Perhaps we could save the zombie jokes for threads that aren't about actual cannibalism

May 27, 2012 6:07 PM

I don't know what sickens me most about this post, the content itself, the framing of it, or the lolz comments. I'm not asking to have it deleted, and I'm not sure what I am asking for. Perhaps it's just that we show a little more respect for the victims of these horrible psychotic crimes. For example, I don't think anyone would write a post about real life rapes that referenced some sort of fictionalized supernatural rapists.
posted by orange swan to Etiquette/Policy at 6:07 PM (89 comments total)

whistles past the graveyard
posted by ChrisR at 6:11 PM on May 27, 2012

I think you should definitely ask to have it deleted; and I feel fairly confident it will be in due course.

It's always a bit dispiriting to see stuff on Mefi that conforms to predominant negative discourses on the wider internet.
posted by smoke at 6:12 PM on May 27, 2012 [2 favorites]

I so agree, especially in the wake of this discussion about a surely more worthy deleted post. Upside (at least for my productivity in life): both of the cannibalism posts have made me reconsider how much time I am spending here. Seriously, Metafilter, WTF.
posted by Wordwoman at 6:13 PM on May 27, 2012 [4 favorites]

It already was deleted once.

I don't think adding a bunch of extra 'bad stuff happened' makes a 'bad stuff happened' post any less deletion-worthy.
posted by Sys Rq at 6:15 PM on May 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

I think that's exactly it - we're all just whistling in the dark, because it's so horrifying to think that in a modern world anyone can be that mad, that dislocated from reality.

I also think there's probably been some post about some whackjob cult leader who's raped children because he - and at least some of his followers - think he's the messiah or a literal sex god or a satyr. But I'm not going to search for it, because yuck. There's whistling in the dark, and then there's getting my brain filthy just to win a point.
posted by gingerest at 6:15 PM on May 27, 2012

I was also surprised at the framing of it. It's a truly horrific story but presented as more of a zombie story, which by its very (overdone by now!) nature is lolz-ish.
posted by triggerfinger at 6:17 PM on May 27, 2012

They say that comedy is tragedy+time. It seems to me that this case is still a bit fresh.
posted by BobbyVan at 6:17 PM on May 27, 2012

Mods are out to dinner presumably. Give them a bit to turn on the memory hole.
posted by erebora at 6:19 PM on May 27, 2012

It lived because I thought it was an impressive example of a a high-effort attempt to make a "news of the weird"-style post have enough substance to survive, but it's entirely likely that wasn't the best call. The zombie framing was pretty much inevitable, really, given the content.

It's probably well past the deletion point, though, and I'm happy to [do something the metaphor for which is almost inevitably and inappropriately violent.]
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 6:19 PM on May 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

kittensofthenight (who made the post): ...the rest of the links are pretty thin too and work best in aggregate.

In other words, it's a textbook shit post.

restless_nomad: "It lived because I thought it was an impressive example of a a high-effort attempt to make a "news of the weird"-style post have enough substance to survive"

It was a two-minute Google search for vaguely related stories that threw up multiple links to the Daily Mail, for goodness' sake.
posted by jack_mo at 6:23 PM on May 27, 2012 [5 favorites]

Mods are out to dinner presumably.

I hope they're at Barcade.
posted by BobbyVan at 6:24 PM on May 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

Valiant effort or no, it really just proves the adage that you can't polish a turd, though, doesn't it? Thanks for deleting.
posted by smoke at 6:25 PM on May 27, 2012

I wish I was at Barcade.
posted by WalterMitty at 6:26 PM on May 27, 2012 [5 favorites]

At first I considered humor an inappropriate response, but it so perfectly mirrors events described in the Zombie Survival Guide and the start of World War Z that it's impossible not to bring it up. It's like when the news imitates a story from The Onion.
posted by Pseudology at 6:26 PM on May 27, 2012 [2 favorites]

Seriously, Metafilter, WTF.

WTF indeed. I expect stuff like this from 4-chan users, not from us. The mods need to delete that post with the quickness. (Seeing on preview that it's already been deleted. Thank you.)

It's a truly horrific story but presented as more of a zombie story, which by its very (overdone by now!) nature is lolz-ish.

I can’t wait for this whole zombie craze to go the way of pirates and ninjas. I mean, seriously, this sh*t got old somewhere around the time network TV started making zombie shows for primetime and the one millionth zombie game came out for iOS.
posted by Kevtaro at 6:28 PM on May 27, 2012 [4 favorites]

I expect stuff like this from 4-chan users, not from us.

