PintoBean
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- MBTI
- INFJ
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- 6
Having a friendly chat and just hugging it out was not my suggestion so I am not sure why my post warranted such a strongly sarcastic response from you.
I don' think there is any effective way to stop all attacks from happening. I don't think there's a particularly nice or effective way to stop any kind of hate group or terrorist group from rising up. I don't think there's a way to protect everyone from someone else's ideology when they have the resources to act it out. If people want to talk about culture they can look at any number of countries that are corrupt and over-ridden with groups that do not care about the safety and well being of others. Just look at Mexico and the drug cartels for example. There are other areas that are in a constant state of war.
I think that infiltrating countries who don't support our western ideologies has already shown to be so wildly unsuccessful - look no further than Iraq which is a total mess because the USA didn't feel very good about how they were running things over there.
I agree that jihadists are not ideal but they exist and are always going to exist. Someone is always going to fund them and give them power. There is a reason that some people become susceptible to that way of thinking while others are adverse to it. I don't think this is a "massive cultural problem." I think it is simply a result of the wrong people in power which do not allow reform or progression and in some cases end up turning things backwards. When you have billions of people living in those countries and which practice one religion I am really resistant to just simply label it a cultural problem.
I totally agree with you that there is not any particular silver bullet to protecting people from hate groups. I also agree with you that wars (such as the one in Iraq) do little to stop this problem and have certainly exacerbated it. However, this is not to say that national policy should throw their hands up and say there is nothing to do. I am in complete agreement with, for the time being, putting a stop to immigration from Syrians to the US right now. And I think the Europeans would do well to continue to tighten their boarders as well as deport their illegals until times are more stable. That seems fairly common sense to me. And it doesn't involve bombs and guns. The French air strikes on Raqqa in collusion with Putin (who really just wants a port over there) are going to reveal horribly civilian causalities when the media blackout lifts on that one. Yet the people are loving it. Much the way everyone loved the Iraq war for a few minutes after 9/11.
Of course any number of countries or groups have problems with violence and terror. Though I am a bit less scared of the Mexican cartels because I understand their motives better (albeit I don't live in Mexico or a border state). It's kind of like I'd rather be held up for my wallet (which I just might be able to provide) rather than held hostage for ideological beliefs and actions of individuals I have nothing to do with and don't endorse. You can do business with a drug dealer, but not so much with a terrorist.
Anyway, yes, I think Islam is having a problem right now with acts of mass terror and violence. Here I will insert the requisite boilerplate that will hopefully make it very clear that I don't think Islam and only Islam is having a problem. I have often thought that the random school shootings that have happened across the US of recent are a problem of angry, narcissistic (usually white) young Western men. It's a cultural phenomena and it's a problem of a particular group. Every time one happens, I think "Jeez, same thing as the Islamic fundamentalist terror attacks, except these are young western men, usually asserting some kind of nihilism (the recent one in OR was avowedly atheist and targeted Christians for their faith). Clearly, whether it is fundamentalist levels or nihilism or of Islam, both groups are having a problem with violence. Yet everyone gets their panties in a knot when this obvious fact is stated about one group. There is right now a huge taboo against just saying that clearly Islam (no, not all Muslims everywhere), is having a problem perpetuating terror. It seems fairly farcical to deny this.
This post will probably generate negativity towards me (and certainly no thumbs!), so I am now off to a fragrance chat board to find a vanilla perfume that won't make me smell like a small French hooker in a bakeshop. The most heated controversy there will likely be there is if someone makes the very un-PC mistake of referring to Shalimar or some other classic throat scorcher as "old lady." Or worse, if a body spray is discussed at all (cardinal sin).
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