Ask HN: After the Paris Attack, have your feelings changed on NSA surveillance?
Apologies if this is blunt, but the western media obsesses over incidents of terrorism where relatively small numbers of westerners are the victims. Particularly if they die in unexpected and graphic ways.<p>Far more people die all the time due to many other reasons that we could decide to care about.<p>E.g. 1.5 million people died from tuberculosis in 2013 [1].<p>E.g. in 2014, 45% of deaths of children under five were due to malnutrition - 3.1 million deaths per year [2].<p>E.g. 15 people die in my wealthy western country - Australia - every day, due to alcohol [3] [4].<p>E.g. my hobby-horse issue political issue, climate change, will probably directly or indirectly lead to the deaths of billions over the next century or so, due to long-term lock-in decisions that have been made in the past, and are being made now. Unfortunately the changes are gradual, most of the victims haven&#x27;t died yet, most of the victims won&#x27;t be relatively powerful and rich westerners, and there isn&#x27;t a clear &quot;other&quot; for our society to demonise and blame, and it would require the status quo to change, so there isn&#x27;t much of a fuss about it in the media - nobody in a position of power particularly wants to hear about it, let alone do anything, and it isn&#x27;t particularly newsworthy as nothing much changes - it&#x27;s just consistently bad news, getting gradually worse over time.<p>[1] - <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.who.int&#x2F;gho&#x2F;tb&#x2F;en&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.who.int&#x2F;gho&#x2F;tb&#x2F;en&#x2F;</a><p>[2] - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.wfp.org&#x2F;hunger&#x2F;stats" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.wfp.org&#x2F;hunger&#x2F;stats</a><p>[3] - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;theconversation.com&#x2F;australias-daily-alcohol-toll-15-deaths-and-430-hospitalisations-29906" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;theconversation.com&#x2F;australias-daily-alcohol-toll-15...</a><p>[4] - I am drinking a glass of wine as I write this.<p>edit: to become even more drearily pragmatic, as a society i think it is for the best not to be concerned or distracted with relatively small losses due to terrorism or any other cause. we cannot be completely shielded from risk. we cannot bear the cost of being completely shielded from risk. the risks are probably going to ramp up over the next few decades, as population continues to grow, resource stocks decline and are exhausted, natural disasters increase, climate changes, and global society becomes increasingly interconnected, more efficient, and less resilient to damage.