All of "us" are not alike.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:30 PM on May 27, 2012 [17 favorites]

it so perfectly mirrors events described in the Zombie Survival Guide and the start of World War Z that it's impossible not to bring it up

No, it's really not impossible, just as it wouldn't be impossible to write a post about a serial rapist without bringing up that "You all gonna get raped" meme.
posted by orange swan at 6:30 PM on May 27, 2012 [5 favorites]

I can’t wait for this whole zombie craze to go the way of pirates and ninjas.

Ninjas haven't gone anywhere. You just can't see them.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 6:30 PM on May 27, 2012 [19 favorites]

I adore Barcade and everyone at that impromptu meetup. NYC mefites are the best.
posted by the young rope-rider at 6:31 PM on May 27, 2012

Well, now at least I have a great idea for my next FPP.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 6:31 PM on May 27, 2012

Ninjas haven't gone anywhere. You just can't see them.

Pirates are also still around. They are just working for Goldman Sachs.

However, good deletion.
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:34 PM on May 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

I don't know what sickens me most about this post...

For me, it was the derailing comment, as opposed to flag it and move on.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:35 PM on May 27, 2012 [8 favorites]

In other words, it's a textbook shit post.
Oh Snap!

It may have been only 15-20 minutes of googling, but those were some intense minutes, I had a lot of different reactions and I thought it would lead to interesting discussion.

No point to explain now though. I wanted the event (and, surprisingly the many other recent events) to be discussed on Mefi because we definitely weren't going to get a discussion anywhere else. I wanted to be less flippant than the io9 post, but still allow for humor because it's a pretty normal reaction to insane horrific events.
posted by kittensofthenight at 6:37 PM on May 27, 2012 [7 favorites]

OTOH: come on lay off, the post doesn't look anything like content on 4chan. Flag it, delete it, cool, but jeez I'm not slinging racial slurs and loli porn around.
posted by kittensofthenight at 6:38 PM on May 27, 2012 [3 favorites]

From the deleted thread --

Also, without passing judgement on the police officer in any way, it would have been better if the assailant could have been stopped and apprehended with non-lethal means.

Non-lethal force is what you use on two drunken doofs ineptly wailing on each other in the parking lot of Redneck Mike's Down N' Dirty House O' Tit. (Keepin' It Real Since 1996!)

When you are confronted with the spectacle of HOLYMOTHEROFFUCKINGGODHESEATINGTHATDUDESFACE!!!!, you go lethal.

I am not crazy about police by any stretch of the imagination but as long as we're doing the whole social contract thing, with a state and laws and law enforcement, I am comfortable with police killing the very occasional person.

Like this guy.
posted by jason's_planet at 6:39 PM on May 27, 2012 [3 favorites]

I don't know what sickens me most about this post...

For me, it was the derailing comment, as opposed to flag it and move on.

If you found my simply commenting that I didn't find the post funny as sickeningly offensive as I found the framing of the post, well, I don't even know what to say to that.
posted by orange swan at 6:48 PM on May 27, 2012 [5 favorites]

I am not crazy about police by any stretch of the imagination but as long as we're doing the whole social contract thing, with a state and laws and law enforcement, I am comfortable with police killing the very occasional person.

Like this guy

Really? You want the police to kill the mentally ill? Because that's what this dude probably was. The cop in question shot an unarmed crazy person.

I don't blame him - it must have been horrifying. But I'm not sure he needed to shoot him. Don't Miami cops have tasers? Isn't that what tasers are for?
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 6:53 PM on May 27, 2012

Then again: "The attacker failed to stop after being shot, forcing the officer to continue firing. Witnesses said they heard at least a half dozen shots."

If you don't go down with a bullet, are you more likely to go down with a taser?
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 6:57 PM on May 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

He shot an unarmed crazy person who was in the process of mutilating and murdering another human being.

Important detail, there.
posted by jason's_planet at 6:58 PM on May 27, 2012 [8 favorites]

If you found my simply commenting that I didn't find the post funny as sickeningly offensive as I found the framing of the post, well, I don't even know what to say to that.

You do realize that your post linked to that specific comment, yes? Perhaps not what you intended, but humorous.

Your feelings about the post are understandable, but you've been here long to know if you're that bothered, you come to Metatalk and don't post derailing comments in the thread.

The cop in question shot an unarmed crazy person.

