Does anyone on this forum actually care about Syria?

[Otern]

Trying to bring this back on topic;

Define care. Do I think it's a horrible situation for the Syrians? Sure. Do I think it should stop being so horrible? Sure.

But that's not really caring. Caring would be either going down there to help, either with guns or with some humanitarian organization. I'm not doing either of those things.

So, no. I don't care, and neither do most people who say they care.

The question if "anyone cares" isn't really a good question, as the response will be based on whatever the mood of the person answering is at that time. Also, there's different degrees of caring. Someone might not want to go down there themselves and fix it, but are willing to pay higher taxes, or give a huge amount of their income to humanitarian organizations. Others might want their government to spend more tax money on Syria, at the expense of their own infrastructure, welfare, or schools.

Then there's the people who "care", but don't want the government to spend more money on it, or go down there themselves. These people really don't care. It's all virtue signalling.

[nickle7]

I think it's good to make a distinction between compassion and empathy. Empathy can be exploited in order to make one feel guilty for not "caring." Sure, I mourn for the folks in Syria who have to flee their home but the idea that I should feel empathy, that I should take action or that the country should take direct action to help these people is an over-extension of responsibility. There's thousands of situations we could all be made to feel bad for being "cold-hearted" about. We can't save everyone nor do we have the responsibility to.

With that being said, I'm not saying we can't do anything. On an individual, business, or non-profit level, if someone wants to help, great. Also, the U.S. should help but opening the door to more and more refugees seems shortsighted.

Why aren't neighboring Arab countries allowing in more refugees for example?

Btw, Paul Bloom has done some good work distinguishing between empathy and compassion.

https://www.samharris.org/podcast/item/ ... cold-blood

[Otern]

Neighboring arab countries have been taking in a lot of refugees though. Lebanon has more than one refugee for every six Lebanese. Jordan takes in a lot too.

It's the gulf states which refuse everyone.

[nickle7]

Neighboring arab countries have been taking in a lot of refugees though. Lebanon has more than one refugee for every six Lebanese. Jordan takes in a lot too.

It's the gulf states which refuse everyone.

Thanks for the clarification. It's interesting we never hear anything about that.

[Montegriffo]

.

Why aren't neighboring Arab countries allowing in more refugees for example?

from Wiki.

Refugees of the Syrian Civil War Total population:

4,812,993 refugees (registered, March 2016)[1]
6,130,000-6,320,000 refugees (based on UN estimate, March 2016)[2]
Regions with important populations[3]
Turkey 2,724,937 (registered as of August 2016)[4]
2,748,367 (the highest number registered since 3 March 2016)
Lebanon 1,500,000 (estimated arrivals as of Dec 2015)
1,048,275 (registered)[5]
Jordan 1,265,000 (census results as of Nov 2015)[6]
657,422 (registered July 2016)[7]
Germany 600,000 (registered by April 2016)[8]
Greece 496,119 (arrivals to May 2016)[9]
54,574 (estimated in country May 2016)[9]
5,615 (applicants to Dec 2015)[10]
Saudi Arabia 420,000 (estimated overstays as of 2015)[11]
Macedonia 400,000 (estimated arrivals)[9]
2,150 (applicants to December 2015)[10]
Serbia (incl. Kosovo) 313,314 (applicants to December 2015)[10]
Iraq (incl. Iraqi Kurdistan) 1,139,000 (estimated in Iraqi Kurdistan)
956,000 (estimated rest of Iraq March 2016)
249,395 (registered)[12]
United Arab Emirates 242,000 (estimated overstays, government source, 2015) [13][14]
Kuwait 155,000+[11][15] (estimated overstays to June 2015)
Egypt 117,702 (registered as of March 2016)
119,665 (UNHCR estimate as of March 2016)[16]
500,000 (Egypt MFA estimate as of September 2016)
Sweden 110,333 (applicants to December 2015) [10]
Hungary

