Do We Really Care?
By robspeakman
@robspeakman (1700)
April 28, 2013 8:32pm CST
If you are offended easily....
DON'T READ ANY FURTHER - You have been warned
I am not a liar... well actually isn't true, I tell pork pies all the time. However I do not liar about how I think.
Following the tragic events in Bangladesh and the collapsed building, the building that is a sweatshop making clothes for the UK. Folk have died and that is tragic - A loss of human life is always sad.
People are lining up to say that they would never buy clothes made in these factories or if they did in the past, they will not again....
YAWN!!! - I can hear them starting up the bandwagon.
Will I change my shopping habits?
Will I bore people with my claims that everything I own is carbon neutral and organically sourced?
NO I WON'T.
If I can buy sh1t cheaper, then I will... and so will most of you lot.
You are actually being selfish if you stop buying these clothes.
If no-one buys the clothes, the factories close and the people are out of work.
I am not going to lie to you and say I buy the cheaper clothes to keep the Patel family in work... I want to pay less for my stuff.
What else don't I care about?
Pretty much everything
We have 24 hour news channels filled with death, war and famine. There are only two ways you can go watching that kind of horror over and over...
You will either go mad
Or you will mentally switch off.
Most of us switch off.
Car bombs are exploded in Iraq everyday.... I don't care
Starving folk in Africa.... I don't care
The Boston bombing?
I have moved on, I don't care.
The news channels have to work harder to make us care. That in itself is uncaring and cynical. Why did the American media release the name of the young boy killed in the Boston Bombing?
To pluck at the heart strings and keep the story going
Nobody would care about the Chinese girl - would they?
If I am perfectly honest, there is very little that affects me on the news.
I think the last thing that I was shocked about on the news was the Sandy Hook school shooting. That did upset me a little, for a while - And then the halfwits came out and hijacked the story with their vocal and paranoid need for assualt rifles.
I also didn't watch the Bahrain F1 race because I believe that it should not be held in that country as long as the civil unrest continues - I do care about things like that.
Some of these replies should be good... not that I care
2 people like this
7 responses
@PointlessQuestions (15397)
• United States
29 Apr 13
I can't say I don't care, but it is like it is happening to someone else. There is nothing I can do other than care and maybe get very emotional about things I hear on the news. I try not to listen to the horrific things on the news because they haunt me. Like animals and children being severely abused or killed, I cannot watch that stuff. That kind of news affects me for days. I will see flashbacks of images of what my mind plays about what I see. It doesn't happen all the time but there are times when that happens so I just don't want to watch news. I hear about things second or third hand, and while I care, I am far removed from it.
More than likely, if you were the target of a bombing or if you just suffered collateral damage, you would care. Why? Because it affected you personally. Same with me. When things affect me personally I am deeply affected. My problem with seeing or hearing horrible things on the news is because I respond like it is close to home, if that makes sense.
I'm not offended by your discussion here. I might have been if you didn't warn us, but warning us gave me a chance to think about what you wrote and not just have a knee jerk reaction to it.
@PointlessQuestions (15397)
• United States
29 Apr 13
I forgot to mention about buying stuff. My experience is you get what you pay for. I do buy some things from cheap stores and I'm usually sorry. I want the money I spend on stuff to stretch, but I don't want the stuff I buy to fall apart the first time I use it or wear it. For instance, I spent $21 on tennis shoes at Walmart and they are falling apart after 2 months. I bought SAS shoes for $85 5 years ago and they are still good to go, and will probably still be good for another 3 years. So I believe in spending my money on quality stuff.
@robspeakman (1700)
•
30 Apr 13
I used the term "Don't Care" mainly for effect and to grab attention.
What you say about happening to other people and not us is very true, but should we not care more?
I do not see myself as a callous or a cold person, yet I can watch the news without batting an eyelid.
I really don't care about the quality of clothing, If it looks good enough to convince people that I do not sleep rough then in my opinion, that is good stuff.
However I do agree on your comment about footwear - I do have no problem with spending a lot of shoes.
Finding a good pair of shoes that are comfortable and snug is magical... and I want that feeling to last
@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
29 Apr 13
I pay a little extra for organic food, because I think it's better for my family, and will continue to do so as long as I can afford it.