WHo was chewing off the face of another person. Presuming that he was in the grip of psychosis, it might have been merciful to shot him, because how does one come down from such a bad trip?

If it wasn't psychosis and was mental illness, then society is probably better off with killing a face eater.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:00 PM on May 27, 2012 [2 favorites]

Oops, no, I didn't realize I linked to my comment in the MeTa post, rather than to the FPP.

I don't agree that it was a derailing comment though. If that's a derailing comment, then any negative comment about a post would be a derail.
posted by orange swan at 7:04 PM on May 27, 2012

Important detail, there.

Just because someone is committing a terrible crime, doesn't mean that the police are entitled to carry out summary executions - which is kind of the vibe I got from your last comment, and what I was trying to respond to.

Not that I'm saying that is what happened here - I'm sure the cop did what he thought necessary to save the victim.

Anyway, this seems to be beside the point of the MeTa, so I'll let it drop.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 7:05 PM on May 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

I thought read somewhere that after he fired the first shot the man turned on the cop, but I can't find it now.
posted by triggerfinger at 7:07 PM on May 27, 2012

I absolutely agree, Orange Swan. One of the worst online experiences I've ever had was with some users here who felt that the Robert Pickton case was cause for amusement. I've mentioned before that Cindy Feliks, a girl whom I grew up with and dated in high school, was one of his victims; and I felt that lampooning her kidnapping, confinement, torture, rape, murder, and subsequent rendering into pig food was no laughing matter.

This was a debate that I lost here, and the catalyst of some really vicious and vindictive personal attacks. As is my my wont, the result one my periodic withdrawals from this site, to gain some perspective.

Sadly then, I don't harbour much hope for your satisfaction in this case, 'cause LOL Zombies!!, and the fuckwits who can't grasp that every single god-damn thing that ever happens on the planet isn't worthy of some stupid, adolescent, tired, internet meme are beginning to outnumber the more thoughtful users here.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 7:08 PM on May 27, 2012 [29 favorites]

I spent a few hours trying to find a way to frame a post about this incident.

It's Urban Beach Weekend on the beach side of that bridge. Miami has had some (uh...many) controversial polic shootings in the past few .... Well, it seems like all the time. The Miami Herald ran a picture of the body that was taken from a window of the newspaper offices. I've read kind of a lot about histoical zombie mythology.

But I just couldn't put any or all of that together in a way that didn't feel like it would get lulzy.

also it would have been my first post and I was skeered
posted by bilabial at 7:09 PM on May 27, 2012

All of "us" are not alike.

Wow, thank you so much for pointing that out.

My point (well, moot point, now that the thread was deleted) was that I think most MetaFilter users would agree that an FPP whose sole purpose is to generate a few lame-ass jokes about a tired Internet meme at the expense of a real victim of a really f’d up attack does not qualify as “best of the web.”
posted by Kevtaro at 7:10 PM on May 27, 2012 [7 favorites]

Just because someone is committing a terrible crime, doesn't mean that the police are entitled to carry out summary executions...

Actually, depending on the situation, that's exactly what it means. Killing person A to protect or save person B is the role of a police officer, especially if A had been warned to stop eating B's face or the cop would shoot.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:12 PM on May 27, 2012 [7 favorites]

I was at the movies! And yeah it looks like this has been decently wrapped up, please do not make this thread into a discussion of the topic of that thread by proxy. Take that stuff to MeMail please, I don't want this Sunday night MeTa thread to turn into a police brutality discussion. Please. Thanks.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:15 PM on May 27, 2012 [3 favorites]

Reddit does cheap, tasteless jokes so much better than metafilter. I don't think we should try to compete.
posted by empath at 7:15 PM on May 27, 2012 [5 favorites]

I spent a few hours trying to find a way to frame a post about this incident.

posted by bilabial at 7:09 PM on May 27 [+] [!]

Eponysterical?
posted by Wordwoman at 7:17 PM on May 27, 2012

I was at the movies!

What did you see? Was it good?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:18 PM on May 27, 2012

jessamyn: "I was at the movies!"

I imagine you sitting in the theatre saying over and over inside your head 'please don't make me come back to another fighty MeTa thread, please don't make me come back to another fighty MeTa thread ...'. I then picture you checking the admin panel on your iPhone as you walk out. 'D'oh!'.
posted by dg at 7:19 PM on May 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

For the record, I thought it was a good deletion. I didn't think that the post itself was that bad (apart from the jokey iO9 link) - I think the cannibal trend is something worthy of analysis - but the descent into lulz was, IMO, sufficient to justify the deletion. Because we don't want MeFi to be Reddit.

