Next time try reading for comprehension. Community service is in no way comparable to extreme skiing–to say that would be a severe denigration of community service.
A person who volunteers at a charity for one hour per month does more in one year to improve the state of the world than Hilaree Nelson did in her entire life.
Well, seen a van for about $35 000, cost of a really nice car. If you don’t mind used, how about a Grand Caravan with ramp, 123K miles $20K.
And frequently one can get ones doctor to prescribe a mobility van just like they prescribe a wheelchair, and their insurance, if they have it will aid in the purchase as if it were any other durable medical supply - and there are charities that can aid in getting durable goods if one doesn’t have insurance or medic-whichever [I have military retirement insurance, and can’t keep medicare/medicaid straight just offhand]
[I ended up purchasing my current wheelchair because Tricare didn’t want to replace the one I had just gotten because it had gotten melted down in the housefire, it was 2 years too soon … so the system isn’t perfect.]
You are profoundly ignorant. Hilary Nelson If you are going to throw her under the bus, then include every single person who pushed the envelope of human endeavor–Neil Armstrong, Edmund Hillary, Shackleton, Amelia Erhardt. Shall we all stay home until death knocks on the door?
It’s like jazz. If you have to ask, you don’t know,
What offends me is none of the above, it’s the bad comma in the OP-linked picture caption “Jim Morrison, packs his bag” - a misplaced comma like that is a pebble in the shoe of my brain. Do better, ABC News!
This isn’t a violation of descriptive linguistics either: What linguistics studies is syntax, which is the engine that runs the machine; criticizing punctuation is like objecting to a tasteless image on the paint job. Someone who is an expert in what makes cars run is not being hypocritical by criticizing a bad paint job. They’re two different spheres of concerns. Linguistics studies spoken language, in which commas don’t exist anyway. Pauses exist, but not all spoken pauses are notated with commas, and some commas are written where there’s no pause in speaking, so there isn’t a close correspondence. Written marks are to an extent arbitrary. I could’ve set off the parenthetical phrase “to an extent” with commas, and that would be legit editing style, but I chose to omit them because they don’t correspond to spoken pauses, and that’s OK too.
Not in any way that’s less generic than what the model supports. Which, to my mind, doesn’t meet the bar to entry.
Yes, I can have a generic “I guess I’m sorry they died” level of empathy toward the people the OP cites, but that’s about it. It in no way demonstrates an understanding of why they made the choices they did, or how they experienced their end.
I don’t understand extreme risk-taking behavior. I probably would, at least a little, if I had someone close to me that engaged in it. I’d have a little mental model of them as an individual, and from that some tenuous grasp of what they went through. Maybe there’s no need to feel bad for the skier at all–for all I know, she lived for that moment and was completely at peace as she recognized her doom. Or, maybe she was filled with infinite regret.
Empathy requires not just putting yourself in someone else’s shoes, but someone else’s head. And that requires a small model of them. I used “close” loosely above; I have mere acquaintances that I nevertheless have been around long enough to get an idea of. I could select a gift they’d appreciate. I could tell a joke they’d find funny. I could predict what kinds of people they’d get along with.
All that information takes up space in my head. So the vast majority of people get, as you say, the generic model. But the generic model doesn’t inform me why a particular able-bodied person might decide to ride out a hurricane. I can express sympathy, but without some connection to them it in no way resembles the empathy I’d have toward someone that I did know at that level.
I had never heard of the skier until today, and likely would have never heard of her if not for this thread. Had I read about her at breakfast, I would have gone “Oh, that’s sad” and forgotten about it by lunch. You on the other hand started an SDMB thread, polled your golfing buddies, and are now about to poll your dinner companions.
I don’t think you should care–who can make you–but it’s obvious that you do care.
My wife’s cousin lives in Port Orange, FL (which is near Cape Canaveral. They installed storm shutters, so decided to ride out the storm. I don’t know how powerful the storm was when it got near them, but she said it was the most scared she has ever been.
My guess is that he originally wrote “Jim Morrison, not that one, packs his bag”
and missed one of the commas in the edit.
