# Some New People I Hate **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 27, 2001, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-new-people-i-hate/70281 "2001-06-27T03:41:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![lucwarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@lucwarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lucwarm)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2001, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-new-people-i-hate/70281/21 "2001-06-27T18:19:21Z")
It’s interesting to note that the details of a crime make a difference in how offended people are. For example, I remember a case in California a few years ago where a guy robbed and murdered another guy, and then ate the picnic lunch the victim had packed. Well, the murderer was executed a few years later (which is unusual for murderers in California), and a journalist pointed out that the guy was being executed for eating someone else’s lunch. (Should this circumstance have made a difference in the killer’s punishment?) And I think it’s true that the circumstances of a crime make a big difference in how shocked the community is (for better or for worse). When we hear that someone was killed over a fight over a parking spot, it’s more offensive than hearing that someone was killed in a fight over a girl. (Is either one any worse?) Ask yourself why this particular story went out over the wires. I’m sure that people are murdered in Asia all the time, including some Americans. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2001, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-new-people-i-hate/70281/22 "2001-06-27T18:25:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by IzzyR \* > \*\*What is the inherent difference between this case and anyone who murders an innocent victim for their money (a practice which is all too common in the good old USA)? Is it because this murder won’t actually work? Or is the OP supposing that the notion of human sacrifice for lottery picks is considered morally OK by large segments of Malaysian society and is appalled by this? I doubt if this is the case. \*\* Murder by any means is tragic. Murder driven by superstition, whether religious-based or not, seems especially tragic to me. Combining this with the lunacy of participating in lotteries (sometimes called “an excise tax on stupidity”) makes this woman’s death seem as disgusting and pointless as any. Their “witch doctor”, “shaman”, or whatever he is called, convinced these people that a woman should be abducted and butchered so “the spirits” would grant them the wisdom/foresight to choose lottery numbers. I mean really, can the reasons for murdering someone really get any more silly and pointless? I guess so - just when I think the bar for despicable human behavior has been lowered enough, someone comes along and lowers it further. Sigh. As disgusting as it sounds, not all murders are equally tragic or pointless. Some are at least “comprehensible” (please try to think of what I am saying before you flame me on this…) - a bar-room fight that goes wrong, something done in a flash of uncontrolled anger, a holdup gone horribly wrong and escalated. While some of them really boggle the imagination - like this one. Or like a 13-year old gang member who shoots a tourist in the head at a stop light because “they were white”. For some reason, this really bothered me. Not to say I am not equally bothered by other events/crimes, but still… ---
**Author:** ![thinksnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thinksnow/32/2849_2.png) [@thinksnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thinksnow)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2001, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-new-people-i-hate/70281/23 "2001-06-27T18:41:02Z")
Here’s what I don’t get (well, the whole murder-for-numbers is way out there, too, but this point in particular): Aren’t there guidelines to sacrifice? I mean, you always hear the thing about “virgin-sacrifice” and all that so I guess I’m thinking that if these people believe they have to kill someone, there should be some sort of guidelines to it, not just “grab someone and cut’er up.” Don’t get em wrong, I think these guys are totally fucked in the head, to use a technical term, but like I said, I guess I’m of the understanding that part of the ritual of sacrifice is to give up something that matters to the people performing the ritual. Just slaughtering someone or some animal you snatched from the market or the side of the road is not a _sacrifice_ to you, you aren’t losing anything, you know? If this is the case, then these yahoos are worse than superstitious zealots, they are straight-up murdering religious-idiot-zealots. Hang’em by their toes, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2001, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-new-people-i-hate/70281/24 "2001-06-27T18:42:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by goboy \* > \*\*Muslims countries are a lot more conservative than Western nations, and they have a dim view of religious pluralism. \*\* Malaysia is an _extremely_ pluralistic society, especially when it comes to religion. The main players, religion-wise, in Malaysia are: - Islam (Official religion) - Hinduism - Sikkism - Buddhism - Chistianity - Taoism - Confucianism (not necessarily in that order) ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2001, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-new-people-i-hate/70281/25 "2001-06-27T19:01:09Z")
**Manda Jo** , Yes, I got that you said you didn’t think murder was right, but this > [@](#): > > but the fact that it happened in a third world country makes me less angry than I would be if it were down the street. Extreme poverty changes everything, made me think you were excusing the murder on cultural and economic grounds. **Anthracite** All murder is tragic and pointless. However, people, not even insane people, commit murders for no reason. Everybody has an excuse: “he was white”; “my dog told me to kill them”; “the waiter was screwing my ex-wife.” I understand why someone commits murder, but it in no way lessens my horror and disgust. The woman who drowned her children is an object of pity for many on this board, but all I can think of was her 7-year-old running from his mommy who was trying to kill him. **ENugent** You wrote > [@](#): > > Manda JO, would you have the same feelings if the woman had been kidnapped, tortured until she revealed her ATM number, and then killed? Goboy, would you? Yes, I have no sympathy for murder. The only possibly acceptable reason to kill is in self-defense or defending another person. **Tranquilis** You’re absolutely right, Malaysia is a pluralist nation. However, the _bumis_, who are overwhelmingly Muslim, seemed to me to be less than tolerant. Mind you, I only visited for 10 days, and my understanding is correspondingly shallow. ---
**Author:** ![Protesilaus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Protesilaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Protesilaus)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2001, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-new-people-i-hate/70281/26 "2001-06-27T20:09:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lucwarm \* > **When we hear that someone was killed over a fight over a parking spot, it’s more offensive than hearing that someone was killed in a fight over a girl. (Is either one any worse?)