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RE: Official live update of spread of COVID19
December 6, 2020 at 4:32 pm
(This post was last modified: December 6, 2020 at 4:33 pm by BrianSoddingBoru4.)
(December 6, 2020 at 3:55 pm)tackattack Wrote: Ah, like “equivocally, @1/3 of the members that have ever registered at this form died of Covid yesterday in the US.”
I just think it’s a shitty way to raise awareness. @4k isn’t that he’d of a number to imagine.
True, it’s not hard to imagine, but it does help to put it into some sort of perspective. If you tell someone that a sinkhole 100m long and 50m wide just opened up, they’ll understand it, but if you tell them a sinkhole the size of a football pitch opened up, they’ll grasp it.
Boru
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RE: Official live update of spread of COVID19
December 6, 2020 at 8:02 pm
It’s that some sort of perspective that I have a problem with. And intentionally emotive one by spurious use of a tragedy just seems in bad taste to me. Why not just say “6 barrack fulls of aushwitz Jews just died yesterday of Covid” ? Or “the Approximately same number of 15-24 yr olds that died in the US of homicide in 2018”
"There ought to be a term that would designate those who actually follow the teachings of Jesus, since the word 'Christian' has been largely divorced from those teachings, and so polluted by fundamentalists that it has come to connote their polar opposite: intolerance, vindictive hatred, and bigotry." -- Philip Stater, Huffington Post
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RE: Official live update of spread of COVID19
December 6, 2020 at 8:14 pm
(December 6, 2020 at 8:02 pm)tackattack Wrote: It’s that some sort of perspective that I have a problem with. And intentionally emotive one by spurious use of a tragedy just seems in bad taste to me. Why not just say “6 barrack fulls of aushwitz Jews just died yesterday of Covid” ? Or “the Approximately same number of 15-24 yr olds that died in the US of homicide in 2018”
Because those numbers aren't relatable to most people. Most people know what a planeload of people looks like, very few are up on the barracks capacity at Auschwitz or the demographics of homicide from two years ago. If I were to say, for example, 'More people have already died of COVID in just 12 months than died in The Great Hunger in four years', most people wouldn't have a clue what I was talking about.
I don't see how comparing deaths from one cause it to another is spurious or in bad taste. Would you object to the statement, 'More people are killed every year in car crashes than are murdered in the inner cities'?
Boru
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RE: Official live update of spread of COVID19
December 6, 2020 at 8:15 pm
tack, I understand both sides. I don't mind the emotive strategy. Many in the US won't listen to logic, reason and common sense, including Trump. How else to get the message across? You use emotion. It works. Religion is built on this strategy.
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RE: Official live update of spread of COVID19
December 7, 2020 at 12:35 am
(December 6, 2020 at 8:14 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: (December 6, 2020 at 8:02 pm)tackattack Wrote: It’s that some sort of perspective that I have a problem with. And intentionally emotive one by spurious use of a tragedy just seems in bad taste to me. Why not just say “6 barrack fulls of aushwitz Jews just died yesterday of Covid” ? Or “the Approximately same number of 15-24 yr olds that died in the US of homicide in 2018”
Because those numbers aren't relatable to most people. Most people know what a planeload of people looks like, very few are up on the barracks capacity at Auschwitz or the demographics of homicide from two years ago. If I were to say, for example, 'More people have already died of COVID in just 12 months than died in The Great Hunger in four years', most people wouldn't have a clue what I was talking about.
I don't see how comparing deaths from one cause it to another is spurious or in bad taste. Would you object to the statement, 'More people are killed every year in car crashes than are murdered in the inner cities'?
Boru
I wouldn’t have a problem saying “that almost 8 full airbus 830 died yesterday of Covid “ because it’s not utilizing a recent tragedy for emotive only gain. If the facts aren’t strong enough to stand without emotionalism then they’re not strong enough. Which leads to ignoramus’ very good point...