I think he’s starting threads and polling friends because he suspects there’s something wrong with his empathy circuits.
I mean, he’s also started threads like “Anyone else confused by the emotion over Queen Elizabeth’s passing?”
And “WNBA player Russian custody. Why should I care?”
And he told a story about his daughter’s recital:
Has anyone here seen Deep Impact? The realest part of that movie is that everyone on the east coast knew the comet would hit the Atlantic, waited until the last second to evacuate and couldn’t get out.
I understood your message perfectly. And you must know a great deal more about Hilaree Nelson than I do. I have no idea if she did volunteer work or not. But she certainly contributed to the world by showing girls that adventure is for everyone.
I’m surprised that someone with such contempt for Nelson would consider charity work a positive thing since so much charity work is helping people who made poor/stupid/selfish decisions in life. Or maybe you’re like OP and enjoy feeling superior to all those stupid people.
I was about to pile on with this, but you cut out the part where the kid declined to practice despite dad’s urging. His reaction was a lot harsher than mine would have been, though.
I totally disagree with this statement. Yes, some charity work is helping people like this, but IMO the majority of charity work helps people who are elderly or endemically poor or have suffered an unforeseen medical catastrophe or a weather-related calamity.
Dinsdale is reminding me of the time Pittsburgh got hit by Hurricane Ivan*. It was really weird, because my neck of the woods was completely flooded (fortunately I’m up on a hill, so we just got a little in our basement – some others weren’t so lucky), which is rare. And so many people lost their homes, and their businesses – everything they had. And the worst part? Because none of this was in a flood plain, none of them had flood insurance. (I don’t think it would even have been available to them if they had wanted it!). And I remember Rick Santorum visiting the area, (cuz that’s when he was still in office), and he was on the news, telling a woman he didn’t feel sorry for any of them, because they didn’t have flood insurance. He only empathized with those who did have it. (The really funny thing? None of those who DID have it…had been flooded! Ivan hadn’t really hit anyone living in a flood plain, IIRC!)
So yes, Dinsdale, you remind me of Santorum, at least in this instance.
Well, I definitely agree people who don’t wear seatbelts are dumbasses – especially if they’re doing so because of some stupid protest against the “guvmint!”. That being said, I think your only mistake was not waiting until it was just you and your friend, rather than saying so in public. If anything, then he probably got even MORE sympathy, sadly, because people would see him as being bullied. Not to mention, I will at least feel bad for their family and friends – THEY didn’t do anything wrong. It’s not their fault. In fact, they might even feel the same way, but don’t want to say so in public. (Not necessarily your friend, just in general)
I will feel that way about people who don’t wear their seatbelts in some wacky protest, or drive drunk, or whatever – they’re putting themselves at risk, and/or others, for no reason other than being a dick.
But in cases like hurricanes, fires, floods, etc – I think that’s a whole different ball game. It’s one of those “there but for the grace of god,” type of situations. This isn’t stupidity, it’s because humans aren’t rational, and as much as we all like to think we’d all be calm, and focused if we were there, most of the time, that’s not true. People generally panic and resort to their lizard brains. There’s a reason they call those big bars on emergency doors “panic bars”.
*Although there were plenty of stupid people then, too. Dumbasses moving the road barriers so they could continue driving…and then getting stuck in their cars. I so did NOT feel sorry for them.
But if elderly people had lived better lives – without risking their healthy through smoking, drinking, whatever, they wouldn’t be so helpless now. Poor people just need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. And surely everyone saves for a medical emergency or natural disaster. … maybe there should be an /s after my statements. You clearly have a compassionate view of charity. But I was responding to someone with no compassion – it’s a safe bet that someone who thinks an extreme athlete is a worthless person thinks poor people should just pull themselves up by their bootstraps, etc.
Straight out of the GOP playbook.
Save your money. That is nothing I have ever said or thought, and you might be surprised at some of my social and political positions and actions. But you’ve read some posts I put on this forum, so you know me best! 
Is this one of those, “you don’t know me - you don’t know nothing about me!” type of arguments?