** **Smartass Reply #1** Of course. You can’t have sex with a parking spot. **Smartass Reply #2** Of course. It’s way easier to find an available woman in New York City. 😃 ::d&r:: ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2001, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-new-people-i-hate/70281/27 "2001-06-27T20:46:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by goboy \* > **However, the _bumis_, who are overwhelmingly Muslim, seemed to me to be less than tolerant…** Truth, and they can be quite a problem. ---
**Author:** ![Sterra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8c91f0/32.png) [@Sterra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sterra)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2001, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-new-people-i-hate/70281/28 "2001-06-27T22:35:31Z")
**Anthracite** Wether or not it is really tragic has nothing to do with the actual murder, but the after effects. Killing someone who has 2 days to live is less tragic than killing someone who has three days to live. Likewise people whom otherwise would not have lived do because someone else died makes the death less tragic. Death like that is pointless, but how you die is not very tragic because at the end you are dead. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2001, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-new-people-i-hate/70281/29 "2001-06-28T10:51:20Z")
Although I agree with **IzzyR** (gasp), it’s shit like this that is pushing me to abandon my liberal ways and embrace the death penalty. Or maybe I’m just getting old and crotchity. > [@](#): > > _By **Manda Jo** _What I was really trying to get at was that there exisits in the third world a level of poverty that is totally unknown here in the West. I do not think there is anything wrong with suggesting that as we cannot grasp that level of poverty, we perhaps cannot appriciate the extremes to which one may be tempted to go to avoid it. That dosen’t make it right, but perhaps more understandable: desperate people tempted in their despiration to commit evil, not senseless, faceless evil for the hell of it. The story does not mention the financial state of alleged perp. For all we know, it was middle class people, or well off people wanting to be rich. Greed is not exclusive to the poor. ---
**Author:** ![Vinnie\_Virginslayer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/53a042/32.png) [@Vinnie\_Virginslayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vinnie_Virginslayer)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2001, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-new-people-i-hate/70281/30 "2001-06-28T12:17:41Z")
More proof validationg my theory that lotteries are nothing but bad news!:rolleyes: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=74800](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=74800) ---
**Author:** ![Pnuk\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Pnuk\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pnuk_Guy)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2001, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-new-people-i-hate/70281/31 "2001-06-28T13:47:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lucwarm \* > When we hear that someone was killed over a fight over a parking spot, it’s more offensive than hearing that someone was killed in a fight over a girl. (Is either one any worse?) Technically, no. But then we get into ‘crimes of passion’ territory. When we hear people were killed over stupid things (i.e. Parking spots) then we are shocked over the triviality (is that a word?) of it all. More people can relate to the feeling of losing their partner to another person tough, and can say ‘Well, I’d have hurt them too.’ and they accept in this day that people are psychos and are moe empathatic. I’m not agreeing with any form of murder, be it sacrifice/revenge or anything. But the more rational it seems then the more acceptable it gets. Sad but true. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2001, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-new-people-i-hate/70281/32 "2001-06-28T14:04:57Z")
Spooje, that’s why I said: > [@](#): > > (which we don’t know: not everyone in Malaysia is living in deep poverty, obviously. The woman who was killed wasn’t) I was always careful to keep my statements conditional. I think another factor in how horrific we find a murder is how much we can do to prevent it from happening to us. In many of the more “common” sort of murders, when we hear about them we assume they could never apply to us: we don’t sleep around, we didn’t marry someone who would be greedy enough to kill us for our insurance, we don’t sell drugs. This isn’t a matter of blaming the victem, but rather recognizing that there are “risk factors” for murder and that we (most of us) don’t have them. Undirected, unpredictable, uncoontrolable violence, like the man who shoots you over a parking place or the psycotic serial killer is much more threatening because there isn’t any reason why that isn’t you, and in fact there isn’t a damn thing you can do to limit the chances that that will be you. (Shades of Snopes here, obviously). ---
**Author:** ![MysterEcks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f475e1/32.png) [@MysterEcks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysterEcks)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2001, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-new-people-i-hate/70281/33 "2001-06-29T03:19:19Z")
For what it’s worth, the current (June 25) [Backstage at News of the Weird](http://www.newsoftheweird.com/backstage/index.html) by Chuck Shepherd claims that certain Cambodians show up at Pol Pot’s gravesite “to meditate, with the apparent dominant benefit of spiritually receiving winning lottery numbers wafting up from the great beyond.” Less fatal than sacrificing random Americans, but no less bizarre. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-new-people-i-hate/70281.md?page=1)