3 ms·

Any belief system theistic or not can become fanatical and violent as soon as it's followers become obsessed and decide that the end justifies the means. The 20

by api 11y ago

Any belief system theistic or not can become fanatical and violent as soon as it's followers become obsessed and decide that the end justifies the means. The 20th century saw quite a few atheistic or at least non religious political ideologies behaving no better than this. Radical Islam today seems to be doing all the same things that radical fascists and Marxists did in the 20th century.

DanBC 11y ago
> Radical Islam But there are plenty of other radical groups. Today the right wing extremists are a greater threat to Americans than Muslims are.
- TeMPOraL 11y ago
  And radical drivers are a greater threat to Europeans than Muslims are, since they do "become obsessed" (with the right to drive like they like regardless what the law says) and "decide that the end" (getting to the red light 2 seconds faster) "justifies the means" (speeding), killing a lot more of people in the process than terror attacks ever did. The point is, there are many other groups we could focus on and be much more productive with it. Hell, "radical Islam" probaly has the feature that if we elected to ignore it instead of messing with it abroad and radicalizing people even further, it'd probably eventually go away. But either way, it's a job for the police to deal with, and it does not call for the general population to start retaliating on innocent people who sorta, kinda look a little similar to the radical branch of a radical branch of a foreign religion.
- api 11y ago
  Is this really true? I don't argue that home grown fanatics are not a threat, but I don't see a current organized systemic effort from them to do much of anything other than squawk on the net. The lone nut shooter epidemic is something else. It's not ideological. Seems to be more of a mental health issue.
  - DanBC 11y ago
    Your stigmatising language around mental illness means I'm unable to answer this question and stay within HN rules. Just remember that many of those people didn't have signs of mental illness and were not known to MH services; and that people with mental illness are more likely to be the victims of violence than the perpetrators of violence. But the US has had doctors killed and medical clinics bombed by Christian groups. Anti-abortionist protesters try to deny women their reproductive rights and regularly threaten doctors and nurses and admin staff at medical clinics. (This is a war crime if a state does it.) Here's what the FBI said in 2002: https://www.fbi.gov/news/testimony/the-terrorist-threat-confronting-the-united-states https://www.fbi.gov/news/testimony/the-terrorist-threat-conf... > At the same time, the United States also faces significant challenges from domestic terrorists. In fact, between 1980 and 2000, the FBI recorded 335 incidents or suspected incidents of terrorism in this country. Of these, 247 were attributed to domestic terrorists, while 88 were determined to be international in nature.

by api 11y ago

DanBC 11y ago

> Radical Islam But there are plenty of other radical groups. Today the right wing extremists are a greater threat to Americans than Muslims are.

TeMPOraL 11y ago
And radical drivers are a greater threat to Europeans than Muslims are, since they do "become obsessed" (with the right to drive like they like regardless what the law says) and "decide that the end" (getting to the red light 2 seconds faster) "justifies the means" (speeding), killing a lot more of people in the process than terror attacks ever did. The point is, there are many other groups we could focus on and be much more productive with it. Hell, "radical Islam" probaly has the feature that if we elected to ignore it instead of messing with it abroad and radicalizing people even further, it'd probably eventually go away. But either way, it's a job for the police to deal with, and it does not call for the general population to start retaliating on innocent people who sorta, kinda look a little similar to the radical branch of a radical branch of a foreign religion.
api 11y ago
Is this really true? I don't argue that home grown fanatics are not a threat, but I don't see a current organized systemic effort from them to do much of anything other than squawk on the net. The lone nut shooter epidemic is something else. It's not ideological. Seems to be more of a mental health issue.
- DanBC 11y ago
  Your stigmatising language around mental illness means I'm unable to answer this question and stay within HN rules. Just remember that many of those people didn't have signs of mental illness and were not known to MH services; and that people with mental illness are more likely to be the victims of violence than the perpetrators of violence. But the US has had doctors killed and medical clinics bombed by Christian groups. Anti-abortionist protesters try to deny women their reproductive rights and regularly threaten doctors and nurses and admin staff at medical clinics. (This is a war crime if a state does it.) Here's what the FBI said in 2002: https://www.fbi.gov/news/testimony/the-terrorist-threat-confronting-the-united-states https://www.fbi.gov/news/testimony/the-terrorist-threat-conf... > At the same time, the United States also faces significant challenges from domestic terrorists. In fact, between 1980 and 2000, the FBI recorded 335 incidents or suspected incidents of terrorism in this country. Of these, 247 were attributed to domestic terrorists, while 88 were determined to be international in nature.