The Digital Bystander Effect

The digital age with social media at its pinnacle is creating a digital bystander effect. Instead of the murder of Kitty Genovese, we have the systematic slaughter of groups of people, whether by autocratic regimes or death cults like ISIS.

Knowledge of world events has never been more accessible, and yet it seems that this knowledge is not inspiring collective action to stop brutality and crimes against humanity. We are a distracted lot, and the noisiness of the digital world has not helped to heal social, economic, political, and racial divisions around the world. For years we have known about conflicts and the killing of innocent people in places such as Syria and South Sudan. The world continues to chatter, tweet, and Facebook “react” to such horrors, but this ‘hashtag advocacy’ has yielded few real world results.

Chemical Attack Rocks Syria: At least 70 people died after exposure to chemical weapons in an attack on Tuesday morning. Survivors reported that warplanes dropped toxic gas on the northwestern province of Idlib. Photos and videos of the area post-attack showed children and adults struggling to breathe. The United States, United Kingdom, and the European Union were quick to lay blame on Syrian government forces, but the Syrian military said it “categorically denied” responsibility. Early on Wednesday, the Russian defense ministry acknowledged that Syrian planes had attacked the town of Khan Sheikhun in Idlib province, but that aircraft had struck a “terrorist warehouse” of “toxic substances.” At the request of Britain and France,the United Nations Security Council will be briefed Wednesday on the attack.  

As the Islamic State continues to weaken, the Syrian government will continue to direct resources away from the fight against ISIS in favor of fighting Western-backed rebels. As a result, the likelihood of such attacks might increase. It was not the first time chemical weapons have been used in the six-year-old conflict. In 2013, 1,300 died in a sarin gas attack in Damascus.

Yes, North Korea Still Ballistic: North Korea fired what is believed to be a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan on Wednesday morning. The launch elicited a very curt response from the US State Department that was unlike the usual stern diplomatic condemnations issued after one of Pyongyang’s missile tests. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson simply stated, “North Korea launched yet another intermediate range ballistic missile. The United States has spoken enough about North Korea. We have no further comment.” The missile test comes just a day before Chinese President Xi Jinping visits US President Donald Trump for a summit in Florida. The US has been urging China to put pressure on North Korea to halt its nuclear program and missile testing, but Trump stated on Sunday that the United States, if necessary, would be prepared to act alone to stop North Korea.

Trouble in Gibraltar: Tensions between the United Kingdom and Spain have increased after a Spanish naval vessel strayed into disputed territorial waters of the small enclave. The incident, described by the United Kingdom as a “gross violation” of national sovereignty, is just one in a series of escalatory moves between the two NATO allies. The spat centers around the Spanish condition that Gibraltar be included in European Union policy papers, which would make it easier for Spain to use Gibraltar as a future bargaining chip. 94 percent of Gibraltar’s citizens voted to remain in the European Union following last year’s referendum on the UK’s EU membership. Spain, which has never disavowed its claim over the British possession, is arguing for a transfer of sovereignty within the context of Brexit.  

More (Unabashedly Political) Reads:

• The Los Angeles Times is leading the charge against President Trump and his lies (LA Times)
• Thankfully unlike Norte, a publication in Ciudad Juarez, we don’t fear for our lives based on we decide to write (NYT)
• We know the Trump Administration has drained the swamp of of non-wealthy elites in key positions. But has the populist Trump campaign given way to the Trump administration behaving like Trump, Inc. and being as profit-oriented as possible? (Business Insider)
• Trump has done a good job of making enemies out of the bureaucracy, the press, his own party, etc. (FiveThirtyEight)
• Why physical testaments of power can often be a leading indicator of eventual ruin. Maybe this would make Apple think twice about its new campus, or Salesforce about its tower in San Francisco, or Trump’s repeated assertions about his team’s ability to #buildthewall! (Longreads)
• The Bannon-Trump administration is relying on piecemeal tactics to win legislative victories. The death of Trumpcare and the inability to build a coalition will severely stymie the administration for the foreseeable future. Primarily because “strategic choices need to be made simultaneously not sequentially” (Harvard Business Review)
• Trump’s incompetence, braggadocio, and lack of real results are concerning. So are the possible ties to Russia. But it’s still an open question as to just how much Putin directly or indirectly meddled in American politics. In fact, Rolling Stone worries that perhaps there are too many anti-Trumpers who want to believe that Russia did interfere in the 2016 election

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