 |
1. “There was no ‘they.’ There was not even a ‘he,’ no armed person turning on a crowd. But what happened at JFK last night was, in every respect but the violence, a mass shooting,” wrote David Wallace-Wells in his personal story of experiencing a false-alarm terrorist threat at JFK last month (“Ghost Panic,” August 22–September 4). Several people who were there that night wrote in to share their experiences. “I was on the same flight from Copenhagen,” wrote commenter mouse912. “During the stampede, I ran into a gangway. We could hear people screaming and pushing on the other side of the door, knowing that the only exit for us out of this very small space was through a metal gate that was locked. I thought we would die in there. I’m not sure how long we were in there, but at some point four cops busted in, with guns pointed at us, and told us to get down and show our hands. We were told to exit the room and proceed towards the Customs hall … All in all, a terrifying experience that demonstrated how fear and groupthink can manipulate a situation.” Others, agreeing that the situation was grossly mismanaged, wondered how learning from it could help improve policy for the future. “No official ever communicated with the crowds of frightened people and no directions were ever offered for those of us seeking shelter,” wrote MichaelDAntonio. “My wife and I spoke with several uniformed TSA workers who had themselves fled to locked areas instead of aiding civilians. Some of them asked us what they should do. Thousands were traumatized. Security officials performed abysmally, and the incident proved to me that people working at the airport had no training or plan for responding to such a predictable crisis. How many … billions have been spent on contractors who are supposed to provide security services?” Commenter ExBoroughGuy felt that though the situation demonstrated the failure of one system, it showed the success of another: “Let us take a moment to congratulate the engineers and architects who designed a building in which this kind of panic did NOT result in anyone being crushed to death in the surge. This is no accident of planning — this is an intentionally considered system that allows people to escape without being trapped.” Two weeks after the incident at JFK, a similar event occurred at Los Angeles’s LAX. Many readers thought the piece’s deeper message applied to both incidents. “Our culture of terror generates its own trauma,” tweeted @fruitbatalie. “One of the scariest stories I’ve read this year,” tweeted the Guardian’s Lois Beckett. “We’re so accustomed to terror that we can terrorize ourselves.”
 |
2.�Max Read’s postmortem on the death of Gawker, which he had once edited, stirred up a lively conversation among readers (“Did I Kill Gawker?,” August 22–September 4). Many appreciated Read’s honest examination of the site’s demise. “This is really the only good piece I have read about the end of Gawker,” tweeted Yahoo News’s Hunter Walker. “Unlike so much else of what was written, this acknowledges that [Peter] Thiel was only one of many factors that killed the site.” Bloomberg TV’s Joe Weisenthal agreed: “It’s rare to read anything anymore that feels honest.” Many readers were particularly interested in the role Gamergaters, online vigilantes who had targeted the site, played in Gawker’s demise. “Gamergate killed Gawker,” tweeted author Mike Cernovich. “And that’s why you don’t provoke overly competitive people with nothing but free time,” responded @�MultiNanners. The New Yorker’s Emily Nussbaum called the story an “interesting Gawker’s-eye view of the death of Gawker,” but took issue with Read’s assertion that in 2012 “it was sort of okay” to publish a celeb’s leaked sex tape. “No, it wasn’t,” she tweeted. Many more readers thought the article was a suitable farewell. “Poignant analysis of the end of an era,” tweeted Will Kane. “Well-written, candid, and ultimately a fitting tribute,” wrote the Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald.
3. In response to Benjamin Wallace’s story about the anti-aging supplement Basis — the “world’s first cellular health product informed by genomics” — Basis users weighed in with their own experiences (“If an MIT Scientist Discovered the Fountain of Youth, Would You Believe Him?,” August 22–September 4). Wrote commenter bunnyluvsblack: “For the better part of 15 years, I’ve had low immune function. I get everything that comes my way, from earaches to strep multiple times a year, chest infections — you name it. I also have genital herpes … After the first month of Basis, something weird happened — I simply stopped having any outbreaks at all.” Ella411 had a less positive experience: “At first I thought maybe I got a little more energy. A few days in, I noticed I had heavy dreaming, and the dreams were kind of strange. I also started having a mild-moderate headache that would kick in a few hours after taking the pills and that no ibuprofen or Tylenol would fix. I also felt ‘spacey,’ lightheaded, a little ADD.” Twitter user @webmasterdave was also skeptical the drug would solve the problem of aging: “Aging will become a treatable disorder soon after your death. So will reanimation of the cryonically suspended.”