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This is a normal post It makes me sad the fascination people have with looking for and sharing clips of people dying.
All the years of desensitising have led to this I guess. Someone falling over is funny yes, but if they die doing it it's time to stop laughing.
 (I helped save b3ta! Professor Fnord Regius Professor of B3ta Chronology, Thu 21 May 2009, 13:32, , Reply)
This is a normal post Humans are curious
There'll always be a morbid fascination. People talk about violence these days, well, at least these days we don't have the Blood Eagle or even trench warfare in Europe.

Yeah, it's a bit grim, but I don't think it's so much to do with desensitising as just curiousity.
 (Frozen_Banana Shaved against the grain; thoroughly unrewarding., Thu 21 May 2009, 13:34, , Reply)
This is a normal post It can't be both?

(I helped save b3ta! Zuowan, Thu 21 May 2009, 13:49, , Reply)
This is a normal post I get the fascination, Crime books/Murder mysteries have always been popular too. I don't mean everyone is just laughing at things like this.
And I know you can't take the internet as a sample for all society, but the desensitising effect of seeing so many deaths in films and tv (news included) means you get people that can't tell if it's real or not, or don't feel that different if it's real or not.

It's one thing to stumble upon something and have curiosity aroused, but I personally don't want to have the chance to watch horrible things offered to me so I stay away from those sites that do. There's probably something like LOLDEATHS around. It wouldn't surprise me.
 (I helped save b3ta! Professor Fnord Regius Professor of B3ta Chronology, Thu 21 May 2009, 13:52, , Reply)
This is a normal post Yeah it's called LiveLeak

(I helped save b3ta! The magic of chutney Shakes it like an Instagram filter!, Thu 21 May 2009, 13:54, , Reply)
This is a normal post It's everywhere.
Even the failblog has "LOL people die, it's funny because I don't know them" shit. Like here - failblog.org/2008/06/03/tour-de-fail/ (the picture is hidden under a link inside, I'm just putting this here to show the discussion under it)
People make so many bullshit justifications for doing things they want to. It doesn't mean it's ok. Laughing at videos of people dying is as bad as watching child porn.
 (I helped save b3ta! Zuowan, Thu 21 May 2009, 14:10, , Reply)
This is a normal post Laughing at them is beyond me.
Have been thinking about this since a similar discussion on the board a few weeks ago.

There is some inate need to see stuff like this. I bet you wanted to see what was going on at the WTC on 9/11 when you heard about it.

From an evolutionary standpoint...maybe we inherited a desire to see the demise of others because those apes who saw what others had done wrong didn't then go on to do it themselves....and therefore survived.

Could be a corrupted form of that instinct. It's the same kind of instinct that makes us want to hear about horrendous news stories from around the world. It's what keeps the news media in business.

Or maybe assimilating stuff visually helps us deal with things that scare us - especially our own mortality. Death is a massive taboo, yet it's something we all face. There's a natural curiosity to look behind the taboo. I guess with some they deal with the extreme experience by trivialising it and laughing - makes them feel like they have mastery over it. Though this shows massive disrespect to whoever they're laughing at and therefore seems pretty inhuman.

Interesting stuff.
 (Jimbotfu Bummed in the gob again, Thu 21 May 2009, 15:56, , Reply)
This is a normal post I don't understand the LOL people die thing
but the death as spectacle thing is easy to understand if somewhat bizarre/creepy; somehow, awe of the spectacle (think of 9/11; big explosions and the collapse of 110 storey skyscapers) triumphs over the horror associated with people suffering/being killed.

(and then there's film franchises like Final Destination and Cube etc.)
 (I helped save b3ta! custard, Thu 21 May 2009, 16:14, , Reply)
This is a normal post ^ This
I remember a friend saying that he'd felt compelled to watch 9/11 news footage due to the enourmous "FUCK ME" factor...which sort of sums it up nicely.
 (Jimbotfu Bummed in the gob again, Thu 21 May 2009, 16:33, , Reply)
This is a normal post ^This in spades^
I hate bloody places like Liveleak, that feature vids of patently fatal car smashes and the comments are full of ROFLMAO, and ”Musta bin Arabs Drivin lol” etc etc...The one downside to the whole internet has been this trivialisation of death
 (I helped save b3ta! The magic of chutney Shakes it like an Instagram filter!, Thu 21 May 2009, 13:40, , Reply)
This is a normal post Exactly the kind of thing I was thinking of
It's great they have a place for that though because it means there's less of it spread around places like this.
 (I helped save b3ta! Professor Fnord Regius Professor of B3ta Chronology, Thu 21 May 2009, 13:56, , Reply)