Has nobody heard about the disasters in Japan?

[Zeraki]

I didn't know about it until the second day. I don't watch TV normally, and my internet had been down for a couple of days(yay Comcast) before deciding to start working again. As soon as I finally got back online and that was the first thing I saw when I opened firefox.

Earthquake, tsunami, threat of nuclear meltdowns and now a volcano erupted in southern Japan. The sheer amount of destruction is awe inspiring, and some of the stories coming out of this are horrible. Of course people will make jokes though, best thing to do is to ignore them. I remember reading some of the facebook posts people were making about how this was retribution for Pearl Harbor. The sheer amount of inbred ignorance coming from people is just mind boggling.

 

[Taddy]

On the news with updates every so often, also getting messages from mate's once in a while.

 

[Shiftysnowdog]

I was surprised when not only 1 but 5 people at work that I eat lunch with were ignorant of the events unfolding in Japan. Then, I came home and as they were talking about the nuclear meltdowns on the television, my brother asked "where's this happening?"

I quite literally face palmed. How does someone whose ass grows roots in his computer chair not know about something this devastating?

People are comfortable in their ignorance I suppose.

 

[DevilWolf47]

Because we're fucking idiots.

I'm sorry, i know that was harsh, i know some people may have valid excuses, but for every single smart person i have met i know 200 other fucking idiots. People laughed at Sarah Palin when we found out she didn't know Africa was a continent, but i know five other people who made the same mistake. I've known some old shut ins who didn't realize the Soviet Union collapsed. I've seen people still demanding Obama show his birth certificate even though he did.

...ignorance is rampant. It used to piss me off, but now i am finding it hard to care. I just focus on my pet, my girlfriend, and my work.

 

[Tipsythegza]

Don't know what kinda rock the people near you live under but everyone near me knows.

 

[Mr Binary]

Where I live everyone seems to know about it. I couldn't imagine that someone could go about their daily lives without hearing about it from somewhere.

 

[Vigormortis]

...I don't know anyone who hasn't been following it on the news.

Of course, one of my best friends is a US Marine who's stationed over there, so...

Same here. I don't know anyone that isn't aware of the events. Even young school children seem to know something terrible has happened over there.

Everyone in my Facebook circle knew within four hours of it happening. I didn't see any sick jokes about it, either.

Just wait. The "sick" jokes have already started, they're just being drowned out by the more sincere and more caring comments. As soon as there's a shift (i.e more bad and/or less good) you'll start to notice them. It's sad really.

 

[Thundero13]

There were disasters in Japan?! I didn't hear anything about it, nobody here has mentioned it, what happened? how bad was it? how can I have not heard about this?!

 

[ArcNitemare]

My dad has been keeping up to date with the situation over there and Ive read a chunk of the stuff AOL has posted on it.Most of the peeps we know also have talked about it.Some people keep up to date on what happens in the world,others don't.

 

[Azmael Silverlance]

Here in Australia the quakes were plastered all over the weekend newspapers, so most people should know about it here. Although it didn't get anywhere near the coverage that the New Zealand earthquake got.

Are you kidding Sunday 90% of TVs in Sydney were showing Live reports from Japan you go to McDonalds to eat your fries and watch broken houses and cars scattered around and trains flipping....
Its everywhere althou i admit i found out a bit later cuz i personally do not watch tv at all. And it was because i check headlines on yahoo and from my toolbar that i saw it but still a day later.

 

[00slash00]

I don't mean here on the Escapist of course, there are plenty of threads about it. But I have noticed something most unsettling.
Despite the fact that the Japanese PM has proclaimed these events the most destrutive since World War II (it takes a lot of natural disaster to reach that kind of level!) nobody in my flats seems to even be aware it's going on. One would think that a campus of web savvy students would notice these things unfolding, but nobody has mentioned it, and nobody I mention it to seems to know what I'm talking about...

Are we really so detached from the world?

i agree. i feel like many americans have developed a feeling of "it didnt happen here, so why should i give a fuck?" and as such, it seems like its been getting very little attention, comparatively. i was watching pete dorrs stream of pax and someone asked what he thought about the mess in japan, and he didnt know what they were talking about. a sad state of affairs

 

[Plazmatic]

I don't mean here on the Escapist of course, there are plenty of threads about it. But I have noticed something most unsettling.
Despite the fact that the Japanese PM has proclaimed these events the most destrutive since World War II (it takes a lot of natural disaster to reach that kind of level!) nobody in my flats seems to even be aware it's going on. One would think that a campus of web savvy students would notice these things unfolding, but nobody has mentioned it, and nobody I mention it to seems to know what I'm talking about...

Are we really so detached from the world?

???

I seriously didn't know there was a disaster, are you shure your not talking about libya?

 

[chstens]

It's in every bloody paper and on every channel here in Norway.

 

[jpoon]

The most worrisome part about this to me is how the "News" corps don't really say shit about if that explosion left radiation leaking. I know it's purely to not scare people with too much of the truth. Michio Kaku talked about it but wow, talk about the general public totally ignoring it.

 

[Arizona Kyle]

is it sad that the way i found out about it was through the escapist?

cuz as soon as i got up i went to check to see if there was new zero punctuation and i saw a thread on it

 

[escapistraptor]

I currently work in a food service job, surrounding by,... let's not say stupid, but mostly ignorant, unworldly people. Yet pretty much all of them knew about it, we made boring chit chat about it the next day at work. Maybe your neighbors just missed the news for a day or two OP, it's not too crazy