Juice's Lecture Notes wrote:
Fine, I'll try to explain what I found so extra-disturbing in the video posted yesterday. I was hesitant to try because I don't know if diving into these kinds of thoughts will bring about depression or make it worse or what, but the board has earned an explanation of sorts:
There is a demonstrated, expressed sadistic nature to the way those people were murdered in Philly. As I have maintained, videos showcasing death are on some base level brutal and gruesome, no matter who is shown having their life ended, "deserved" or not. Sure, I or some others may respond to particular nasty people dying with things like "good" out of some kind of anger response, but at the end of the day a life is ending, and it looks more and more like we only get one shot at this thing called consciousness. But in the video posted yesterday, the two people killed were toyed with while they clung to life, not even having the ability to say anything, just making gutteral noises as they tried instinctually to stave off death as their tormenter repeatedly taunted them right before bringing an end to what was a few hours before just a normal day during a snowstorm. And that adds another element to the brutality of it, I suppose, there was no provocation, no conceivable justification. This wasn't an accident, or an unintended consequence of risky behavior. These people were intentionally caused immense harm, then taunted while suffering and killed by someone who seemed to enjoy (as evidenced by the tough-talking before execution and the repeated shots to make sure the deed was done) imposing fear on a wounded person right before they snuffed out their conscious form, for absolutely no reason. The end of their life, their last conscious moments, kept getting progressively worse and worse, as I can only imagine they tried to find a way to survive, not knowing that it was never a possibility that they'd live to see another day, their killer just...torturing them in their last moments.
When I watched the video, those are the connections my brain made, and it, I guess, scared the shit out of me.
Now MANY will try to equate videos like the one showing George Floyd's death, and use my statements and opinions of that incident as evidence of hypocrisy. I don't think I have ever said that Floyd's death wasn't a tragedy, or that hearing him beg for his life wasn't tough to watch (I'm pretty sure I said it was, at the time, but maybe not) or fear-inducing, but I don't really wish to get into the nitty-gritty of which death was more disturbing to watch and why, but I think it should be noted that arguing about whether actions that preceded death or caused it rose to the level of criminality is not the same as saying the death itself isn't tragic or in some odd way good. Suffice it to say that for the above reasons I found the deaths shown in the Philly video to be extremely disturbing.
Thank you. I appreciate the honest answer.
This isn't a matter for agreement or disagreement. Feelings matter and everyone is entitled to his/her own.
I guess maybe I am desensitized. A few pops, some falling down, and some screaming, it really doesn't register with me much after I've seen video of mobs beating and kicking people on the street or guys arbitrarily knocking people onto the subway tracks.