We are not afraid!
July 12, 2005 9:39 AM   Subscribe

We are not afraid. If you want to understand London in the aftermath, here it is.
posted by Duug (41 comments total)
 
It's a shame that you can only post one FPP a day. Because I'll bet that you have a lot more cool sites like this.
posted by Mayor Curley at 9:58 AM on July 12, 2005


OK, now I'm afraid.
posted by fungible at 10:08 AM on July 12, 2005


hmmm, i think they could have done better registering wearenotafraid.com

i saw it first as werenotafraid.com
posted by derbs at 10:11 AM on July 12, 2005


Terrorists fear our rudimentary photoshopping skillz!!!

But yeah, lack of apostrophes in domain names = funny
posted by flashboy at 10:17 AM on July 12, 2005


Interesting, the Whois for weArenotafraid.com shows it was registered over a year ago, yet nothing is being done with the domain...
posted by wendell at 10:18 AM on July 12, 2005


If anything, all these "cute" cat pictures and lame attempts at bravado will encourage ordinary people to turn terrorist.
posted by Ljubljana at 10:23 AM on July 12, 2005


I was kind of confused by the Cafe Press ad... I read it as "we are not afraid to shop" which seems a bit... well, yeah.
posted by jokeefe at 10:24 AM on July 12, 2005


Would this be better served as a comment in one of the other London threads as an example of a demonstrative, self-aggrandizing, ego-boost?

I suspect that a greater key to understanding "London in the aftermath" is this.
posted by gramschmidt at 10:25 AM on July 12, 2005


I dunno, Ljubljana. I tend to agree with Jon Stewart on this.

Where are all the t-shirts?
posted by dreamsign at 10:29 AM on July 12, 2005


Wow. I'm suddenly terrified.
posted by Sheppagus at 10:33 AM on July 12, 2005


HOMER IS NOT AFRAID
posted by quonsar at 11:03 AM on July 12, 2005


gramschmidt, you need to be a Londonder maybe to understand?
posted by Duug at 11:29 AM on July 12, 2005


...oh and this too! :-)
posted by Duug at 11:32 AM on July 12, 2005


i thought we were all londoners the other day?
posted by quonsar at 11:32 AM on July 12, 2005


you need to be a Londonder maybe to understand?

Perhaps, but this sort of thing has become a very common reaction to events like the London bombings, so much so that one instance is fundamentally equivalent to any other. It should be obvious, but "We're Not Afraid" is just this month's "9/11 - We Will Never Forget". Participating in an expression like this serves 1) to assuage the fears of the participator and 2) to allow the participator to feel good about himself or herself for having participated. They're essentially appeals to emotion. Appeals to emotion don't solve complicated puzzles or remedy difficult situations.

There's a huge difference between well-meaning but basically self-aggrandizing PhotoShoppery and cold, clinical, emotionless detective work. The first is cute but essentially masturbatory and the second actually does work and solves problems.

It is possible to evaluate an emotion-driven website like this and emotion-driven expressions like this without yielding to the emotions ourselves.
posted by gramschmidt at 11:51 AM on July 12, 2005


And what the fuck is this?


posted by gramschmidt at 12:01 PM on July 12, 2005


And what the fuck is this?

Why, that would appear to be two chickens in an oven. I don't see what's so confusing.

It does make me wonder what other irrelevant images could be submitted with the same caption. A picture of a mime? Maybe a packet of Rich Tea biscuits? An old lady hovering her curtains?
posted by dodgygeezer at 12:24 PM on July 12, 2005


It has come to the attention of the team that some really nasty comments have slipped through our moderation net whilst we were busy trying to get you as many images as we could, quickly. Just a reminder that really, none of us want to have to wade through flames and hate-filled comments so please, folks, we ask you keep it civil. We realize this is an emotional issue and we welcome discussion and debate, but we must insist on reasonable behaviour.

This is why they can't have nice things.
posted by haqspan at 12:42 PM on July 12, 2005



"gramschmidt, you need to be a Londonder maybe to understand?"


I live in London. I don't get it.

"And what the fuck is this?"