As for clothing, I usually just buy what looks good on me, and I don't so much look at labels or country of origin (or price - to a point). I may start, I may not. Not that I don't care, but I guess I have bigger fish to fry, different things on my mind.
As for the news, if shocking people would actually get them to rise up off their duffs and try to change things, I'm all for it. I suspect that too much of it would just desensitize people.
@robspeakman (1700)
•
30 Apr 13
I have no problem with folk buying organic food or such like, my problem is the people that use the fact as some form of Moral Banner to wave above the rest of our heads.
News does numb our sense of shock.
I was woken up by the good lady and we watched the live destruction of New York in 2001 and even back then, it was never about the people dying. It was about the scale of the devastation and if I may use this word in this context the brilliance of the execution. There is no denying that what they did was brilliant.
Don't think that I condone any actions of terror.
What they achieved that day is probably one of the most graphic acts of terror ever undertaken and it was played out on every television around the World, Those images will stay in our memories until our dying days. I remember how I felt as I watched.
Those images will define the 21st century, but even now - The footage is never about the people, it is about the impossible happening on live TV
1 person likes this
@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
30 Apr 13
I don't know, when I saw those people jumping to escape the fire, knowing that they were going to die anyway, it was about the people for me.
@sid556 (30960)
• United States
30 Apr 13
I do care about all of those things and then some. I do however think the media..at least in the US goes way overboard in sensationalizing these things. I remember a time when something would happen and if you didn't hear it on the 6:00 or 11:00 news then you could read it next day in the paper and that was it. Now it is all over the internet and on every tv station 24/7. The Sunday papers still had front page news of the Boston bombings this week. Its ridiculous. I don't turn on my tv except occasionally for my grandkids. I get my news from a variety of sources and often there will be very differing accounts of a situation. I refuse to watch or read about anything to the point where I am numb to human suffering. I turn off my tv..my radio and read enough to know what is going on and be done with it. I cried when I heard of the 5 yr old in India that got raped and I would care about the Chinese girl. We need to learn to turn it off before we get numb.
@robspeakman (1700)
•
30 Apr 13
Most of the news is swept away to concentrate on one story - We are told what to care about and who to sympathise with.
Even in the UK we got the impression that Boston was more important than WEST
@p1kef1sh (45681)
•
29 Apr 13
Hmmm.......I do care but I am not bothered. The great thing about being an armchair pundit is that I can choose to see, complain and become emotional but never actually have to do anything about it. Now if someone blew up my chair, telly and puter.......then I'd care like billyo.
I do care that we have elections soon and there is not a single person or party on the voting slip that I want to see elected!
@robspeakman (1700)
•
30 Apr 13
I live in Greater Manchester - Could there be an bigger Oxymoron?
We are not having the county elections, but I will watch to see how many get duped into voting for UKIP
@blackrusty (3519)
• Mexico
29 Apr 13
well it sounds like the skinny of your plot for words boils down to you don't care that was far more easy to say yes all of us who have cable or internet have use of the 24 hour news channels I only however go real fast to see what happens in the world today and try not to spend hours at a time watching all the bad in the world
@robspeakman (1700)
•
29 Apr 13
You don't have to watch all the time - The news is repeated every 15 minutes
1 person likes this
@blackrusty (3519)
• Mexico
29 Apr 13
sad but true and look at all the money they make just to sit in there sweat shop telling us the news
@savypat (20216)
• United States
29 Apr 13
Because we are so bombarded by bad news we find it difficult to have true emotions
as a reaction to that news. Instead of caring about such situations we look tead for continued stimulation of our brains by more horror. To me this seem a sad statement about humanity. My answer is to turn it off, no TV, radio or other
forms of negative information enter my home. This is my Wish, however I live with Hubby who suffers from an old age syndrome, that if the news is not kept on at all times something will happen that he cannot cope with. How he can cope with anything at this point is beyond me but it is part of his security blanket. This is one of the most terrifying things that happens with brain failure. I can cope with the fact that he has the memory of a two year old when it comes to recent memory and yet can remember when he was really two, but the fears get beyond me,
nothing I can do can make him feel safe.
@robspeakman (1700)
•
30 Apr 13
I do understand how the news being on at all time can be comforting, It gives a person a feeling of being involved.
I watch the news all the time and I have an app for my phone that sends me updates
I complain about 24hr news and I can't stop watching it - Makes me a little bit of an hypocrite
