Lack of perspective

At News of the Weird, Chuck Shepherd likes to use the headline, “Perspective.”

While he usually has a sharp if not cynical perspective, during the last two weeks he has published two snippets that have absurd perspectives.

23 November 2014

LEAD STORY — Weird Patriotism

Millions of immigrants want to migrate, get a job, and then send money home to the people that helped them to migrate. Shepherd would call this “Weird Families.”

November is tax-publicizing season in Finland, where, starkly unlike America, the government releases all individuals’ tax records to help build public support for the country’s vast welfare state. Thus, reported Foreign Policy magazine, Finnish society gets a “yearly dose of schadenfreude” … “opening the door for a media frenzy of gossip, boasting and fingerpointing” about “fair share” and who’s more worthy. A few, however, proudly pay high Finnish taxes as a “badge of patriotism,” rejecting common tax shelters. “We’ve received a lot of help from society,” said one homegrown (and wealthy) entrepreneur, “and now it is our turn to pay back.” [Foreign Policy, 11-5-2014]

The logical-opposite of the final quote is “We’ve received a lot of help from society, and now we should tell our society to go to hell.”

Which statement is more “patriotic”? Expressing a desire to give back to society or the typical American response of turning away from helping the system that helps you?

The “weird patriotism” here is not found in Finland: it is the self-destructive, short-sighted, hate-filled, arrogant “patriotism” of American society.

30 November 2014

Latest Spiritual Messages

— “Santa Muerte” (Our Lady of the Holy Death) might be described as a cynic’s unauthorized byproduct of Roman Catholicism currently festering in drug-cartel-roiled Mexico and Central America and is, according to Vice Media, “the world’s fastest growing” religion. “Saint Death” first appeared only 12 years ago, in the Mexico City barrio of Tepito, and is now a first line of protection for worshippers in danger zones. (Almost 80,000 Mexicans have been killed in drug-related violence since 2006, Vice reported.)

List of motor vehicle deaths in U.S. by year

Year Deaths
2006 42,708
2007 41,259
2008 37,423
2009 33,883
2010 32,999
2011 32,479
2012 33,561
2013 35,200
2014 n/a

Domestic violence deaths

In 2010, 241 males and 1095 females were murdered by an intimate partner. Intimate partner violence (IPV) only includes current/former girlfriends, boyfriends, spouses. It does not include other forms of domestic relationships.

IPV resulted in 2,340 deaths in 2007—accounting for 14% of all homicides. Of these deaths, 70% were females and 30% were males.

As many as 1,958 domestic violence‐related suicides occur annually in the US.

Perspective?

80,000 people have died since 2006 in drug related violence in Mexico, so Shepherd wrote, Roman Catholicism [is] currently festering in drug-cartel-roiled Mexico.

Is the United States “automobile-accident-roiled?” More importantly, in the the US, we have the perception that Mexico is a dangerous place because it is “drug-cartel-roiled”, but we do not talk about the epidemic of domestic violence–we do not talk about the fact that our country is “festering” in domestic violence.

Do you want perspective? If Mexico’s drug-related deaths are worth reporting, then even more valuable is a discussion about the fact that 22-25% of women and at least 7% of men will be the victim of domestic violence at least once (possibly more) during their life.

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