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People have just stopped giving a damn
Re Puppy love
It's not about race, religion, or even a difference in the country you call home. People have just stopped giving a damn when other people not loosely related to them die or become the victims of other crimes.
The story of an NFL star's side project of operating a dogfighting ring, or a non-celebrity's cockfighting ring, or the KFC chicken cruelty scandal have all stayed on the front page of my local newspaper for days, weeks even. Months afterward people still gossiped about it. The largest drug lab bust in Canadian history took place not two weeks ago, yielding the seizure of 15 million hits of Ecstasy in various stages of production along with guns and ID fraud equipment. The next day people were told all about the cockfighting ring again.
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From what I've witnessed, people have come to accept almost anything one human being says or does to another as normal behavior at first glance, and are too wrapped up in our own lives to stop and take another look.
You see people arguing, it's normal. Even as they start uttering threats, it's just a couple of people yelling at each other. It's normal.
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Look around and see if this holds true for the area you live in: People are quicker to notice a pet being mistreated than a spouse or a child, quicker to act on the suspicion of an illegal breeding operation than a drug lab, or more likely to mark the disappearance of a local guard dog than the neighbor that owned it.
If a woman were being raped in a park I'm almost certain it would go unnoticed if it happened while some kids were torturing an adorable family of squirrels.
Americans, Canadians, and many others have become disconnected from their own societies' gradually shrinking the scope of our interactions with the world, even as technology should make it even easier to communicate across the globe. From what I've witnessed, people have come to accept almost anything one human being says or does to another as normal behavior at first glance, and are too wrapped up in our own lives to stop and take another look.
You see people arguing, it's normal. Even as they start uttering threats, it's just a couple of people yelling at each other. It's normal. You hear some kid bragging about some guy they beat up or something they stole. It's tough talk and bullshit. It's normal. Even when they say they've rolled someone or even killed a guy, it's normal. You see a man and woman in a screaming match, throwing things at each other. That is normal too, even when one stays in the house for days afterwards, only coming out of the house or entertaining guests when their black eye is barely noticeable. Even when a husband or a wife is afraid to do so much as speak with their spouse in the room. Couples fight. People lose their tempers. It's normal. Even if it weren't, what would you be able to do about it? Even when it's someone you know? You have no power over anyone but yourself. There's little you can do to change other people and even if you could who are you to even try?
That's the mindset people get into. When they see anyone doing anything it's not really their business, not their place to interfere. So even when they see another person doing something they don't think is right, they don't get involved. Why bother? Why should you even care? When you stop caring about the people in the world you can see, hear, and touch, what happens to your empathy for people as far outside your immediate concern as a nameless and faceless family in another country?
But why is it different for animals? Who knows? Maybe deep down we all have begun to despise ourselves. Maybe it's because we've become an insular society of distrust and accusation. Maybe it's a product of years of self-superior propaganda shrugging off the suffering of others as a product of their own laziness, inadequacy, or sheer stupidity and taking sick solace in the contemptible idea that many people are victims of crime because they've done something to provoke or encourage thieves and murderers. Maybe it's years of wartime propaganda, even in years of relative peace, promoting an ever more isolationist mentality and narrow view of the world.
Then again, maybe humanity on the whole is just really screwed up in the head and needs to sort its freaking priorities.
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Ya said it swell, but it's sadder than hell.
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