Druchii.net

Another day, another vile and incredibly cowardly attack against a particularly soft target - an 84-year-old french priest has his throat cut while conducting Mass. I'm growing increasingly fed up with this pathetic nonsense and I really wish it would stop, before people start agreeing with Donald Trump and we see the far right taking power across Europe. That will not be good for anybody - least of all those behind such heinous attacks.

Word of advice to the dickhead jihadists - don't piss off countries that have nuclear weapons...

I certainly hope nukes never get used, not even as an argument.

Terrorism is a very scary thing... It is designed to be so. If we would be more afraid about green dinosaur suits, they probably would be running around dressed up as green dinosaurs.

For me, I also rationalize it with numbers. I try to visit the GW Store regularly in Brussels, using the subway for it. It's filled with muslims, jews, christians and I'm guessing atheists too. Yet amidst all these religious people I feel safe and at home..
In fact, I often consider myself the extremist in the group because I'm the one carrying around a book about heresy this and heresy that, and using weapons to enforce a repressive system. I probably spend more time thinking and reading about it, than many religious people spend thinking about their religion.

Sad, sad, sad.

The reply is certainly not to nuke anyone, but to keep living as before.
Reading crappy humorous newspapers, attending soccer games, going to restaurants, witnessing fireworks, going to the mass or to the synagogue, shopping in malls, using subway, flying abroad...
If we ceased, they'd won. If we retaliated with nukes, they'd won.

To live is to take risks. If we ceased to take risks, we would be dead.
Dory: Well, you can't never let anything happen to him. Then nothing would ever happen to him. Not much fun for little Harpo.

Calisson wrote:The reply is certainly not to nuke anyone, but to keep living as before.
Reading crappy humorous newspapers, attending soccer games, going to restaurants, witnessing fireworks, going to the mass or to the synagogue, shopping in malls, using subway, flying abroad...
If we ceased, they'd won. If we retaliated with nukes, they'd won.

Agreed. However there are many who are not as pragmatic as we are, and every time something like this happens, the calls for overwhelming retaliation grow louder and louder. Sooner or later one nation or another will have had enough and voices such as ours will be drowned out by that of the baying mob

DP is right. If mainstream politicians are seen as having no answers, or as denying that there is even a problem, then the people will vote for the extremists who offer simple (if misguided) solutions.

Democracy is driven by what people think, not necessarily by what is actually true. If majorities of people in Europe think that allowing Muslim migrants into their countries represents an existential threat to them and their families, they will punish the politicians who invited those migrants in and vote instead for those who promise to kick them all out. Whether their fears are well-founded or not is irrelevant.

You need to convice people that there is another way. And just telling them their fears are silly, or calling them racists, or saying "life is risky, get over it" will emphatically not do that.

The thing that annoys me most, is how resilient this thread has become. What's that say?

That it takes some words and time to process the event, more time than the actual event needed anyhow.

I just read somebody's post .. or protest about being ridiculed for her fear of these terrorists. Although I still refuse give in to the fear myself, her words sounded very understandable. I wonder if our anti-fear and positive message campaigns are killing the breathing room people need to express their dismay, fear and anger. I remember a time in my life where I struggled with fears (well, not fear of terrorist .. but they wouldn't be politically correct) and the only response I got from my "responsible parents" was judgement and being silenced. I don't want to claim my fears were founded or right... but I do know their response had the opposite effect. Time taught me a different perspective, and to understand how my logic was twisted out of ill placed fears. But it also taught me how out-of-reach my parents were on that particular subject. They didn't get it.

I sometimes see a similar pattern on my social media. There seem to be two sides fighting a social message war, one to give in to the fear "at last" and one trying to silence the other with facts, statistics and supposed positive message. I would refuse to give in to the fear, and I won't side with that camp...
But there is an odd twist to this positive message being spammed on my social media, sometimes. I get the message "Don't you go hatin on no Islam!" before the news of the terrorist act reaches me. For the days that follow any such terrorist act, it seems the biggest concern is the silencing of people's fears and any word that might jeopardize that effort.

And though I would agree that this positive message is important in times such as these, it makes me wonder if we're leaving enough room for mourning, sadness and a chance to share feelings. Shared fear is a dangerous political weapon.. I agree. But by silencing people who express such fear, aren't we isolating them? Aren't we aiding the right-wing politics who can now play on both an unanswered fear and the feeling of injustly being silenced?

Anyhow.. It's just a thought. I try to rationalize the situation in numbers, and I'll gladly explain that. But if someone is afraid, perhaps a better approach would be to let them speak and cushion that fear?

Appreciate a lot the call from imams in France to attend catholic masses next Sunday.

Daeron wrote:But there is an odd twist to this positive message being spammed on my social media, sometimes. I get the message "Don't you go hatin on no Islam!" before the news of the terrorist act reaches me. For the days that follow any such terrorist act, it seems the biggest concern is the silencing of people's fears and any word that might jeopardize that effort.

And though I would agree that this positive message is important in times such as these, it makes me wonder if we're leaving enough room for mourning, sadness and a chance to share feelings. Shared fear is a dangerous political weapon.. I agree. But by silencing people who express such fear, aren't we isolating them? Aren't we aiding the right-wing politics who can now play on both an unanswered fear and the feeling of injustly being silenced?

Anyhow.. It's just a thought. I try to rationalize the situation in numbers, and I'll gladly explain that. But if someone is afraid, perhaps a better approach would be to let them speak and cushion that fear?

Well said Daeron!
I agree that what is needed is a fair and open discourse that is inclusive of all opinions, and that trying to sweep peoples' fears under the carpet is only going to create even more fear and resentment that will ultimately play into the hands of the far right

I agree, but I can also see the political and strategic arguments for discouraging people from expressing their fear and hatred (and, FWIW, I agree with the ancient Greeks that those two are fundamentally the same thing).

It's not just to avoid giving ammunition to our own far-right. It's also to avoid acting as a recruiting tool for Daesh and co. You can't tell people it is OK to express their fears of Islamist terrorism, and then turn around and say, "Oops, that spilled over into Islamophobia and that's not OK." If people are encouraged to express their fears, some of that is going to manifest as what we'd call "hatred". And the last thing we want is for Daesh to be able to say, "See, fellow Muslims, the wicked kuffar really do hate you! This is why we must have a global Caliphate!"

So I really have no idea what the best course is. Both paths seem to end with both Daesh and the European hard-right getting stronger. Maybe liberal democratic pluralism really doesn't have a good solution to this problem?