The Culture of Fear by Magonsdaughter

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

I agree, Magons. To me, it's a combination of two things: Media's mentality that "if it bleeds, it leads", and the consistent fear-mongering of the right. As inferred by "politicians may play on our fears" it's to their advantage to keep people both fearful and angry (tho' admittedly the left is guilty too, to a lesser extent). It's certainly not just during election season, one only has to view FauxNews a bit to see it's a consistent tactic there. I would argue that "even lobbyists" shouldn't be "even", as they are QUITE as guilty as any other in utilizing fear (and anger, which of course has its basis in fear).

Rather than "Why Do We Often Fear the Wrong Things?" (because, however infrequent, they ARE things to fear), I would say "Why Do We Focus on Things to Fear?" Because to me it's the FOCUS, not the things actually worthy of fear, which is the problem. We are bombarded with stories about things which we actually have a right to be afraid of; it's the bombardment which is the thing I decry.

Tit for tat got us where we are today. If we want to be grownups, we need to resist the ugliness. If we each did, this would be a better reflection on Firefly and a more welcome place. I will try.

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Sunday, January 6, 2013 11:36 AM

I think the title refers to the fact that the fears played up by the media do not demonstratably relate to things that will affect many of us.

He uses the example of stranger danger and child kidnapping. An incredibly pervasive fear which has led to parents preventing their children from playing outside or walking to school. He says that this parenting style has contributed to childhood obsesity, much more prevalents and dangerous to many children, compared to the relative rarity of children being harmed by strangers.

I guess I'd be interested in seeing the stats on home invasions, since this seems to be the fear that keeps Americans feeling the need to keep guns on their property.

I know that home invasions are pretty rare here. Burglars will wait until a house is empty before they rob most of the time.

Are American burglars bolder? And if so, is the fact that they can easily access weapons one of the reasons they are.

Not necessarily wanting to keep this on guns, just interested.

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Sunday, January 6, 2013 11:50 AM

CHRISISALL

Quote:
Originally posted by Magonsdaughter:

Are American burglars bolder? And if so, is the fact that they can easily access weapons one of the reasons they are.

Everyone I know get burglars on a regular basis. Like mice. There's one in my house now as a matter of fact Hold please-

Okay, I knocked him out.

Yeah, funny that I actually only knew of ONE break in and it wasn't even anyone I knew very well.
I think it's like ten million homes a year here.

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Sunday, January 6, 2013 7:43 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht

I think that again it all comes back to moderation. Its good to be informed and make safe choices. But over concern and limiting yourself or your children too much because of fears is problematic, it makes everyone feel scareder than they need to be and it limits your quality of life. Common sense seems like the order of the day here, and attention to seeking fullness and enjoyment for parents and kids. As Zoe says we don't want to be so afraid of losing something that we're not going to try and have it.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Sunday, January 6, 2013 9:41 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by chrisisall:
Quote:
Originally posted by Magonsdaughter:

Are American burglars bolder? And if so, is the fact that they can easily access weapons one of the reasons they are.

Everyone I know get burglars on a regular basis. Like mice. There's one in my house now as a matter of fact Hold please-

Okay, I knocked him out.

Yeah, funny that I actually only knew of ONE break in and it wasn't even anyone I knew very well.
I think it's like ten million homes a year here.

I was broken into 3 times - in the same house over a period of about 6 months. In the end, insurance wouldnt cover me and the landlord wouldn't put in the required security system. None of it happened when I was home, they were most possibly neighbours or connected to them, and knew my comings and goings. I felt very unsafe for many years after that. Dreading coming back after holidays.

My dog has made a huge difference. Big bark, waggy tail.

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Monday, January 7, 2013 7:28 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Magonsdaughter:
I guess I'd be interested in seeing the stats on home invasions, since this seems to be the fear that keeps Americans feeling the need to keep guns on their property.

I know that home invasions are pretty rare here. Burglars will wait until a house is empty before they rob most of the time.

Are American burglars bolder? And if so, is the fact that they can easily access weapons one of the reasons they are.

