The quest for violent images drives traffic
Beginning last night I noticed I was getting about two and a half times my usual traffic.
As usual when I get a traffic uptick, I checked my sitemeter. Instead of finding a link from some larger blog, I saw that almost all the extra traffic seemed to be coming from Google searches. But these searches, unlike most, didn’t tell me what the search terms were. Some just showed the link “google.com.”
It was puzzling. But when I looked more carefully, I saw that most of the traffic was coming in on this page, the one with a post title that has the words “video,” “beheading,” and “James Foley.”
In other words, all that extra traffic—which has not lessened so far—is from people searching for the video of James Foley being slaughtered. They will be disappointed, because they won’t find it here.
It’s an impressive amount of traffic despite the fact that I don’t link the video, and if you search Google you’ll see I’m not high in their list of articles about it. In fact, I gave up even looking before I saw a link to my blog. So, if I’m getting that much traffic from it despite all that, can you imagine how many millions (billions?) are eagerly searching for that video?
It’s impossible to tell whether they’re celebrating the act, looking for a bloodthirsty visual thrill, wanting to confront the horror in order to best fight it, or just curious. Most are from the US, although there’s a slight increase in foreign visitors and especially from Scandinavian countries, the UK, and Holland.
I suppose it’s just human nature to want to see the horrific. Personally, I’ll pass on it; once seen it cannot be unseen. And I don’t believe I need to see it to understand what we’re up against.
Humans are weak to Death, but also drawn to violence, to get information on Death.
once seen it cannot be unseen.
Without hate engraved upon the heart, people find it difficult to utter the necessary resolve. Thus it is merely a reminder, one that cannot be forgotten, because if it could be, it loses its usefulness.
I think this is a similar reason for “gawker” delays at accidents scenes on highways. People are looking for carnage, for whatever reason. It drives me up a wall to have bumper to bumper traffic on an Interstate and the reason is an accident on the other side of the divided highway.
I watched it yesterday before it was taken down. My major motivation I think was ‘citizen detective’. I wanted to see if I could verify it’s authenticity with my limited knowledge of video compositing etc. I also wanted to see how bad it was for some reason. I think part of me wanted to have a better reason to hate these people. Not terribly rational to be sure. I have to say I was horrified by it at first, so the video had its intended effect. Later I became suspicious, as there is a cut in the video that lessons its potential horror somewhat. I wouldn’t have been surprised today if it had been declared an elaborate hoax. Sadly, that was not to be.
Simon:
I was really hoping it was a hoax, too. I thought it might be, especially if Foley was a Muslim sympathizer, and because there was a break in the action. I haven’t seen anything that indicates it was a hoax, though, so I must very reluctantly conclude it’s real.
I read the anti American, pro terrorist statement they asked Foley to read. I also saw exerpts from his twitter account that seemed he was in sympathy with the terrorists. If he knew they were going to kill him, why would he want to die like a traitor? I would want to go out cursing Islam. He read a horrible anti American statement, instead.
Why would that statment be his Mom’s proudest moment of her son?
I did not see the video but it should be all over the news to show what Islam celebrates. The same way film of what the Germans did to 12 million people should have been shown and what the black thug did to the white policeman should be shown. The officer has his eye blown out and his bones crushed.
Eye socket broken, not the same as the eye popping out, to be clear.
Dang.
I would’ve put my money on the tortoise.
First race he’s ever lost.
Ymarsakar,
I think it is called an orbital blowout. Eye did not fall out but the muscles around the eye take the space the the eyeball should occupy because the socket is crushed. Anyway you eye it, not something to be desired but you are right, I made it sound like it was shot out with a gun.
Anyway, thank you. I always appreciate what you have to say. I should have been clear.
I only wrote that, Kit, because my own training requires me to be able to mentally visualize attacks while looking at pictures of people whose eyes have been popped straight out of the socket. So the goey ness is leaking and the neural nerve is hanging off the hanging eyeball. So some people might get that impression too.
