If your kids don't want to drop bombs on Syria, they may be terrorists

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Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2015/12/02/if-your-kids-dont-want-to-dr.html

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Hmm

  • Showing sympathy for extremist causes
  • Advocating extremist messages
  • Accessing extremist literature and imagery
  • Showing mistrust of mainstream media reports and belief in conspiracy theories
  • Appearing angry about government policies, especially foreign policy

Sounds like your average FOX news watcher to me, and definitely all of their pundits and favorite politicians.

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Signs of possible radicalisation as described by SOMEONE WHO HAS NEVER LIVED WITH A TEENAGER:

-Out of character changes in dress, behavior and changes in their friendship group
-Losing interest in previous activities and friendships
-Secretive behavior and switching screens when you come near

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It’s a terrible list of warning signs for potential terrorists, but a great way of finding out who isn’t fit to be a parent. (Hint: anyone who believes this garbage.)

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  • Won’t commit to the two minutes hate.
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The UK seems to be getting a lot of mileage out of the term “extremism”, but I have yet to encounter any good explanations of it. Doesn’t one need to define first what they think are “normal” values? The UK has even pushed to have non-violent groups labelled as “extreme” with the excuse that this is necessary for stability. So even pacifism can yield responses with the same OTT tactics that armed insurrectionists do.

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Did David Cameron write that?

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Yep, Don’t forget that the alleged dead pig fucker said that Britain is too passively tolerant: Interesting to see an Eton education can’t buy you an ounce of self-awareness…

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Someone involved in that has clearly studied Pat Pulling’s sterling investigation tactics.

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If I’m trying to score as many Patriot Points as possible; is it better to express muted support for state foreign policy(to avoid ‘glorifying violence’) or is hearty jingoism more helpful overall, even if you lose a few points for bloodlust?

This is tricky.

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Don’t be so silly! As soon as you define “normal”, you’re boxed in forevermore!

By bandying about “extreme” and all related words, you seemingly define a lacuna from which the audience infers some kind of meaning of “normal”.

So all the stuff you point fingers at and screech “danger, menace, worry, anxiety, etc” is “not normal”, and generally “quiet, still, inactive, passive, non-argumentative, going with the flow” - that’s all “normal”.

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I have to agree with the title, with a small change.

If kids don’t want to assault [anywhere] with weaponry - expensive to manufacture ordnance; expensive to “deliver”, ever-so-wonderful to watch go bang - then they’re incredibly unsupportive of any nation with weapons manufacture as even a tiny part of its economy.

Why - they’ll make the stock market crash, they will, the little devils.

So - if your kids don’t want to drop bombs on Syria, they may be economic terrorists - the worst, most insidious of all.

Go children - stand with Goldman Sachs. Suck the life out of all of us. Crash the economy, I dare ya.

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I tend to require these things to be explicit. It keeps me from being easily deceived.

But I don’t do those things! Being reactionary is not normal for me.

If the status quo was passive complacency, nothing would get done! That’s not what they are getting paid for.

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Look, if you knew any teenagers, you’d know that these days talking about sex and drugs is out of fashion and joining a terrorist group is a far more probably explanation.

But honestly, outright saying that disagreeing with the government is a sign of terrorism. Yeah, that’s where we’re at.

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Here’s a reliable rule of thumb: Any government war declared on an abstraction, translates to a declared monopoly on that abstraction. War on poverty: they are the only ones to decide who is poor and who isn’t. War on drugs: No one but them or their designated concessionairs get to sell them. War on terror: they get to create “shock and awe”, no one else can.

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So, do these criteria only apply to English teenagers, or am I becoming radicalized?

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This sounds a little bit too much like Scarfolk Council…

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Quite.

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Hmm, so supporting the Tories, eh? Sounds like a good reason to jail someone to me.

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Yeah, I was going to say, it sounds like a checklist to see if your child is turning into an American Republican presidential candidate.

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