Still mad about the "Zombie Apocalypse" crap.

[uberreiniger]

A few days ago on Facebook I ranted about the whole "Zombie Apocalypse" jokes springing up in the wake of the Miami cannibal incident. In the days since then it's gotten so bad that Cracked have had to step up and call out the stupid.

I have said it before and I'll say it again. What does it say about us that a comedy website has become the gatekeeper of reason in our society? Then again, I suppose satirists have always had that unlucky job.

I agree with the points Cracked makes. Here's another thing I'll say before I post no more on the subject: the "zombie apocalypse" crap doesn't just demean the crimes due to their insensitivity. They demean them because the people doing them are actually worse than zombies. Zombies, apart from being fictional, are mindless brutes who don't know any better. These are thinking, reasoning human beings who have descended into drug use which has destroyed their reality to the point that they are capable of terrifying things. That to me is far more disturbing than disposable, faceless enemies from a horror movie.

It was probably about five or six years ago now but at a local drug store where I live a shop lifter viciously bit a security guard who tried to restrain him. It was noteworthy because the attacker was supposedly HIV positive. (He was said to have been gleefully yelling "I have AIDS! I have AIDS!" as the police arrested him.) As I recall the poor guard thankfully tested negative. But no, people, keep carrying on about zombies. That's where the real problems are.

Comments

[catlin.livejournal.com]

Actually, technically some of the original Zombie legends started because of victims of drugs that sapped the will in Haiti...

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

True, but those drugs were meant to make people passive and open to suggestion, not turn them into raging berserkers.

[howlin-wolf-66.livejournal.com]

Fully agree. Real human behaviour is scarier and more serious than anything fictional that could be dreamt up.

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

Devil's Advocate here: People are nervous. People are scared. Humor is an EXTREMELY common reaction to nerves and fear, especially when something that weird happens. I haven't seen anyone targeting the actual people involved so much as commenting in a WTF manner...

Want to 'blame' somebody? Blame the snarky media that's playing it up (people go crazy on drugs all the time, but these isolated incidents are being portrayed as if they're connected).

[chassit19.livejournal.com]

I'm scared, too. Not about the event itself, but that people genuinely find it amusing. That has pretty horrifying sociological implications, in my opinion. Inappropriate emotional responses are indicative of mental illness. It suggests that our entire society is mentally ill (which I believe anyway - look at the popularity of "reality" shows where people verbally and physically abuse one another).

[lucretiasheart.livejournal.com]

YES. Precisely.

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

*shrug* I don't find Black Comedy particularly horrifying. YMMV.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Every faceless little shit hiding behind a computer screen and taking joy in human tragedy is not "Black Comedy." These people are not "nervous" or "scared." It's entertainment for them.

[lucretiasheart.livejournal.com]

I'm with you.

I get that people deal with horror by using black humor, but really-- yeah. Its become such a reflex reaction to trivialize horror that no one takes a moment to really digest and react with-- you know, the HORROR?

Sighs and cries.

[rosehiptea.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the zombie jokes were all around Tumblr and for once I just didn't reblog something because I really didn't think it was funny.

And even though the article's main points are about accuracy, when the Cracked columnists are more understanding and thoughtful then you are, you need to examine your behavior. (Nothing against Cracked, I spend way too much time there myself.)

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

I know! I hear more and more people saying how they prefer to get their news from sources like Cracked and Stewart/Colbert and what's scary is those sources are usually better with the facts! What is happening, that these bawdy, edgy comedians are the ones holding up mirrors for us and saying "Look at what you're doing! You should be ashamed!" I don't want to be all melodramatic and say that's the mark of a society that's in a decline but I feel comfortable saying it's the mark of a society that isn't exactly in its renaissance.

[ravenbrenna.livejournal.com]

I'm not going to lie, when I was first told about the story, due to the way it was described to me, my brain jumped to zombies. Mostly due to the fact that I play a lot of zombie shooting games and the way they described his attacking/continuing to attack the poor man after already being shot is exactly what a zombie in these games does, but the more I heard it became scarier and scarier. Especially when I heard about more and more stories...especially a lot of baby related ones which are only coming out now obviously just as the cracked article indicates. I actually cried (hence the initiated fb post about my fear for my child growing up in this world).

I seriously don't know what upset/scared me the most. The fact that everyone is so fascinated by this shit (there is a video of a murder in Canada here that the police can't get done because people keep copying and uploading it), the fact that I am hearing about so many incidents at the same time, or the realization that this actually happens often enough that they could start pulling previous stories that never reached that high of a popularity at the time the crimes happened so they figure, why not link them now? Seriously scares me.

And especially when I stop to think "How could someone do this? What could drive someone to do these things to other people?". And then, while trying to understand how it happens, I start to wonder "Could I ever be capable of losing my mind to such a degree? What makes me any different than them?" When it comes down to it, the fact that I take the time to ask those questions makes me a bajillion kinds of different from the majority of these people, but it still scares the shit out of me.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Sadly there have always been deranged individuals who mutilate and cannibalize their victims. They are incredibly rare but they are out there. We are not seeing more of them but sadly the media is sensationalizing them now and that is utterly horrific.

The Miami cannibal was a tough man even without the drugs. A few years ago he was arrested for assaulting his mother and the police had to taser him three times to bring him down. His ex-wife described him as being utterly paranoid. The man's life was a mess, he was too tough for his own good, and he was on dangerously powerful hallucinogenic drugs. His life ended horribly and you are right that it's even more horrible because if it can happen to him, it can happen to someone else. Ultimately though he made bad choices. He let anger and paranoia drive him into someplace he couldn't get out of.

I still think your daughter is going to be one of the lucky ones on account of who her parents are. The world is overrun by Bad Guys, always has been. But you're one of the Good Guys and I know with you behind her she will be too.

[ravenbrenna.livejournal.com]

She better be...OR ELSE.

Joking aside, I can't wait to see what sort of person she is going to be. :) It's just everyone else I am worried about. Stupid world.