9/11 and "fuck you"

[Chardok]

a co-worker of mine just spoke the following words:

"When september 11th happened, I was like, 'And? People die all the time."

I stood up from my cubicle and stated that she is the most disgusting person on the planet to me, seriously.

I've never been more offended by anything anyone has said, ever.

Am I being overly sensitive? what would YOU do? Report it to HR? is there some kind of unwritten social stigma attached to apathy over 9/11 that I am falling into?

[Lord Zentei]

Your co-worker is trash. You are not being overly sensetive.

[Boyish-Tigerlilly]

she's right in that people do die all the time, however she's wrong if she thinks it's not tragic nonetheless. It's always sad when innocent people die of something, especially when it's all at once. People don't come back.

[Fire Fly]

I don't think your co-worker undstands the gravity of 9/11. After it happened, US foreign policy suddenly and dramatically changes, religion begins to assume a huge role while science begins to drift, former allies have a falling out with the US; the list is long. Yes, your co-worker is stupid, but it doesn't warrant a report to the higher ups; that alone is almost scary, to be reported for not having the same emotions and feelings as others do regarding 9/11. She doesn't quite deserve a verbal spanking, at least not from yours/her superiors. If she fails to understand the gravity which 9/11 caused, then you may feel free to verbally lash her, but don't report her. Her being unable to comprehend 9/11 isn't warranted for a report that might or might not lead to something more severe.

[Frank Hipper]

Yes, people die all the time.

Thousands of people are not murdered in a single act every day, however. No real over-sensitivity on your part, no.

Don't know if there's anything to be done, and I would be willing to go out on a limb and say that there is some stigma attached to September 11th (ask Shep about it, it's his birthday ), but she should be able to defend her statement with more than her flippant dismissal.

[DPDarkPrimus]

She is being as ass. But 9/11 is used as an excuse for a lot of stupid shit. It could be she just got tired of hearing people citing it as reasoning for everything.

[Darth Wong]

It all depends on the context. If she just said that out of the blue, she's being a fucktard. But if she had just heard someone say "well, things are different in a post-9/11 world" for the five hundredth fucking time, it might be more understandable.

[Stark]

You want to report her to HR for being apathetic? How does that make sense?

[wolveraptor]

Technically, it didn't have much to do with her work, so the only way you could get her is if she was wasting work-time with shit like this. Other than that, it just means she was being an asshole at the time.

[Molyneux]

I would say you weren't that oversensitive...
It is a little annoying that 9/11 is given THAT much importance, even over things like the tsunami. I mean, in terms of tragedy, that one was worse by an order of magnitude...

[Jarl Sven]

In terms of lives lost of course

But there is a significant difference between a natural disaster and an intentional act.

[Cosmic Average]

Am I being overly sensitive? what would YOU do? Report it to HR?

I certainly wouldn't report someone for their own private fucking views.

[wolveraptor]

Who was the guy who said it? "People have the right to be assholes."

I think it was Felix...

[Straha]

Tell the fucking bitch that while people die everyday, thousands of INNOCENT lives are not MURDERED and killed in a horrific fashion because of a maligned and depraved interpratation of a book everyday. Report it to HR, get a complaint in, of all people she deserves it...

(I know I may be over-reacting, but I saw the Towers get hit and go down personally and live, not on a TV but out the window... People who have only seen things like this through a TV, and only understand it as "Something that happened in New York City" understand what it was like to see it there about as well as the average American understands the Tsunami Crisis [Something which is, by the way, under-played signifigantly])

[Drooling Iguana]

Who was the guy who said it? "People have the right to be assholes."

I think it was Felix...

I seem to recall Snipes saying it in Demolition Man.

[Noble Ire]

I was similarly disgusted at an insensitive pirck awhile back, immediately following the Columbis disaster. I was sitting in band class, and I overheard one kid talking to another about what had happened. The other kids response: "So what, some people died. Who cares? I dont care."

This sickened me on aa very basic level, I am beginning to see this kind of apathy welling up all over the place nowadays, especially in the reporting of the death toll in Iraq (civilian casualties especially, as many newscasters dont even try to look like they care anymore.)

[Noble Ire]

That's "Prick" and "Columbia" by the way.