Around here it's NOT rare, unfortunately - that's one of the reasons I have employment, and while the wages ain't so hot I get an extraordinarily wide latitude and tons of perks, both because I'll actually *do* it for that pittance and cause the local yahoos are kinda afraid of me.

Apartment complexes, not so much a problem, as they say HOME invasions, too many witnesses and not enough loot to go after apartment dwellers, the few times there's a problem like that it's more something personal with looting as a side order.

I'd say 1-2 a week across the street is about par for the course, despite the fact that most if not all of them get caught within 15 days, mostly cause they're really stupid, talk too much, hit the same area over and over, really they're dumber than dirt but that never seems to stop it - I can only imagine how bad Detroits gotten by now since at the very least the local Police here will respond, as opposed to taking a report over the phone and pitching it in the trash like DPD does about it.

Most of the creepers we get here are in fact unarmed, cause if they get caught out it's mostly misdemeanor crap and they can plead it easy, but if they get caught packing that's felony beef right there, which carries the forever-mark-of-doom and all that bullshit, plus there's nothin here really worth a gunfight over.

And here's the rub - most of the time it's not intentionally a home invasion, as they would prefer no one be home but they're too lazy and impatient to make sure, and in those confrontations if the homeowner or family member is visibly armed (with anything, even a steak knife) and sometimes even if they're not the crook heads for the hills....
HOWEVER, the few rare incidents where it has gotten ugly, the single factor which caused it to do so was the homeowner being obviously unarmed - crimes of opportunity that escalated.

Around here there's a pretty high chance of someone at least making an effort to break into your place (if you own a house) which tapers down as various deterrents are involved, alarms, dogs, respectable locks, etc.

As I said, most of the time it's resolved without violence - there's actually not been ANY homeowner-shoots-home-invader stuff around here for years, the only big gunfight of THAT type was a lady who's ex was stalking her, wouldn't take no for an answer, laughed at the protective order and started firing on her house, whereupon she retaliated with a shotgun.
(Said ex was last seen peeling wheel down Harris and ain't nobody seen him since.)
The lesser shootings are almost always personal business.

-Frem

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Monday, January 7, 2013 7:45 AM

BYTEMITE

Quote:
and started firing on her house, whereupon she retaliated with a shotgun.
(Said ex was last seen peeling wheel down Harris and ain't nobody seen him since.)

Sometimes you really wish you had a video camera. You were there in person, but we have been deprived of the comedy of seeing the look on that guy's face before he hightailed it.

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Tuesday, January 8, 2013 7:42 AM

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

As to American burglars being bolder, it depends on where you live. Around here, we've had a few break-ins, but never when people are home. And I believe it's FAR more common for burglars to break into empty houses, as well. I just don't think we hear about it as much, it's so common, whereas "home invasions" and people being burgled when they're at home usually result in violence of one sort or another, which makes the papers.

We've come to accept this sort of thing in many places to the point where the news doesn't bother to cover them (especially national news) unless they are somehow unique or a lot of people are killed. Sad statement on our society, obviously.

Tit for tat got us where we are today. If we want to be grownups, we need to resist the ugliness. If we each did, this would be a better reflection on Firefly and a more welcome place. I will try.

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Tuesday, January 8, 2013 10:50 AM

Well my understanding of burglary, its kind of low profit, quick cash. Enough for a fix or two. These sort of crimes are overwhelmingly to support drug habits, and the junkies are usually pretty pathetic, unwell, not thinking too great. They actually don't want trouble.

Much better money is made through the manufacturing and selling of drugs. They tend to be harder men. Nastier.

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Wednesday, January 9, 2013 7:46 AM

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Bingo.

Tit for tat got us where we are today. If we want to be grownups, we need to resist the ugliness. If we each did, this would be a better reflection on Firefly and a more welcome place. I will try.

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Wednesday, January 9, 2013 9:10 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Magonsdaughter:
Much better money is made through the manufacturing and selling of drugs. They tend to be harder men. Nastier.

