Paris Mayhem

Well, if you say so. Because people are always perfectly aware of all their subconscious influences and self-reporting is the pinnacle of sociology.

 

Rick while you were away and servicing all those ladies were you thinking about beheading someone?

 

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

 

Well, you can be as superior as you want, but the research you're referring to isn't remotely as powerful as you're making it out to be. People are frightened by terrorists because terrorists are frightening.

 

So are car wrecks. And texting drivers. And those terrorists are all around us.

I mean, if you're gonna be terrified ...

 

He and you are absolutely correct to point out that our fears are often disproportional to the risk we face. Most of us fear cancer far more than we do heart disease. We fear dying in a plane crash more than we do dying in a car crash. We value intruder alarms more than we do fire alarms.

The argument that we fear terrorists disproportionately because of their race? Sorry, not buying. The IRA scared the shit out of people in Northern Ireland, but it wasn't because their skin color was different from run-of-the-mill criminals'.

 

The argument isn't that everybody is disproportionately frightened by terrorists due to their race. It is that SOME people are disproportionately frightened of them due to their race.

Also, nobody is saying we shouldn't be afraid of terrorists. Some of us are saying we shouldn't be afraid of all Muslims just because some of them (and we can debate what percentage) are terrorists. I know tony can't acknowledge that there is some bigotry involved in this discussion, but you are smart enough and honest enough to admit as much.

 

It's not going to work to tell every Muslim their faith is shot through with evil and needs to be junked.
But you might have more success in emphasizing the achievements of Muslim culture (before its decline) while criticizing the fairy stories that inspired them.
History doesn't have any problem acknowledging the achievements of the great Latin authors, despite their quaint polytheism; or slam 5th-century Athens for its culture of pederasty/slavery.

 

They just need to hang out with those Primates of Park Avenue to give 'em a sense of how good they've got it.

 

That some people who profess fear of Muslim terrorists are also bigots and racists? Sure, I'll buy that.

Not buying. This is akin to saying, "You're only frightened by Muslim terrorists with brown skin. Since only the brown-skinned ones frighten you, it's their skin, and not their being terrorists, that makes you afraid."

Sorry, no.

 

If only Elian Gonzalez had actually been a refugee ...

 

I'm not sure it really matters why people are afraid of terrorists. They are not wrong to do it.

Also, it's easy to say we shouldn't be afraid of all Muslims because some of them are terrorists, and really, that's all you're doing, besides assuming that we're "afraid" of all Muslims in the first place, which is your mistake.

The fact is, we aren't, at all. But there is no denying that Islam has become something to be afraid of, or certainly, something not to like or to pretend that we're all just fine with, like it's some kind of a good thing. That's unfortunate, but it's reality and the truth.