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terrorism

Explosion, many deaths at Ariana Grande concert in Manchester: Open Thread

One of the injured in Manchester

Terrible news: An explosion outside an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester has left at least 19 dead and 50 injured, according to press reports at the time of this writing. There are apparently indications it was a suicide bomber, but details are still scarce at this point.

Discuss, share info here. No trolls, etc.

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varalys the dark
7 years ago

I’m just sad people are getting frightened again. I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s, the heyday of the IRA targetting the UK mainland (and I don’t recall ordinary Catholics being forced to constantly justify themselves after every atrocity) and you always had it in the back of your mind when you went into the city that you might find yourself on the wrong end of an IRA bomb. This pretty much lasted until 1996 in the UK when the 1996 bomb went off in Manchester City Centre. After that there was a lovely period where kids like my youngest sister got to grow up without having to fear random explosions. And now it’s happening again. 🙁

Alan Robertshaw
Alan Robertshaw
7 years ago

@ Varalys

I don’t recall ordinary Catholics being forced to constantly justify themselves after every atrocity

It’s finally happened. We’ve been nattering so much our brains have synched. Just made exactly the same point on the other thread. Spooky.

Alan Robertshaw
Alan Robertshaw
7 years ago

@ gussie

the “Moose Lambs” (many of whom listen to Ariana Grande as well).

Just got that euphemism! But yeah, guy being interviewed last night who’d just picked his wife and daughter up is presumably Muslim. Like I say, the bit I can’t get out of my head was that the trip to the gig was a Christmas present. That just adds that extra layer of awfulness and cruelty. She must have been looking forward to this for months. And now this.

But for all the attempts at othering this was just a regular 12 year old girl excited about seeing her favourite pop star.

varalys the dark
7 years ago

@Alan: Snap! Or Jinx! Or something. It’s a point worth making twice anyway 🙂

Overly Long Name
Overly Long Name
7 years ago

I was near furious last night, when I first heard the news, because I knew it would be used to validate islamiphobic beliefs. I just feel deep inside me that this will be used to escalate the situation somehow, I mean it probably won’t but because of bureaucracy, but still this along with what happened in the Philippines makes me scared for an even further rise in islamiphobia. Sorry if this is dumb or repetitive just felt the need to say something somewhere.

Bina
Bina
7 years ago

The only thing more senseless than this mass murder is the right-wing so-called response to it. Everyone from Geraldo Fucking Rivera and Katie Fucking Hopkins to the deservedly-celibate incels can just kiss my ass today. People are dead, and they’re looking to score political points off it. How are they any better than Daesh? (Spoiler: They’re not. Not one infinitesimal bit.)

Alan Robertshaw
Alan Robertshaw
7 years ago

@ Bina

They’re not. Not one sub-microscopically tiny bit

That’s just it, you can’t get a blue Rizla+ paper between them ideologically. It’s all hate, and mainly towards same targets.

And they both have the same aims. ISIS talk about ‘eliminating the gray zone’. That’s just making sure Muslims and non-Muslims don’t trust each other and feel they can’t live together. How’s that different from what our wanker friends want? As you rightly point out, it isn’t. They’re all aiming for the same goal.

(I nearly said “playing into ISIS’ hands”, but that would imply there’s something inadvertent about it. There’s not, they overtly and consciously want the same thing.)

Gussie Jives
Gussie Jives
7 years ago

@ Alan

Yeah, I stole “Moose Lambs” from that original sketch of Melissa McCarthy as Sean Spicer using the props during a press conference. The fact that the stuffed lamb was literally Lambchop herself just made it all the more funny.

Alan Robertshaw
Alan Robertshaw
7 years ago

@ overly long name

the terror threat level in Britain has been raised from severe to critical

That’s pretty standard and we shouldn’t read too much into that. There’s no specific intelligence that suggests further attacks. It’s just that sometimes there can be follow up attacks so they assume that out of an abundance of caution. Just means a slightly more overt security presence on the streets for a week or so until everyone’s nerves have settled. It’s a reassurance thing as much as a practical one.

IBH Ardipithecus
IBH Ardipithecus
7 years ago

“This is the place”

“Choose Love Manchester”

Haise, the husky puppy
Haise, the husky puppy
7 years ago

@ Redsilkphoenix

I admit I’m naive to Yahoo’s comments being terrible since I just read the articles and leave. Barely any decency in the comments especially on any article regarding Trump / LGBT topics. It’s like treading through a tar pit.

And I seriously regret reading some of the incels` reactions. Drawing utter bullshit parallels between being the victim of an explosion/attack and their voluntary celibacy is vile. Children died and according to them, they deserved it because they – the girls would have grown up to not sleep with them. Fucking disgusted but not surprised coming from them.

PeeVee the (Timber-Rattling Booger Slut, But Noice) Sarcastic
PeeVee the (Timber-Rattling Booger Slut, But Noice) Sarcastic
7 years ago

“Choose Love, Manchester.”

I am crying so hard right now.

Bryce
Bryce
7 years ago

The public seems to forget that the majority of ISIS victims have been other Muslims, that a good percentage migrants and refugees are here to escape attacks these sort of attacks that had become near routine events for them. Of course it will be law abiding Muslims or Sikhs who deal with a completely pointless fallout.

Francesca Torpedo, Femoid Special Forces Major
Francesca Torpedo, Femoid Special Forces Major
7 years ago

President Evil Loser described the attackers as “evil losers”

occasional reader
occasional reader
7 years ago

Hello.

sorry for the lateness.
All my condolences for manchesterers and britons.
I hope you will not have the second bad effect of terror attacks, which is reclamation by far-righters and ultra-nationalists.

Bacon
Bacon
7 years ago

So after the attack, and then the racist backlash, we now have this to deal with too…

http://uk.businessinsider.com/amber-rudd-manchester-terror-attack-salman-abedi-us-condemned-leaks-2017-5

Alan Robertshaw
Alan Robertshaw
7 years ago

@ bacon

British officials have expressed their “irritation” to the US.

To translate from British understatement, “expressed irritation” means ‘considered assassination and/or Trident launch’.

DanHolme
DanHolme
7 years ago

@Alan

As I write this, I am ‘expressing my irritation’ about student behaviour to a group of said students, in detention.

You might be able to hear it from Cornwall.

Alan Robertshaw
Alan Robertshaw
7 years ago

@ Dan

This is probably the most famous example of British understatement causing problems with our American cousins.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/apr/14/johnezard

ETA: Oh, where’d you go?

Austin Loomis
7 years ago

Yeahnopelous has actually weighed in on the bombing, with all the class and decorum we’ve come to expect from him. The only reason I pay attention to him, or even click on specific reminders of him, is because I don’t want to miss hearing about it when his efforts to be the Ernst Röhm of the new millennium inevitably end up in the same place the original did.