I love that 45 is talking about immigration issues being the problem…yet last I checked white people from Eastern European countries are not on his radar. And both this person and the two men who attacked the Boston marathon all were white males from Eastern Europe.
I think it goes much farther than
They don’t care whether you are Canadian, Swiss, American, or whatever. If you live in what they see as Christian nations, you are the enemy. They don’t like Buddhists, Hindus, or even Atheist nations, either.
It is very short sighted to believe that we are dealing with people who were peaceful until provoked by Western Imperialism. ISIS is new as an organization, but it shares the same literal playbook and general goals as the Umayyad Caliphate established in 661, who conquered Spain and well into France. I think it is less about provocation, and more about perceived weakness and opportunity. Certainly our destabilizing the dictators who had kept them in check is a major factor. But doing so did not create them or their ideology. It just gave them the opportunity to do their normal thing.
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The BBC had it as the worst terrorist attack in New York since 9/11.
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That’s a fair question, and one that should be discussed. Though is now the time for that while the blood on the pavement is still wet? Just like maybe now is not the time for jokes. In my previous examples, pontificating what the person should have done to reduce the chance of being a victim, while possibly good advice, one you would tell your kids, it comes off as victim blaming and inappropriate.
I agree with that.
Apparently making jokes about those same dead people is peach keen, though.
We do this with the issues of guns, too, though. If we don’t talk about it while it’s hot, while it’s in our faces, it gets pushed back and back, and the problem never gets discussed and debated as it should. WHEN is it okay to say that there is a dynamic with our foreign policy that we need to discuss and change at a fundamental level? In a week? A year? A decade? We’ve been needing to have this conversation for literally decades now. When can we finally figure this shit out? How many more people need to be drone bombed from above or ran over in the street for us to finally DO something about?
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The goal is to cause chaos and fear, and into that void rush with xenophobic beliefs and religious zeal. The promoters of such acts thrive where society and order break down, and they strive to spread such disorder.
Our response must be to resist fear, resist falling back on hate. We’ve not done so well at that - everything we’ve done wrong most clearly stated in a president Trump.
Hey, I included that not being appropriate. And I got one I’ve been holding back 
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Why Bicyclists and park goers?!? take out some of those those greedy Wall St. fuckers, and banksters and we might actually be better off.
Glad he was incompetent, and glad he didn’t have real guns.
Actually he was pretty damn close to Goldman Sachs headquarters. Just another couple of blocks.
I can’t believe this happened right in front of my high school (I graduated 20+ years ago from Stuvesant). Two students and a teacher were injured. What a horrible thing for all of them to go through.
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This is a good point, but it’s incomplete. WHY is the shit raining from the heavens?
Resources.
Long ago, the USA realized it could not self-sustain based on resources within its own borders. Slavery was the obvious white man’s solution to labor shortages and eking more from the land. Then, after a series of technological inventions, the economy switched from agrarian to industrial in the 1800’s. More raw materials and labor were needed. We had some, but found it was easier to exploit poor nations, like we did with slavery.
Conscript THEM to mine their own resources for us, and induce their governments to play along with us to help us get what we want. We could offer money and protection from their jealous neighbors. We would come around to collect every week. Here is an envelope with your money, don’t let anybody see you put the goods in the trunk and don’t ask any questions.
I am specifically using the word WE because we are complicit in this arrangement and not one of us is exempt if you use a computer, drive a car or use public transportation, or consume any American media or products.
What we see today is a direct result of this system of hegemony over impoverished nations full of people who realize they no longer want to be a part of that raw deal.
So, we can’t just stop. The problem is a lot deeper than that, and it would require a form of mob war. Right now the Don is in charge.
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Oh, ok. Honestly, I wasn’t paying that much attention. Also, taking that approach - there’s three individual qualifiers - seems pointlessly specific, in a ‘no true scotsman’ kind of way.
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Just to be pedantic, this idiot was from Uzbekistan, which is in Central Asia. And I doubt most people would consider him “white” since most of the population is more Persian in origin. Not that it really matters, since the travel ban didn’t touch this country and he’s had a green card for 7 years.
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But…dropping bombs on poor brown people all over the globe IS one of our fundamental freedoms!
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Flunked 20th Century History, huh? Neville Chamberlain one of your heroes? There have always been forces that cannot be reasoned with.
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It goes back a lot further. Al Qaeda and ISIS are pissed off about the reconquista of the eleventh century, and seek to reverse it.
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Welcome to BoingBoing!
Assuming that hypothesis, is it also true that Islamic terrorism is a sensible reaction to the policies of Nigeria and France and Cameroon and Germany and Myanmar and the Philippines and Spain and Turkey?
A fine question.
I would suggest that there are multiple actions generating multiple reactions. So Myanmar for example. Im a descendant of coolies and I would hate to have people tell me that I have no right to citizenship in Guyana - the place of my birth. But if I was a Buddhist in Burma, its not so weird to consider that muslims brought in by the British to man plantations and also to help “divide and conquer” the indigenous population might not be so popular today. Particularly when they are being armed by KSA and being trained by KSA funded madrases in Bangladesh. Its also clear that there has been a lot of recent illegal immigration caused by whats effectively global warming. Farmers losing land in Bangladesh to flooding are looking for a new place to call home. And then there is that Chinese sponsored pipeline to make it possible to import oil from Iran without going through the Malacca straights. There is a suspicion that the US and KSA want to stop that pipeline ever being built. Funnily enough guess which province it goes through?
France yes I think so. Long story but I think it sucks to be a Muslim frenchman, and I think they know the french state is taking the piss out of them. Turkey is a sponsor of islamic terrorism.
But I would argue that the combination of the imperial actions of the US and UK and their allies, and the side effects of global warming explain a hell of a lot of what has been happening in much of the Muslim world. Syria wouldnt have been anywhere near as violent if a) there had not been a drought b) if the KSA and Qatar hadnt funded the fight.
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