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by Brendinooo
3874 days ago
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From an United Statesian perspective, I think there are a lot of factors in play: 1. Most Americans could find France on a map. Lebanon? Not so much. 2. France is America's "oldest ally" - lots more common ground. 3. Many Americans have been to Paris; much fewer to Beirut. The article points to some other things: 4. The perception that this happens all the time in Lebanon, even though "it had been a year of relative calm." 5. Network effect (perhaps I'm misusing that term a bit) - FB activated their stuff because people were interested in it, which gets more people interested in it. I know I went straight to the TV after seeing my Twitter feed light up about it; had it just been a buried headline somewhere I might not have been as gravitated toward it. Not necessarily saying any of these things are good or bad. Sometimes I feel like people take on an accusatory tone when bringing up topics like this, so I wanted to explore some explanations. |
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Comparing empathy responses is just as messy. Should we make character judgments based upon the number of visitors to ones funeral? I think not.
Just out of curiosity, could flying an American flag in Lebanon, maybe nearer the Syrian border, potentially cause you some problems? What about the French flag? They'd had a rather intertwined history together. Seems odd to try and read in to ones empathy based upon such things.
Maybe if they fixed all the damaged buildings from their last civil war the rest of the world might start to forget their recent violent past. It wouldn't hurt. Regardless of how peaceful it might be now, it's a very recent thing in Lebanon and there are reminders everywhere of the violence. It hard for people to not factor that in. I feel bad for their victims, but I suspect it is similar to how the rest of the world feels about American gun violence victims; they don't fly our flag after every school shooting, and I don't expect them to or need them to do so.