(December 6, 2020 at 8:15 pm)░I░G░N░O░R░A░M░U░S ░ Wrote: tack, I understand both sides. I don't mind the emotive strategy. Many in the US won't listen to logic, reason and common sense, including Trump. How else to get the message across? You use emotion. It works. Religion is built on this strategy.
Yes, modern religion was built upon capitalizing on fear-mongerIng and swaying opinions through emotive pleas. Isn’t that part of the problem? I also agree that many in the US, and elsewhere, have a problem with reason and that it works. I just don’t personally believe it’s worth the cost.
You don’t help people out of the muck by slinging more muck at them.
"There ought to be a term that would designate those who actually follow the teachings of Jesus, since the word 'Christian' has been largely divorced from those teachings, and so polluted by fundamentalists that it has come to connote their polar opposite: intolerance, vindictive hatred, and bigotry." -- Philip Stater, Huffington Post
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RE: Official live update of spread of COVID19
December 7, 2020 at 1:51 am
Rudy has COVID-19 and this was happening like 3 days ago
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
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RE: Official live update of spread of COVID19
December 7, 2020 at 1:57 pm
(December 6, 2020 at 8:02 pm)tackattack Wrote: It’s that some sort of perspective that I have a problem with. And intentionally emotive one by spurious use of a tragedy just seems in bad taste to me. Why not just say “6 barrack fulls of aushwitz Jews just died yesterday of Covid” ? Or “the Approximately same number of 15-24 yr olds that died in the US of homicide in 2018”
I think it's extremely helpful to compare COVID numbers to something that might click better for some folks, especially as so many Americans remain relatively apathetic toward the virus overall.
Like this account: https://twitter.com/COVIDCityUSA
Quote:281,186 deaths is more than the population of any of these cities:
Quote:St Petersburg, Florida (265,351)
Fort Wayne, Indiana (270,402)
Toledo, Ohio (272,779)
Chula Vista, California (274,492)
Durham, North Carolina (278,993)
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RE: Official live update of spread of COVID19
December 7, 2020 at 2:21 pm
@ Aegon and I'm all for comparisons. That example works fine for a number comparison like that. It's not utilizing a recent unrelated tragedy for its emotional value to just get people riled up so they'll care. There's a difference between people seeing and comprehending the number clearly and appropriating a tragedy for an emotive response.
"There ought to be a term that would designate those who actually follow the teachings of Jesus, since the word 'Christian' has been largely divorced from those teachings, and so polluted by fundamentalists that it has come to connote their polar opposite: intolerance, vindictive hatred, and bigotry." -- Philip Stater, Huffington Post
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RE: Official live update of spread of COVID19
December 7, 2020 at 2:34 pm
(December 7, 2020 at 2:21 pm)tackattack Wrote: @Aegon and I'm all for comparisons. That example works fine for a number comparison like that. It's not utilizing a recent unrelated tragedy for its emotional value to just get people riled up so they'll care. There's a difference between people seeing and comprehending the number clearly and appropriating a tragedy for an emotive response.
So, you've now argued multiple times in this thread against having an emotional response to covid deaths. Um, why shouldn't we try to get people to have an emotional response to covid? What value is there in only soberly assessing the number of deaths without emotional attachment? Am I mischaracterizing what you are getting at?
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RE: Official live update of spread of COVID19
December 7, 2020 at 3:58 pm
@ Rhizomorph13 sorry if I restated my case multiple time. I thought that some responses were still missing my point. Yes you have stated that correctly. Other than it being a fallacy of appealing to emotion, I believe is both morally wrong to appropriate tragic deaths and it adds to the already emotional irrationality of the cesspool of stupidity that exists in the US regarding Covid, vaccines and masks. I don't believe any of these reason elevate the conversation.
"There ought to be a term that would designate those who actually follow the teachings of Jesus, since the word 'Christian' has been largely divorced from those teachings, and so polluted by fundamentalists that it has come to connote their polar opposite: intolerance, vindictive hatred, and bigotry." -- Philip Stater, Huffington Post
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