The act of terror in Dallas is provoking such intense bouts of self-pity from people who weren’t there and are not in any danger that I shudder in vicarious shame as I scroll down my blog roll. It’s quite disgusting that people would use somebody else’s tragedy to feel all tragic and important.
Feeding on Tragedy
Clarissa's Blog 
That happens with every event. 9-11 was a great example, with extreme reactions in places like Texas that far exceeded the reactions of those in the immediate area.
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True! And very annoying.
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Yeah. finally a topic we definitely agree on 🙂
Everyone seems to want to have a unique angle and a personal one on each tragedy / issue /event.. leads to much of the craziness and narratives we read.
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\That happens with every event. 9-11 was a great example, with extreme reactions in places like Texas that far exceeded the reactions of those in the immediate area.
Going out on a limb here, but could there be another aspect to it? Nation-state ethos includes common fate, thus more nationalistic people try loudly persuade themselves and others that they also share the trauma. The less it is so in reality, the stronger and louder the rhetoric used must be.
More nationalistic also goes with more militaristic, reacting more aggressively to perceived or real attacks, therefore the extreme reactions in some areas.
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Back when 9/11 happened, I lived in Montréal. I met a neighbor of mine on that day and when I asked how she was, she said in a tragic voice, “I’m trying to cope. Got to stay strong.” When I asked what she was trying to cope with, she said “The twin towers, of course!”
She was a student from Kenya. Drama queens exist everywhere, it seems.
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Some people do feel more empathy than others.
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Empathy is about others. This was about her own need to feel important.
I have a colleague who’s been telling the administration that she has been traumatized by my son’s death and asking for goodies to make her feel better. Crying a river in every office she can find. She also considers herself very empathetic.
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All people don’t think alike or react emotionally to a distant tragedy in the same way. You’re painting with too broad a brush when you say that one analysis applies to everyone that you deem over-emotional.
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I never said these creeps were emotional. They coldly exploit other people’s tragedies to reap bonuses. They feel nothing except joy that they managed to bamboozle yet another simpleton with their fake drama.
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I have a colleague who’s been telling the administration that she has been traumatized by my son’s death and asking for goodies to make her feel better. Crying a river in every office she can find. She also considers herself very empathetic.
Still?
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Time in academia moves very slowly. . . A conflict arose 3 years ago and the flames are still smouldering. Of course, the only person who isn’t participating is me.
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By the way, this is why I always laugh at the idea of overworked academics. There is always time for plotting amidst all the overwork.
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Who knows? Maybe she had friends in NYC and DC. I had relatives and friends. Of course, masses of people were fleeing my city that day because nobody knew what was happening with Flight 93.
That original post seemed more about grist for their thought mill than about any kind of feeling.
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I know. I know this person and I’m saying that this was a drama queen of the first order. Such people are to be avoided at all costs.
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