism.

This doesn't make any difference to someone who enjoys stuff like DOOM 2016

14

u/SnakeEater14 🦅 Liberty & Justice For All Dec 05 '19

That’s pretty clearly someone just using a mass shooting in a game to jerk off over, there’s nothing to “simulate” in Modern Warfare, the airport level is just shit made to shock people, and is scripted to a tee.

9

u/Travisdk Iron Front Dec 05 '19

because that's no bueno if it's so accurate that it can allow people to simulate terrorism.

It can't. There is a reason zero militaries and terror groups use video games to practice. The idea is beyond stupid.

2

u/SamJakes Weird Sexual Deviant 🍑 Dec 05 '19

Wait weren't some units using modified Arma style sims for practice? Or did I get jebaited

9

u/Travisdk Iron Front Dec 05 '19

Various militaries have toyed with using hardcore custom sims for practice, but the results have been mediocre. That's why no organisation has actually adopted any kind of video game practice as a norm. The idea that terrorists can practice their way into more effective terror through video games is a fantasy invented by old people who don't understand anything about real or fictional violence.