Hope you enjoyed your movie, jessamyn.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 7:19 PM on May 27, 2012

I heard a show once, maybe This American Life, about people who were close to murder victims, and how they saw things differently after that. As in the amount of "entertainment" based around people being murdered. It really made me think about that in a new light. As someone mentioned, if you replace the act with rape or child molestation, is it still funny or entertaining? Possibly in a few years…Oh wait, isn’t there is at least one rapey show, SVU?
posted by bongo_x at 7:20 PM on May 27, 2012 [3 favorites]

I did not hesitate flagging that post. I flagged it as "other" as there is not yet the flagging category "utter shit". It isn't "offensive" in the ballpark of sexism, racism, &c. I would not be surprised if it got in excess of one "offensive" flag, though.

(Actually I would be curious about the ratio of others to offensives.)
posted by bukvich at 7:20 PM on May 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

I saw Men in Black III at the single screen theater in town. I liked it, better than II. It was good even though the crowd was a little boisterous. And then the movie let out and me and a bunch of my neighbors all walked up the hill to go home. Was a sort of great night.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:22 PM on May 27, 2012 [9 favorites]

Kevtaro: My point (well, moot point, now that the thread was deleted) was that I think most MetaFilter users would agree that an FPP whose sole purpose is to generate a few lame-ass jokes about a tired Internet meme at the expense of a real victim of a really f’d up attack does not qualify as “best of the web.”

And Blatcher was stating that some people here obviously do feel that those jokes are appropriate, whereas others do not. Metafilter is not monolithic, which means that there is no "us". None. People on here have different backgrounds, interests, humour, etc.

On another note, movies are the new recipes!
posted by gman at 7:25 PM on May 27, 2012

I would totally read your movie blog.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 7:26 PM on May 27, 2012

Theres a third part of that horrible franchise?
posted by wheelieman at 7:26 PM on May 27, 2012

Yeah, I was "dragged' to MiB III, not wanting to go, but friends wanted to see it, so whatever. It was surprisingly good, and as you said, much better that II! They could make a movie or tv show out of Griffin the alien, great character and acting there.

At its heart, the movie was about the characters and their relationship. Still had plenty of scifi and special effects, but they served the plot as opposed to overshadowing it.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:28 PM on May 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

it really just proves the adage that you can't polish a turd, though

You can, however, roll it in glitter.
posted by octobersurprise at 7:37 PM on May 27, 2012 [11 favorites]

boisterous crowds are the best!
posted by the young rope-rider at 7:40 PM on May 27, 2012

i would definitely rather be at barcade than be eaten by zombies &/or coked-up naked duders

luckily the middle ground appears to be "drunk on the couch in my underwears watching potc" so yay
posted by elizardbits at 7:43 PM on May 27, 2012 [2 favorites]

wooo found a potato chip in my cleavage

FIESTA
posted by elizardbits at 7:45 PM on May 27, 2012 [17 favorites]

smoke: "… it really just proves the adage that you can't polish a turd, though, doesn't it?"

Depends how old it is.
posted by Pinback at 7:48 PM on May 27, 2012 [3 favorites]

MetaTawk: Defending Frank Drebins massacre at Julius Ceasar in the park.
posted by vozworth at 7:53 PM on May 27, 2012

mythbusters, polishing turds
posted by nadawi at 8:21 PM on May 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

kevtaro, I saw the earlier post about the man braising his testicles, was too sickemed to click on the links, and moved on. I didn't feel the need to flag it just because I personally didn't care for it, though.

Did that one bother you, too, or Is it only the zombie aspect that made you flag this post? Because personally I wasn't much for zombies either until I read World War Z, which is a well-written, realistic infection scenario novel, played out with a zombie theme, but worth reading on its own merits regardless of genre. You might surprise yourself and actuallly like that one.

orange swan, I'm not asking out of snark, but curiosity, because you said you weren't calling for the post's deletion:what made you decide to click on the thread, and go in and read the comments, instead of skipping it altogether?