It’s a de-sensitivity training, since it makes a significant difference how well my movements work due to visualization. If you are afraid to look at something because of X, Y, or Z, then your accuracy falls when moving in a high tension situation.
But anyways, that should explain why I pick things like that out. Destroying the bone cavity around the eyes or on the internal pocket, vs dislocating the eyeball itself, requires significantly different methods and techniques of force. Thus I couldn’t ignore it even if I wanted to.
Just seeing the still picture was enough for me. Religion of peace. They just have a funny way of showing it.
Why would that statment be his Mom’s proudest moment of her son?
As others have mentioned, other hostages killed by Islamo fascists and their Leftist enablers reacted a bit differently.
Ymarsakar,
My hat off to you. That is difficult training. I am glad you are on our side.
And I need to be more clear and accurate with my descriptions.
You are right that good cannot coexist with evil. Evil must be destroyed before it destroys us all.
“once seen it cannot be unseen”
Bingo. Just speaking for myself, seeing one beheading 12 years ago was enough to last me a lifetime.
How many beheadings does one need to see in order to understand that we are facing a truly evil enemy?
Each to his/her own, I guess (and Madam Defarge never did get tired of seeing them, did she?).
I agree with you on that Carl–one was enough for me too.
Google Trends
http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends#pn=p1
currently has James Foley as number one in searches with 1,000,000 + searches.
For some perspective on that number 2 is Niki Minj (who?) Anaconda video at 200,000 +
And then there’s Rick Perry at 50,000 and number 4.
I have no need to watch a jihad beheading to imagine the barbarism of isil. They want lots of hits, it reinforces their desire to commit further acts of barbarism to kowtow ‘infidels’ into submission. Do not feed the barbarians of allah.
A lot of people watch stuff like this and think of themselves in the position of the victim. People like me are forced to think of ourselves as the predator or attacker, because victim habits are not generally considered a high mark for survival chances.
I or we, whatever we means in this context, want to be on the side of the standing, and that often means the user of violence, not the one violence is getting done on.
So flip the chessboard around, and look at how it is done from the viewpoint of the attacker. And I critique it, see how it can be done better, what flaws and weaknesses there are there.
In US military convoys, it’s often less mentally stressful to think attacking rather than how to react to IEDs and ambushes. instead place yourself in the position of the attacker and think to yourself “if I was the enemy, how would I attack the convoy”. Then consider defenses after that.
It helps greatly to learn about the enemy by watching how they do things and then replicating it. Then finding its flaws and improving upon it. It makes for easier contact engagements. Not everyone you face will be acting like people on videos, of course, but they will act a lot more like them than what the Democrat media or Hollywood tells you they will act.
“once seen it cannot be unseen.”
True, very true.
Once, completely by accident (no pun intended) I looked out my commuter train window as we pulled into our station after a hour long wait. What I saw was the “aftermath” of someone who was hit by the train. Not at all a pretty sight. And I do wish that I had never seen it.
As I walked toward the parking lot I was pulling complete strangers down from their perches (i.e. standing on top of benches, etc) trying to get a better view. Just saying, sorry, but, you do NOT want to see that as I gently tugged them down.
I, for one, do not need to see the actual video of what these savages do to know that they are savages.
I watched the Daniel Pearl video. That was enough for me.
I was once the first officer on scene at a motorcycle accident, where a drunken biker rode is Honda into a brand new tight barbed wire fence. It Vegimaticed him. I do not need to see the Foley video, nor do i want to see it.
I did a search myself for those same words, and I found you, and I’m glad I did. You had a great separate post on why Foley may have made the statement he did. That’s what I wanted to watch. I agree that seeing the actual beheading is not what people should see and as for myself, I have seen similar and would pass on it. But, sadly, it is something that may need to be seen by many. As Spock said once, in order for good to beat evil, good needs to be very VERY strong.