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by highcountess 702 days ago
It is a combination of those factors along with what I call TV-Brain, a subconscious assumption that it’s not real, it’s just like when I see it in the rectangle.

Remember, most people in the western and especially American world, simply do not experience real world risks and dangers, everything is so sanitized and cleaned and protected and safe, that they simply do not connect reality with their own demise or even a risk to it. On a related note, it is alway why I believe there are so many and increasing numbers of injurious contacts with bisons, moose, elk, bears, etc in Yellowstone, because they think they’re cuddly animals that they saw in wildlife documentaries and know from cartoons and tv stories of the child that is friends with the talking bear, etc. most people are simply so detached from reality that they simply have no reference for what they are doing that is extremely dangerous to their continued state of being alive.

2 comments

The first time I visited the Everglades there was a family that had been at Disney for some time and the kids would not believe the many enourmous alligators laying around were real.

On the other hand, my two year old (who had been hitting kids in preschool and getting a lot of "don't hit" messaging, turned and queried, of an alligator on the boardwalk about ten or twenty feet in front of us "No hit the Alligator?"

While my heart and heart rate spiked, I swiftly grabbed him up and agreed, "yes, no hit the alligator!"

The other side of that is "everything is very survivable on TV". Like you see constant explosions and people just getting knocked over, dusting themselves off, and keep going.

Real life, a lot less so.