Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Just A Brief Rant

  • When a person from the Middle East (or a Western convert to Islam) who has Jihadi rhetoric posted to their Facebook, are known for being provocative in their interpersonal relationships in regards to being Muslim, they have recently travelled to troubled regions, they're loners who are even estranged from their own families who while shooting and/or blowing people up shout Allahu Akbar! we are mystified as to the reason why they're killing folks. When some maniac shoots somebody within a mile of an abortion clinic; it is ultimately the work of militant evangelical Christians abetted by Republican politicians, the NRA and gun manufacturers.
  • The preceding would be comical if it wasn't so true and that is sickening on multiple levels. If nothing else it is another example of how terribly we process and act on information and how willfully gullible and oblivious Western people can be.
  • A postscript to the first point: we could argue about the how and whys- the details but not the truth of that observation (even though it is intentionally over the top).

1 comment:

an Donalbane said...

Every affinity group seeks to fit tragedies into their narrative.

It's also a by-product of pigeon-holing or labeling individuals. The sound bite times we live in seemingly require quick categorization of events that many times cannot be so easily distilled. Examples would include the Orlando shooter - Yeah, he was Muslim, but I don't know that he was specifically animated by Islamic extremism. The guy who killed Dallas police - Black, but not acting on behalf of BLM.

Conversely - and probably the side that frequently irks me - The left seems to always demonize the NRA and gun owners for every shooting. A commenter on Denney's or BSG's blog recently observed that if the NRA and gun owners were so nefarious as portrayed, there wouldn't be any NRA detractors or gun control advocates left.

The solution, of course, is to find people interested in solutions instead of circuses. Posing every issue as some sort of cage match contest doesn't seem to produce results. Cooperation is not easy, and compromise is not necessarily the right answer. But if problems can't be discussed rationally by people holding multiple perspectives, the likelihood of positive outcome s is pretty nil.