Indeed.

We have a sorta truce with those, they stay off our turf, and we don't wage open war on them - we kinda had a "conversation" early on, and the only bump in that road so far was a couple dudes looking for someone who did a rabbit with the weeks receipts, they stuck out like a sore thumb and I advised em of such, at which point they realized they were in the wrong apartment complex anyways.

See, I don't enforce the law, I just protect my turf, ergo I have about zero obligation to do any damn thing in regards to a non-threat, and so long as they're a non-threat to my little speck of dirt, I am deaf, dumb and blind, so far as their concerned.

-F

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Friday, January 11, 2013 11:22 AM

Just as an update, this is a COMMON, near-daily headline around here.
Ann Arbor police arrest 2 suspects in 5 home invasions this week
http://www.annarbor.com/news/crime/ann-arbor-police-arrest-2-suspects-
responsible-for-5-home-invasions-2-attempts/

What's odd about it is, as I said, they just about ALWAYS get caught within 11-14 days, if not less, and yet this has ZERO deterrent effect on the problem - that doesn't make any sense to me, it never has.

But yeah, round these parts it's a viable concern, not heard it from someone who heard it from someone else that it happened, but a real guy down the street got hit yesterday kinda way.

-Frem

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Friday, January 11, 2013 11:56 AM

Well I'm kind of confused. Reading the article they seem to be referring to what I would cal burglaries. That is, the homes were invaded while the occupants were not home. That is incredibly common here, and usually not reported in the news unless someone has been caught who is being charged with a series of them. Even then, its rarely news.

When I think of home invasions, I think of a home being targeted by an armed gang when the occupants are home. This story does not refer to such crimes.

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Saturday, January 12, 2013 1:15 AM

Well, Lazy reporting mostly, but the thing is - crooks around here are so damn dumb that while they'd likely prefer no one to be home, a lot of times they encounter homeowners, there's another one on the trial docket right now where a burglary turned rape when the perp encounted a sleeping and unarmed homeowner.

Ain't so much that they're fearless, so much as they're stupid, generally any resistance whatever will send them running, but if they run into someone who has taken bad advice and does not resist, or if they get the drop on someone completely... it turns ugly.

There's a couple smarter ones in the bunch, but even one of them got caught, a three man team which was raiding homes for sale, they made off with a safe full of valuables which had two guns in it, and once they pried it open they ditched it here sometime during the day, cause I found it beside one of our dumpsters and put 2+2 together on that pretty quick and had the local law pick it up, didn't have any prints on it cause the creepers were wearing gloves, but useful as evidence I suppose.

The other smart one doesn't fleece the herd too often, but when he does, he breaks into the management office of an apartment complex, loots the spare apartment keys and raids some of them, in the process grabbing any car keys he runs across and then exiting with the loot in the stolen car - and since he knows WHICH apartments to loot he obviously does recon in advance.
I don't like em smart, I really don't, and since this jackass is still at large I have a few "special" measures to ruin the hell out of his day should he ever try this place, which he likely won't cause it has a 'reputation' for being ludicrously well-defended for its income level.

So yeah, viable concern around here.

Funny note to this, back when I was living in the really nasty parts of Baltimore, me and some associates had just come back from a trip to the range and were sitting around his coffee table just the five of us chatting and cleaning the weapons, which being, yanno.. BALTIMORE, were perhaps a little "excessive" to most peoples sensibilities.
Suddenly the door crashes open and two yahoos come charging in only to come up short as they find themselves looking down the business end of a *ridiculous* amount of hardware, and Ray being Ray just HAD to top it off by whistling the theme from Fistfull of Dollars - ayep they decided they had another very important appointment about then.

Donnie: "Think we should call the cops ?"
Ray: "I dunno, they might arrest US, you know how they are!"
Me: "Oh HELL no, I want this story to get around!"

I dunno how often it happens here, someone chased off where they don't bother to call the cops, but break-ins are an ongoing problem, yes.

-Frem

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Saturday, January 12, 2013 8:17 AM