[Trytostaydead]

A lot of it can also be the lack of personal caring. As in, "how do their death really affect me how?" When thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions die in Africa, how many people really care enough to start donating money let alone shed a tear? Hotel Rwanda put it best when the guy said, "People will watch it on television, say how horrible and go back to eating their dinner."

[VT-16]

I don't think your co-worker undstands the gravity of 9/11. After it happened, US foreign policy suddenly and dramatically changes, religion begins to assume a huge role while science begins to drift, former allies have a falling out with the US; the list is long.

This has less to do with innocent people dying and more to do with a fundamentalist-backed government taking advantage of the situation. Which also explains why I don´t give a shit about it. 9/11 has gone from being a tragedy to being a golden opportunity for fundie fucktards to mess about in the ME (not that it didn´t need messing about with, but I don´t think Bush and Co. can be trusted to get it right).

I also get tired of people saying "Oh, that reminds me of 9/11!!!", when watching any random TV show with a burning/collapsing building, even stuff that predates 9/11.

[Broomstick]

a co-worker of mine just spoke the following words:

"When september 11th happened, I was like, 'And? People die all the time."

This sort of thing can erupt out of a person for any number of reasons.

For example, after burying three friends this spring, plus two serious illnesses myself that cost me two and a half weeks in bed in March, plus having to drop everything and move to Michigan for two weeks when both my parents were in the hospital... it's fair to say I'm suffering from a bit of "compassion fatigue" right now and just simply can't work up a lot of empathy for kidnapped children, murdered pregnant women, people dying in Iraq, or even the latest tornado victims in my neighborhood. Sorry, folks, but my "give a damn" happens to have run out for the moment. That said, I probably would not express it in quite the manner of your co-worker, but frankly, right now, there is so much very personl, very tragic stuff going on right now in my personal life that what happened back in September of 2001 just doesn't blip on my radar screen right now. Check back in with me in a few weeks, assuming no one else I'm close to has been hospitalized or died in the meanwhile.

So, it's possible your co-worker was/is going through some shit that you aren't aware of.

Or maybe you're dealing with a total asshat.

Am I being overly sensitive?

Possibly, depending on context. But, from what I know of you on the board, probably not.

what would YOU do? Report it to HR?

No, absolutely not. People do have a right to be asshats, or to be preoccupied with personal crisis, or to just not give a damn.

As long as this person is not trying impose their opinion on anyone else, I don't see where you can do anything more than express your feelings in like manner.

If people aren't free to disagree, if people aren't free to hold unpopular opinions, or wrong opinions, then they aren't truly free.

[Chmee]

Everyone's perspective on tragedy is different.

"Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die."
- Mel Brooks

[Petrosjko]

I was similarly disgusted at an insensitive pirck awhile back, immediately following the Columbis disaster. I was sitting in band class, and I overheard one kid talking to another about what had happened. The other kids response: "So what, some people died. Who cares? I dont care."

This sickened me on aa very basic level, I am beginning to see this kind of apathy welling up all over the place nowadays, especially in the reporting of the death toll in Iraq (civilian casualties especially, as many newscasters dont even try to look like they care anymore.)

It's not a 'nowadays' phenomenon. When I was a kid, I was a Young Astronaut and a major space program junkie, and I was devastated when the Challenger blew up. But most of my class didn't give a damn, and the next day the kids sitting behind me on the bus were joking about it.

[wolveraptor]

The monkey sphere strikes again...

[2000AD]

I was a little like that, not so extreme. I was more like:

"Ok the WTC got "bombed", can we have something else on TV now?"

I remember my dad picked me up from school and the first thing he said was that someone had flown a plane into the WTC, and my reaction was just "Wow, really?" and he looked surprised that i wasn't going "HOLY SHIT! WTF DUDES!!!" or a more sane version of that.

[Sephirius]

I was a little like that, not so extreme. I was more like:

"Ok the WTC got "bombed", can we have something else on TV now?"

I remember my dad picked me up from school and the first thing he said was that someone had flown a plane into the WTC, and my reaction was just "Wow, really?" and he looked surprised that i wasn't going "HOLY SHIT! WTF DUDES!!!" or a more sane version of that.

I bet he expected OMGZORTEAMKILLWTFWALLHAXXOR or something. To be honest, when it first happened, I wanted them to bomb something.

after a day or two, I was upset that TNG was being canceled in favor of news punditry.