Crime Millennial Couple Bikes Through Tajikistan Posts ‘Humans Are Kind’...They Were Killed

[Contra-dictator]

I though it strange we had to include they were both vegans. Usually when I hear about foreign terrorist acts against Americans; I never find out what the primary source of their diet is in every instance I can think of.

The author was trying to establish a pattern.

 

[Rod1]

Here is his quote. Sounds like he listened to way too many progressive lectures. Like he set out to prove that all this diversity is a good thing. Progressives need to realize that you just don't ride your bike through Islam territory. It's not like a joyride down through some country road. And it killed him and his friends.

“You read the papers and you’re led to believe that the world is a big, scary place," Austin wrote. “People, the narrative goes, are not to be trusted. People are bad. People are evil."
“I don’t buy it," he continued. "Evil is a make-believe concept we’ve invented to deal with the complexities of fellow humans holding values and beliefs and perspectives different than our own... By and large, humans are kind. Self-interested sometimes, myopic sometimes, but kind. Generous and wonderful and kind.”

By and large humans are indeed kind.

There are however also a minority of humans who are wicked and motivated by greed, twisted ideology or both.

 

[Contra-dictator]

hahah What was that idiot yanks name that fucked around in NK? Just a stupid piece of shit liek these two.

Adam Warmbier?

 

[woodguyatl]

"Evil is a make-believe concept we've invented to deal with the complexities of fellow humans."

An idealistic young American couple was killed in an Islamic State-claimed terrorist attack last month while on a cycling trip around the world.

Jay Austin and Lauren Geoghegan, who were both in their late 20s, last year quit their office jobs in Washington, DC, to embark on the journey. Austin, a vegan who worked for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Geoghegan, a vegetarian who worked in the Georgetown University admissions office, decided that they're were wasting their lives working.

The two Americans killed in an ISIS-claimed attack in Tajikistan over the weekend were a couple from Washington D.C. who left their lives in the nation's capital to see the world together by bicycle. According to Lauren Geoghegan's parents, the year-long cycle adventure was typical of their daughter's "openness to new people and places, and her quest for a better understanding of the world."

Robert and Elvira Geoghegan confirmed in a statement sent to CBS News that Lauren and her boyfriend Jay Austin, both 29 years old, were killed in the attack on Sunday as they rode through Tajikistan with a group of other foreign cyclists. A car rammed into the group and then five men got out and attacked the tourists with knives. A Dutch and Swiss national were killed along with Geoghegan and Austin.

Tajik authorities blamed a domestic Islamic separatist group, but ISIS followed an initial claim of responsibility in print with a video showing the five purported attackers pledging allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

https://www.pluralist.com/posts/182...umans-are-kind-and-gets-killed/partners/44433

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/washin...-tajikistan-isis-lauren-geoghegan-jay-austin/

Why is the fact that they are vegan and vegetarian relevant?

 

[voxom]

i'd be willing to bet they had both used the phrase "religion of peace" in a non-ironic way at least a few times before going on that trip.

idiots

 

[Rational Poster]

IDK, I'm kinda paranoid admittedly but I just personally wouldn't feel comfortable in that part of the world myself.

 

[Gregolian]

No trees to shit behind bruh... Panda no trust this.

EDIT:
It admittedly like parts of Iraq and Afghanistan is pretty as fuck.

 

[Rational Poster]

No trees to shit behind bruh... Panda no trust this.

There are trees in 2/3 pictures posted though.

 

[Gregolian]

There are trees in 2/3 pictures posted though.

I'm 6'4" though....

 

[Ripskater]

That's a beautiful place

 

[carlos cadona]

ITT people confusing Tajikistan with Afghanistan. Tajikistan is a fiercely secular country with a relatively low crime rate and hasn't been at war in over 21 years. There have been problems with Islamist's in the past but the government cracks down on them hard. Classifying Tajikistan as a war torn Islamic hell hole is like classifying Florida as one because there was an Islamic terrorist attack there.

 

[voxom]

I have to admire the commitment they demonstrated to their ideals. Would be nice if all American virtue signalers were more like them

Agreed!! especially the "i'm going to go to a hostile area to prove how great everyone is and that it's just a right wing myth that the middle ast is a shithole" part

 

[voxom]

It's exactly the same outside the fact this happened in a Level 3 travel warning country especially citing terrorism...but outside of that

well, they were all murdered by the religion of peace. so there's that.

 

[HomerThompson]

I corrected this story in the meme thread already.

This was not through ISIS territory. It was in Northern Tajikistan which is a former Russian satellite and not an ISIS stronghold.

This was the first attack on Western travelers in the country like this ever reported and the day of the attack it was rated at the lowest level of danger by the US state department.

Yeah, but those liberals were brutally murdered.

So hilarious!

 

[Mr. Shickadance]

Honestly, I don't think this result invalidates the statement: "Evil is a make-believe concept we've invented to deal with the complexities of fellow humans."
The complexity of humans obviously, can manifest itself in dramatic and destructive ways. The word "Evil" is not not particularly elucidating, it's just kind of a catch-all for destructive things humans do.

I feel like the popularity of this story is schadenfreude fetishism. Grumpy pessimists that want to make an isolated, anecdotal tragedy and use it to prove their dire world view.

Spot on. But these people in the war room are ruthless but you know someone will get slapped for wearing a maga hat and they'll be making jokes about the "tolerant left"

 

[eworden78]

"dire world view" = realistic world view.

Pessimist and optimists, by definition see a biased world view. There's no reason to think that a negative view is less biased than a positive view.
In fact most studies show the opposite, most people overstate the dangers of external risks, while understating the risks of easily controllable internal risks.

People also tend to misjudge trends, humans are much more attuned to when things go bad than when things go good. There tends to be a perception bias towards things getting worse.

 

[Leagon]

Clearly it's not...

I don't understand why you're making light of two dead young people.

 

[Leagon]

Agreed!! especially the "i'm going to go to a hostile area to prove how great everyone is and that it's just a right wing myth that the middle ast is a shithole" part

What hostile area of Tajikistan were they in?

 

[Rational Poster]

That's a beautiful place

The Central Asia Steppe is literally one of the most beautiful places on Earth with thousands of square miles of pristine wilderness untouched by civilization.

 

[Leagon]

IDK, I'm kinda paranoid admittedly but I just personally wouldn't feel comfortable in that part of the world myself.

You're a reasonable dude. Don't you think it's weird that you heard Tajikistan and thought "ONE OF THE SHITTIEST PLACES IN THE WORLD" based on nothing? Seriously, isn't that bizarre? It was almost like a programmed response.

I don't say this as an insult, I say this because you've demonstrated across threads for years to be a thoughtful guy and you blurted that out of nowhere. I've occasionally done stuff like that before and it always makes me feel icky, like someone hypnotized me years ago and suddenly someone said the trigger word.