I don't know, but I came in to mention the distinct uncoolness of the "go home" message. The "we are not afraid" message is a tough one to get right, and this site fails miserably.
posted by nthdegx at 12:51 PM on July 12, 2005


"An old lady hovering her curtains!"

That'd scare the poop out of me!

Mike
posted by Mike D at 1:24 PM on July 12, 2005


gramschmidt writes "And what the fuck is this?"

Maybe it's showing the phrase "The chickens have come home to roast?"
posted by daninnj at 2:02 PM on July 12, 2005


daninnj: that'd be pure genius, but I think you're projecting :)
posted by funambulist at 2:23 PM on July 12, 2005


I can't decide if this is meant seriously or not:


Anyhow. How's this for a narcissist response:
My Tear for London
Like a scribbled poem taped to a tree at the scene of an atrocity, Haris Uzeirbegovic's curious little grieving scrap of Flash anime mourns the horrors of London's July 7 bombings. ... the firestorm of praise, protest, sympathy and outright abuse that it has engendered in a thousand or so viewer reviews at Newgrounds, accusing him of everything from cashing-in to 'emo-flashing'.
posted by funambulist at 2:29 PM on July 12, 2005


dude misspelled "innocence".
posted by quonsar at 2:38 PM on July 12, 2005


Hey in America right after 9/11 for our uniquely American act of courage, to face the truth and address the problem of terrorism, we played baseball at Yankee Stadium and the networks told us everything was going to be grand.
posted by surplus at 2:48 PM on July 12, 2005


separated at birth:

posted by funambulist at 2:49 PM on July 12, 2005


Nothing says 'I am not afraid' like misspelling the word "wankers", apparently. Nice pic though.
posted by clevershark at 2:50 PM on July 12, 2005


uhm, second image doesn't show, sorry, one last try:

separated at birth?


(here - the other pic was here)
posted by funambulist at 4:26 PM on July 12, 2005


Simon Pegg was seperated from Simon Pegg at birth?
posted by flashboy at 6:06 PM on July 12, 2005


Yeah, I don't think that's an uncanny resemblance, I think that's just Simon Pegg.
posted by Simon! at 6:30 PM on July 12, 2005


If "We are not afraid" is the bad version, London Hurts is the clever one.
posted by NickDouglas at 9:50 PM on July 12, 2005


Yeah, I don't think that's an uncanny resemblance, I think that's just Simon Pegg.

Oops, sorry, I really really thought the first dude was some anonymous wearenotafraid person! I should have known it was too uncanny to be just a resemblance.

Nevermind me, I'm new here, and stupid. :)
posted by funambulist at 1:39 AM on July 13, 2005


"It's not a bedsit, it's a flat."

/shoots Duane in the balls.
posted by longbaugh at 2:00 AM on July 13, 2005


Yeah, that first image is from the "Paintball" episode in the first series of Spaced. Speaking of which, where the hell is series 3?
posted by bifter at 2:15 AM on July 13, 2005


Well they might not be afraid but some people seem to be. Was in Central London yesterday and got the tube across the city at rush hour, it was a pleasure as there were so few people aboard. A pretty atypical experience.
posted by biffa at 3:11 AM on July 13, 2005


And of course, we're all aware that the US military had withdrawn from London, so I guess they were pretty scared too.
posted by biffa at 3:54 AM on July 13, 2005


To be fair biffa it's generally like that in July / August anyway just because of reduced traffic from summer holidays. I haven't noticed a significant difference to be honest - neither bravery nor cowardice.
posted by bifter at 4:52 AM on July 13, 2005


I hate shit like this. You show you're not afraid by getting on with life just as you always did, not by acting out on a dumb website. That just looks like protesting too much.
posted by Decani at 7:39 AM on July 13, 2005


We're Cacking Ourselves
posted by flashboy at 5:16 PM on July 13, 2005


Flashboy: now that's more like it!

You know Brits are afraid if the sense of humour goes. :-)
posted by Decani at 7:14 AM on July 14, 2005


Be sure to also check the London Hurts livejournal from the link flashboy posted.

"If you're all Londoners today, that's eight quid each for the congestion charge. Come on, pony up."
posted by funambulist at 8:19 AM on July 14, 2005


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