Project 2: "Great to Watch" Mind Map by Lindsay Villamil Arias

Desensitization/normalization (Social)

lav160 — 2025-09-22 20:42:18 UTC

The internet has become a an accessible source that broadens the range of media people can engage with. Now, people are able to engage with media that can display cruelty, that ranges from abuse, torture, and more with a click of their finger. This accessibility has lowered sympathy and shame for the actions taken in said media.

Immigration and gun violence (Political)

lav160 — 2025-09-22 20:42:32 UTC

Political examples of malice can be connected today to immigration and gun violence that has become especially relevant now.

Thesis Statement

lav160 — 2025-09-22 21:09:37 UTC

Aggressive actions desensitize and normalize a trend of abuse that is often glamorized for entertainment.

Evidence #3

lav160 — 2025-09-24 18:41:13 UTC

"American Society is saturated with violence--and not just the violence horrifically displayed in early December 2012 at the Sandy Hook Elementary School,where a former student returned to shoot 20 children and 6 adults before hetrained his rifle on himself In 2011, the homicide rate in the United States wasmore than four times greater than Germany's and more than eight times Japan's." (297)

Evidence #3

lav160 — 2025-09-24 18:42:46 UTC

"But-they have tended to soft-pedal its complicity with sadism and terror." (297)

Evidence #1

lav160 — 2025-09-24 18:50:24 UTC

"For if the bad news from Abu Ghraib made anything clear in recent years, it is that this model of shaming-us-into-action-by-unmasking-the-truth-of-our-actions cannot hold a candle to our capacity to assimilate horrific images, and to justify or shrug off horrific behavior." (298)

Evidence #2

lav160 — 2025-09-24 18:58:08 UTC

"For convenience, one can scroll through the videos by category (armed conflict, children's rights, discrimination, violence, women's rights, and so on), or by "most viewed." (301)

Evidence #1

lav160 — 2025-09-24 18:59:43 UTC

For better or worse, one's experience of surfing the Hub is shaped by the do-I-or-don't-I-want-to-watch-this question, as in: Do I or don't I want to watch a Tibetan pilgrim being shot dead by the Chinese police at Nangpa La Pass?How about cell phone footage of a man being hung upside down and sodomized with a rod in an Egyptian prison? Or the testimony of women in Bangladesh whose faces have been disfigured by acid? Well-intentioned and effective as the operation may be, scrolling through such choices makes me feel as though I've arrived at the hub of a problem rather than its solution." (301)

lav160 — 2025-09-24 19:18:44 UTC

America is so riddled with brutality, like gun violence because of its legality in the United States. The United States having a harsh comparison of gun violence, or homicide rate is proof of its issue in normality in America.

lav160 — 2025-09-24 19:20:04 UTC

The use of "soft-pedal" is a great quote to add as a filler because of its hinting at how normalized it is to sweeten, or sugarcoat harsh realities like violence. America is not in fear of violence because of how its treated, almost as if it weren't real.

lav160 — 2025-09-24 19:22:07 UTC

Technology has widely widen people's ability to see violence on a day-to-day basis. Because of its normalization, seeing and hearing about violence is not shocking. Nelson uses sarcasm, almost irony, because such accessibility shouldn't exist at people's fingertips.

lav160 — 2025-09-24 19:24:13 UTC

Nelson uses a lot of repetition in asking back-to-back questions to symbolize how foolishly ironic, in a negative way, that we have accessibility to these resources that shouldn't be as accessible. It almost feels like individuals have the choice when not to see violence, making it less of a call-to-action but instead a choice to skim past.

lav160 — 2025-09-24 19:25:15 UTC

Nelson's reference to Abu Ghraib, a prison built during Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, displays a portrayal of abuse globally. When the United States took over the prison, it continued to be reused as a place of systematic abuse for prisoners, that included torture. Once America's actions were revealed to the rest of the world, there arose global resentment toward American populations.

Political vs Social

lav160 — 2025-09-24 20:03:48 UTC

Global

lav160 — 2025-09-24 20:11:03 UTC

Evidence #2

lav160 — 2025-09-28 03:14:50 UTC

"While controversial, the BlueServo 5M project should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the Minutemen and its offshoots, whose volunteers have been (non-virtually) patrolling the U.S.-Mexican border, looking for 'illegals,' since 1995. 'It's just like hunting,' explained Chuck Stonex, a prominent member." (300)

Evidence #1

lav160 — 2025-09-28 03:17:00 UTC

"But the chilling new anti-immigration law signed by Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona on April 23, 2010, which authorizes police to demand proof of any person's immigration status should 'reasonable suspicion exist that the person is an alien,' has breathed new life into the 'hunt 'em down' mindset, in both Arizona and the nation at large." (301)

Evidence #2

lav160 — 2025-09-28 03:22:05 UTC

"...the Hub is shaped by the do-I-or-don't-I-want-to-watch-this question, as in: Do I or don't I want to watch a Tibetan pilgrim being shot dead by the Chinese police at Nangpa La Pass? How about cell phone footage of a man being hung upside down and sodomized with a rod in an Egyptian prison?" (302)

lav160 — 2025-09-28 03:34:22 UTC

The accessibility globally to international brutality creates a veil between the watcher and the content. Said brutality becomes "temporary" to the viewer, hence, they are able to turn it off whenever they want despite its ongoing presence. While free-will should positively exist, harmful media that displays portrayals of cruelty can just become "content." This simplicity can make the display of violence seem minuscule, affecting our international sentiment for other atrocities.

lav160 — 2025-09-28 03:40:07 UTC

Nelson's example of political evidence of abuse in the United States includes the racism and discrimination against Hispanic immigrants. The inclusion of this example displays how the United States has normalized violence to specific populations and has created a "hunt 'em down" mindset that only enforces individuals to be hateful. Instead of encouraging a boiling pot of different cultures and individuals, the United States has shown to encourage aggression toward people of color, whether systematically or politically.

Comparison between the United States and other countries

lav160 — 2025-10-09 02:38:53 UTC

The United States' global influence in social and political affairs allow other countries not only to be affected by the issues presented nationally, but increases the awareness of issues that take place around the world amongst other countries.