I don't mind a post being deleted, but was the problem really with the subject matter of the post, The framing of the post, or with the comments?
posted by misha at 8:36 PM on May 27, 2012 [2 favorites]

The post was utter trash for metafilter by almost every possible calculation. Nothing useful to be discussed. Offensively graphic subject matter. Joking presentation regarding human death. Stupidly immature comments making light of a horrific situation.
posted by erebora at 9:30 PM on May 27, 2012 [4 favorites]

ok, but this was pretty funny
posted by ryanrs at 10:08 PM on May 27, 2012

the trans* person braising and serving their genitals is interesting beyond the body mutilation and goes into how art might help/hinder the struggle of the internal vs external. i didn't go into the thread because i wasn't looking to participate in trans* 101 (and i don't know if that's where it went, i'm just fatigued still after the cis argument). but - i don't think the only thing to discuss is "shocking, horrific thing" and i don't think it compares to the face eating post.
posted by nadawi at 10:15 PM on May 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

zombies bore me.
posted by philip-random at 12:07 AM on May 28, 2012 [2 favorites]

You need to run faster.
posted by dg at 12:15 AM on May 28, 2012

If getting offended produced electricity, Metafilter could power the entire Eastern seaboard.
posted by Afroblanco at 12:24 AM on May 28, 2012 [18 favorites]

Post was cheeky, toothsome. I give it four stARGHs.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 2:13 AM on May 28, 2012

Oh Snap!

Sorry, that didn't sound as mean in my head as it looks written down!

I wanted the event (and, surprisingly the many other recent events) to be discussed on Mefi because we definitely weren't going to get a discussion anywhere else.

Starting with the desire to discuss a topic and then finding links to fit is pretty much the perfect recipe for a dodgy post. But very tempting, admittedly - done it myself at least twice, I think.

Also, I am slightly saddened that no one dropped a HURF DURF FACE EATER in the thread. Can any infodump experts confirm that this beloved meme has passed into history?
posted by jack_mo at 2:26 AM on May 28, 2012

jessamyn: "I was at the movies!"

"Hannibal" is still showing on the big screen? You could have seen that on Netflix.
posted by HuronBob at 6:46 AM on May 28, 2012

I was at the movies!

I was at a barbecue! And feel slightly bad for throwing a glancing "yeah, I can see keeping as a weird making-an-effort one-off for such weird news" vote her way early on only to see it end up getting received really poorly after all and her having to nix it. But it was a nice barbecue!
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:28 AM on May 28, 2012

I'm sorry for posting that again. I should have done a bit more digging.

Now I'm all post-FPP shame and remorse. Sorry again.
posted by empatterson at 1:01 PM on May 28, 2012

Don't worry empatterson, we've got enough finger-waggings for everyone!
posted by Hoopo at 1:46 PM on May 28, 2012

Now I'm all post-FPP shame and remorse.

It's fine, you're fine, everybody's fine. Don't worry.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 3:56 PM on May 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

I was at the movies!

I was at a barbecue!

I WAS ON THE MOON! WITH STEVE!
posted by elizardbits at 5:00 PM on May 28, 2012 [4 favorites]

I'm very, very fine.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:42 PM on May 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

I'm going home. My head feels woozely.
posted by Sebmojo at 9:41 PM on May 28, 2012

If getting offended produced electricity, Metafilter could power the entire Eastern seaboard.

NOT EVERYBODY IS AMERICAN YOU PLONKER!1!!!
posted by MartinWisse at 5:48 AM on May 29, 2012 [2 favorites]

NOT EVERYBODY IS AMERICAN YOU PLONKER!1!!!

http://instantrimshot.com
posted by bakerina at 7:15 AM on May 29, 2012

I think it was a bad delete, and am honestly confused on the delete.

Is everyone here really unaware of the seriousness behind zombie talk? The substance behind the "zombie" bits is that society is beginning to destabilize to the extend that quite often, we cannot depend upon our existing structures for protection. "Zombies" has been code for years for "rioting hordes of crazy/desperate people." So this descending into zombie talk should be, in my opinion, exactly right. Mentally ill person assaulting other individual in a swift manner that could be ended only by shooting, the policeman unable to get there in time to preserve the victim's face.

That's exactly what all of the "zombie apocalypse" talk is about, the breakdown of society, which is happening in various areas.

So yeah, I'm confused as to why "zombie" = "automatic flag."
posted by corb at 12:41 PM on May 29, 2012 [1 favorite]

So this descending into zombie talk should be, in my opinion, exactly right. Mentally ill person assaulting other individual in a swift manner that could be ended only by shooting, the policeman unable to get there in time to preserve the victim's face.

