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Sharkie posted:"People are assholes" isn't very explanative. Why is it worse now than during 9/11? What have we been doing as a culture that led to this, and what can we do to combat it? A steady stream of terrorist attacks is what's happened. This isn't an American phenomena by the way.
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Nov 22, 2015 05:23
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rudatron posted:Rather than think logically about the problems facing society, the path of least intelligence/greatest ignorance is to blame outsiders/'The Other'. Being inherently unknowable, it's very easy for them to appear monolithic and malicious, in the same way that you may see some threatening animal lurking in what is just a harmless shadow. Once this perspective is established, it is difficult to break, because of confirmation bias. You'll seek out what already confirms your suspicions and ignore those that contradict it. 'Muslims condemn paris attacks' Well that's just what they want us to think, secretly they support it, etc. Very articulate description of all bad ideology. Including the left.
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Nov 22, 2015 15:38
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Helsing posted:It's cool that the thread about Islamophobia is largely dominated by people arguing that maybe Muslims really are subhuman monsters and all, but back in the real world the political hysteria being whipped up over Islamophobia is driving some really frightening political developments. Honestly it's one of the more freightening things in politics I've seen. Neither Muslims nor terrorism are a primary threat to America and considering them to be a headline threat isn't even consistent with "American #1" sentiment. If America is a powerful nation then its policy cannot be dictated by terrorists which operate, by definition, from positions of weakness. Nevermind the minor event which spurred this announcement or the unconstitutional and completely impractical nature of the proposed policy. The only positive thing to be read from the recent and increasing republican insanity is that there is a chance it will die with angry irrational declining demographic that's fueling it.
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Dec 8, 2015 05:33
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As the parent of a now 10 day old child if I wrote down a list of the 100 things that concern me most about her future the direct threat of terrorism or Islam would not be on it. We could have another 911 tomorrow and that would remain true. Terrorism isn't a real threat to Americans. Period. It's a nuance. It's going to continue to exist and it's going to continue to kill people. But statistically it doesn't register as a relevant threat. Note that this opinion isn't based on any whitewashing of actual existing terrorists. They're evil and deserve to die and it doesn't bother me that we kill them with drones and bombs (the practicality of that as a policy is a separate debatable issue). But they're weak. If they were strong they'd be attacking us directly with actual military resources but they're not so they resort terrorism out of necessity. That's what terrorism is - inherently weak. The republican rhetoric which elevates it to the level of a primary issue might as well be declaring that the sky is purple. It's wrong, dangerous and disturbing at every level. It's also self-defeating and inconsistent. If they're actually a threat then they're strong or we're weak. Neither should be true and our reaction to their acts is exactly what they want. Measured and thoughtful response to a threat is the strong response and obviously the one we should be taking. That the current [over]reaction is being driven by a fearful, ageing, declining demographic is no surprise. Let's hope for their quick death and decline. They're the threat.
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Dec 21, 2015 20:48
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