72,505 (applicants to December 2015) [10]
Canada 61,886 (applicants to Dec 2016)
43,589 (approved as of Dec 2016)
39,902 (resettled as of Dec 2016)[17][18]
Croatia 55,000 (estimated as of September 2015)[19]
386 (applicants to December 2015) [10]
Algeria 43,000 (estimated as of November 2015)
5,721 (registered as of November 2015) [20]
Qatar 40,000 (estimated overstays 2015)[11]
42 (registered)[11]
Austria 39,131 (applicants to July 2016)[10]
Netherlands 31,963 (applicants to July 2016) [10]
Libya 26,672 (registered as of December 2015)[1]
Armenia 20,000 (estimated as of October 2016)[21]
Denmark 19,433 (applicants to December 2015)[10]
Bulgaria 17,527 (applicants to December 2015)[10]
United States 16,218 (resettled to November 2016) [22]
Belgium 15,951 (applicants to July 2016) [10]
Norway 13,993 (applicants to December 2015)[10]
Singapore 13,856 (applicants to December 2015)[10]
Switzerland 12,931 (applicants to July 2016)[10]
France 11,694 (applicants to July 2016)[10]
Brazil 9,000 (approved) [23]
2,097 (as of November 2015)[24]
United Kingdom 9,467 (applicants to July 2016)[10]
5,102 (resettled as of August 2015) [25]
Spain 8,365 (applicants to December 2015)[10]
Russia 5,000 (estimated 2015)[26]
Malaysia 5,000 (estimated August 2015)[citation needed]
Australia 4,500 (2015)
Tunisia 4,000 (September 2015)[27]
Cyprus 3,527 (applicants to December 2015)[10]
Bahrain 3,500 (estimated June 2015)[11]
Argentina 3,000 (approved)[28]
Montenegro 2,975 (applicants to December 2015)[10]
Italy 2,538 (applicants to December 2015)[10]
Romania 2,525 (applicants to December 2015)[10]
Malta 1,222 (applicants to December 2015) [10]
Somalia 1,312 (as of January 2016)
Finland 1,127 (as of December 2015)[10]
Gaza Strip 1,000 (as of December 2013)[29]
Language: Arabic, Kurdish, Turkish, Armenian, Aramaic
Religion: Sunni Islam, Christianity, Shia Islam, Yazidism, Druze

I think you will find the neighbouring Arab countries are doing their bit. Note Saudi Arabia has 420,000 and is 6th on the list.

[Otern]

That's also a bit wrong. Those numbers refer to applicants, not people who gets to stay. And in this sense, it makes sense the countries closer are the ones with the most applicants. But that's not to say Saudi Arabia is willing to let the refugees stay, just that they've received a lot of asylum applications.

[nickle7]

True. And, I suppose this overlaps well with the "the right and the left need each other-debate" thread, but the national discourse on the topic of refugees is so unhelpfully polarized. Either refugees are the biggest problem or there's no problem. Both BS. There's very little honest discussion in this realm.

[Montegriffo]

True. And, I suppose this overlaps well with the "the right and the left need each other-debate" thread, but the national discourse on the topic of refugees is so unhelpfully polarized. Either refugees are the biggest problem or there's no problem. Both BS. There's very little honest discussion in this realm.

It's the largest refugee crisis since WWII, if you won't see that as a problem then you are being dishonest.
The figures I gave are where the refugees have fled to, registered or unregistered is splitting hairs.

[TheReal_ND]

Put them in camps.

[SuburbanFarmer]

And the Democrats inability to deal with those realities, right? Wow...

What exactly would be your suggestion?

Not on me. I am not an elected Democrat in the inner city.

So, in summary, you have no alternative ideas, not even a vague conception of how things could be run differently, but you're absolutely convinced that Democrat politicians are responsible.

We've descended fully into partisan retardation now. Please keep your hands and thoughts inside the vehicle at all times. Do not look directly at the Stupid.