Making zombie jokes as a response to a news story about a totally horrific crime and absent any of the contextualizing that you just added is not MeFi at its best. We are not saying "zombies = automatic flag" we are saying that it's basically a news of the weird post that had as a very unfortunate side effect a lot of zombie jokes. This made it a bad post for MetaFilter and a pretty much certainty to wind up in MeTa. Any time you have people making a lot of snarky comments at a dead, dying or ill person's expense, it's a pretty bumpy road. The zombie aspect honestly was probably why it stayed around as long as it did, not why it was deleted.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 12:46 PM on May 29, 2012 [2 favorites]

Making zombie jokes as a response to a news story about a totally horrific crime and absent any of the contextualizing that you just added is not MeFi at its best

I get that, I'm just trying to feel out the line, as it were. For example, I can give a lot of contexualizing about the zombie phenomenon, but if I'm writing a response somewhere, I could certainly see myself falling to the shorthand of "This is what we've been saying about with the zombies!"

I can see what you're saying, I suppose a followup question is more: is it fair for a post to be deleted because of other people's commentary? Wouldn't it make more sense to delete the other commentary if it was problematic?
posted by corb at 1:04 PM on May 29, 2012

failed commentary = failed thread.

Not because the OP has necessarily done anything WRONG, but because the community has failed. It's not your fault. It's everybody's. It's not your triumph. It's everybody's.

I am not now nor ever have been a member of the Communist Party.
posted by philip-random at 1:16 PM on May 29, 2012

is it fair for a post to be deleted because of other people's commentary? Wouldn't it make more sense to delete the other commentary if it was problematic?

This is sort of well-trod territory here. The short answer is that it's something that happens here. The community of MetaFilter is the reason we work here. Maintaining the community is what we do. If a thread is going badly to the point where people are arguing with each other, emailing us a lot, opening MeTa threads, and flagging the hell out of things [and quitting, but we didn't see that in this case] then it may wind up that a thread that had some good aspects and some bad aspects will get deleted if the conversation is terrible.

I'm aware that this is a topic on which reasonable people disagree. Our rule of thumb is that we generally can not spend a lot of time babysitting threads to keep people on track. We'll do it in the rare case of a really worthwhile thread that also happens to be somewhat bumpy. We won't do it in cases of a "news of the weird" post where people are also being cutups in the thread. And, to be fair, we were planning to do it in this thread but the community response was what we would call pretty unequivocal. Lots of flags and negative responses so even if we might have been inclined to just stick around and keep an eye on it, that tipped the scales towards deletion. There are a lot of "on the fence" types of threads in which we'd have to make more of a judgment call. This was not one of them.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 1:29 PM on May 29, 2012

Seems that there is a pattern developing.
posted by empath at 8:21 PM on May 29, 2012

The pattern: "bath salts" is a hell of a drug.
posted by gingerest at 8:44 PM on May 29, 2012

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that bath salts probably aren't to blame. And definitely not LSD, either. And definitely not 'a new form of LSD called bath salts' as one story put it.
posted by empath at 9:00 PM on May 29, 2012 [1 favorite]

Hey, I used my scare quotes. It's plausible that methamphetamine and its jolly substituted-cathinone cousins mephedrone (4-methylmethcathinone), methedrone (4-methoxymethcathinone) and methylone (3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylcathinone) could well be responsible for a whole lot of violent drug psychoses. Especially since provenance is an issue for "bath salts".

My suspicion is that three times in two weeks is right in line with the baseline figures for HazMat callouts in Florida's major cities.
posted by gingerest at 9:25 PM on May 29, 2012

I just had a conversation at the bar about bath salts - it's apparently not awesome. And both totally legal and totally unregulated, so it can go weird chemically in way too many ways.
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 11:09 PM on May 29, 2012

My question is where is he going to go and what is the cost of all this face repair? (saw the pics. Ick).

60-something guy who has been homeless for over 30 years. Face torn off, risk of infection, stage building repair/face transplant options. Where is he going to live inbetween all of this repair? The hospital? Even with Medicaid, how is this being paid for in full? Time in bed costs thousands. After he's all fine and dandy, then what? Put him back on the street?

I'm sorry he went through such a horrific incident, but aside from the gut reaction to save a life, what kind of life will this guy have? Repaired or not?
posted by stormpooper at 8:26 AM on May 31, 2012

Again, please do not make this thread into a discussion of the topic of that thread by proxy.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:28 AM on May 31, 2012

Cracked.com's Daniel O'Brien writes about how bad the framing of this story has been and what he believes it says about current media trends.
posted by Navelgazer at 7:46 PM on June 1, 2012