this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2023
607 points (99.5% liked)

World News

38548 readers
2347 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

A 16-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of causing criminal damage in connection with the felling of the 300-year-old Sycamore Gap tree in the north of England.

Officers arrested the teenager amid an outpouring of sadness over the destruction of the landmark, which has been a feature of the site at Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland for hundreds of years. The boy is in custody and assisting officers with their inquiries, Northumbria police said on Thursday.

Locals and national park authorities said they were “struggling to see the logic” in the destruction of a sycamore which had long become “part of this area’s DNA” and had gone through thousands of changes of seasons.

The tree, believed to have been about 300 years old, was made famous when it appeared in the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, starring Kevin Costner.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] DessertStorms@kbin.social 49 points 11 months ago (2 children)

What a bizarre and completely unnecessary comparison to make..
(to be clear - cutting down a tree, however pointless and destructive, is in absolutely no way shape or form comparable to raping women)

[–] dojan@lemmy.world 43 points 11 months ago (2 children)

You can still dislike someone for doing something heinous, even though the crime isn't comparable.

Wanton destruction of a living being of historical and cultural significance isn't any more or less acceptable than violating someone's agency and personhood, marring them for life.

[–] threadloose@midwest.social 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Hey, so, lots of rape survivors have asked people to stop framing rape as something that mars a person for life, because it's basically a rephrasing of the outdated idea of a "ruined woman". You can't ruin a person. A lot of people really struggle with the idea that they're dirty forever, and hearing that said by allies constantly doesn't help their recovery. You can still recognize the harm that rape does without reinforcing outdated concepts of purity, where before they were pure and unmarked and after they're "marred for life" with no recovery.

[–] dojan@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You’re speaking to one. I thank you not to put words in my mouth.

[–] threadloose@midwest.social 2 points 11 months ago

Wow, I've been sexually assaulted too. Guess we're at a detente.

[–] atomicorange@lemmy.world -5 points 11 months ago (2 children)

More. The answer is that killing a tree is more acceptable than rape. What’s wrong with you?

[–] bstix@feddit.dk 27 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Well, if we are going to compare.. which would be worse: raping a tree or killing a 300 y/o old woman?

[–] sailingbythelee@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

Funniest thing I've read today. Well done.

[–] atomicorange@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago

The splinters would be punishment enough. And that lady’s probably a vampire.

[–] dojan@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago (2 children)
[–] atomicorange@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

There must be a miscommunication somewhere. It looked like you were saying one wasn’t more acceptable than the other, but I’ll take you at your word that you didn’t mean that. Because that would be an insane thing to say, yet I’m getting downvoted for pointing it out.

[–] TheTetrapod@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

They quite literally did.

[–] theluckyone@lemmy.world 14 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Both crimes involve permanent harm that cannot be repaired.

Just because you can't connect the two crimes in your head, doesn't mean someone else can't. Get out of your own head.

[–] REdOG@lemmy.world 14 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Sure, but he's not wrong. It's still bizarre and unnecessary. There's no need to generalize every freaking situation. It eventually waters down language IMO.

[–] Nataratata@lemmy.world -1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

But in one case the victim is a person with feelings and in the other case it's a tree. I find it quite concerning that people seem to struggle to see the difference.

[–] theluckyone@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

I find it concerning that you can't see the similarities between a crime that involves a person with feelings, and a crime that involves an entire community with feelings.

[–] iheartneopets@lemm.ee 1 points 11 months ago

It shows your complete lack of knowledge of biology to assert that trees don't have "feelings". They may not experience them as we do, but there is way more research to be done before that can be definitively stated. With as much as we've learned about fungi associated with tree roots that help them communicate, as well as chemicals they release when damaged to warn other trees, I think it is safe to say that trees and other plants do indeed experience distress.

Rape is a crime in which one person acts heinously out of a desire for control over another person/creature, causing irreparable harm. There are various kinds of rape as well. Do you know, that in history, when one city was invaded by an army, that would be referred to as a rape of that city?

So yes, I think there is plenty of logic to hate both of those youths equally. Both committed atrocities against innocent parties that have resulted in extreme harm.