Unavoidably Political: Let's be less stupid
I have tried not to be too political here, because lots of people come here to read about my son and what's going on (and to look at pictures of a cute kid). But sometimes, you just can't bite your tongue any more.
There are people out there that have completely lost it because the crazy people in San Bernadino who shot a bunch of people were Muslim, instead of run of the mill crazy white people shooting a bunch of people. They are saying things like we need to have internment camps for Syrian refugees. Toupee Support System Donald Trump has said that we need to have a database to track Muslim Americans. Still others are calling for us to send more troops, bombs, planes and missiles to strike ISIL.
Here's the thing. The best recruitment tool that people who hate everyone not their brand of crazy is the backlash against the people standing sort of, almost, near their brand of crazy. That is to say, the fastest way to encourage a moderate, thoughtful, young Muslim man or woman to become a crazy person who turns his or her back on a perfectly peaceful religion is to suggest that everyone practicing that religion needs to be rounded up into a camp, tracked by a database, and treated as a threat. Do that long enough, and they will become a threat. Because that's how peoples' minds work.
Here's a thought experiment. Replace "Muslim" with "Christian" or "Jew" or "Catholic" or whatever group you might identify with. Then run that idea that someone is proposing through your mental filter and think about how you might react to that idea. When someone says we need to start somehow marking Muslims so we can identify them in the street, replace that with "we need to start marking Jewish people so that we can identify them in the street." Personally, I don't like what that sounds like at all. Lots of bad associations spring to mind immediately. Internment camps were bad when we locked up the Japanese Americans in them, and we were literally at war with Japan at the time.
These ideas are Un-American. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Locking up, threatening, or singling out people based on their religion sure sounds like prohibiting the free exercise of that religion. And if you don't think it does, then ask yourself how you'd feel if the FBI started surveillance on your church just because it was Christian?
Our best tools against global extremism aren't guns, or bombs, or planes. Our best weapon is simple, human empathy. Our best defense is to stop playing into their narrative that Americans hate Muslims. You want to stop the Islamic State? Then stop helping them to recruit disaffected youth by making those kids feel like you hate them. Recognize that terrorist threats are not going to destroy our country. Their goal is to make you act out of fear in a way that you wouldn't otherwise. So don't let them win by acting like a fool because you're scared.
There are people out there that have completely lost it because the crazy people in San Bernadino who shot a bunch of people were Muslim, instead of run of the mill crazy white people shooting a bunch of people. They are saying things like we need to have internment camps for Syrian refugees. Toupee Support System Donald Trump has said that we need to have a database to track Muslim Americans. Still others are calling for us to send more troops, bombs, planes and missiles to strike ISIL.
Here's the thing. The best recruitment tool that people who hate everyone not their brand of crazy is the backlash against the people standing sort of, almost, near their brand of crazy. That is to say, the fastest way to encourage a moderate, thoughtful, young Muslim man or woman to become a crazy person who turns his or her back on a perfectly peaceful religion is to suggest that everyone practicing that religion needs to be rounded up into a camp, tracked by a database, and treated as a threat. Do that long enough, and they will become a threat. Because that's how peoples' minds work.
Here's a thought experiment. Replace "Muslim" with "Christian" or "Jew" or "Catholic" or whatever group you might identify with. Then run that idea that someone is proposing through your mental filter and think about how you might react to that idea. When someone says we need to start somehow marking Muslims so we can identify them in the street, replace that with "we need to start marking Jewish people so that we can identify them in the street." Personally, I don't like what that sounds like at all. Lots of bad associations spring to mind immediately. Internment camps were bad when we locked up the Japanese Americans in them, and we were literally at war with Japan at the time.
These ideas are Un-American. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Locking up, threatening, or singling out people based on their religion sure sounds like prohibiting the free exercise of that religion. And if you don't think it does, then ask yourself how you'd feel if the FBI started surveillance on your church just because it was Christian?
Our best tools against global extremism aren't guns, or bombs, or planes. Our best weapon is simple, human empathy. Our best defense is to stop playing into their narrative that Americans hate Muslims. You want to stop the Islamic State? Then stop helping them to recruit disaffected youth by making those kids feel like you hate them. Recognize that terrorist threats are not going to destroy our country. Their goal is to make you act out of fear in a way that you wouldn't otherwise. So don't let them win by acting like a fool because you're scared.
Comments
Post a Comment