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I see that first link kind of buried the lede in footnote 2: " The number of casualties from attacks by Islamic extremists has been greater than by right-wing e
by gadders 6y ago
I see that first link kind of buried the lede in footnote 2: " The number of casualties from attacks by Islamic extremists has been greater than by right-wing extremists, largely because of a few cases like Omar Mateen’s Pulse nightclub attack that killed 49 people and wounded 53 others."
So right wing terrorism is a greater threat, unless you are worried about being killed.
- some_furry 6y agoMy read of what you quoted: White supremacists may be eager to hurt people, but that doesn't translate to lethality. (Nobody ever gave them credit for competence.)
- walrus01 6y agoThat 2018 article was, as I recall, published before the El Paso attack: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/08/right-wing-terrorist-killings-government-focus-jihadis-islamic-radicalism.html https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/08/right-wing-terro...
- mc32 6y agoThe other part of that is that extends further. And also has its mirror. Who poses a greater threat in Saudi Arabia, the local Wahhabis or foreign secularists? Who would get pursued? And who poses the greater threat to any community, the police (some of whom are brutal) or the local criminals, gangs and traffickers?
- Swenrekcah 6y agoIf you are killed it doesn't matter how many others died with you. I personally tend to be more worried about things that happen often and are widespread, than things that happen seldom and are more localized. But if asked "Are you more worried about right wing or islamist extremists?", my answer is "Yes".
- walrus01 6y agoMy concern from a priority and law enforcement perspective is that in the post-9/11 world, a great deal of funding and effort was put towards deterring and combating the latter. Whereas something that is well known and homegrown in the USA (Timothy McVeigh, anyone?) has had a much lower level of concern assigned to it until very recently.
- ta17711771 6y ago> Timothy McVeigh Who did he work with again?
- pjc50 6y agoHe had a couple of accomplices, but he was radicalised by the Waco fiasco and linked to what these days would be called the "milita movement".
- gadders 6y agoAnd the even bigger fiasco of Ruby Ridge.
- pjc50 6y agoSo I had to refresh myself on the details of this via wikipedia, and with a 2020 eye it seems almost like the white version of complaints about police brutality per BLM. - victim becomes a martyr despite being "no angel" (Weaver was a white supremacist, dealing in illegal firearms) - initial involvement of law enforcement is entrapment (undercover ATF agents) - lies by law enforcement ("the ATF filed the gun charges in June 1990. It claimed that Weaver was a bank robber with criminal convictions.[27] (Those claims were false: at that time Weaver had no criminal record. The 1995 Senate investigation found: "Weaver was not a suspect in any bank robberies.") - basic cockups (court date mixup) - absurdly long quasi-siege - significantly lighter treatment and more investigation than similar fiascoes for nonwhite people (e.g. Breonna Taylor); the 2020 version of this would probably have just been to drive a MRAP through the shack and use the return fire as sufficient justification for the killings (see e.g. https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/08/31/actor-steven-seagal-sued-for-driving-tank-into-arizona-home-killing-puppy/#69e1ab5d7489 https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/08/31/actor-steve... ) - they shot the dog. They always shoot the dog - attempt to prosecute sniper is met with sovereign immunity, case is dropped
- cm2187 6y agoFrom a number point of view, you should be more worried about common crime than terrorism from any side.
- walrus01 6y agoFrom a pure numbers/statistics point of view a great deal more people die from slipping and falling or drowning in their bathtub every year than are killed by either form of terrorism in the USA. But we still should take efforts to reduce that, whether it's by building showers with textured floors and efforts to counteract terrorism... https://www.seattlepi.com/national/article/Someone-drowns-in-a-tub-nearly-every-day-in-1201018.php https://www.seattlepi.com/national/article/Someone-drowns-in...
- save_ferris 6y agoHowever, falling in the bathtub isn’t ideologically driven or at risk of increasing dramatically based on political shifts. We don’t take terrorism or white supremacy seriously because it poses an imminent threat to everyone right now, we take it seriously because it has the potential to put hundreds of thousands to millions of lives at risk in the future if left unaddressed.
- thomquaid 6y agoI am sorry to say this but white supremecy does not have the potential to kill millions. It's like saying gang violence has the potential to kill millions.
- walrus01 6y agoExcept that within the memory of people still alive to witness it, it killed approximately 6 million people in concentration camps...?
- save_ferris 6y agoNazism, which formed the ideological foundation of modern white supremacy, killed millions just a few generations ago. To argue that white supremacy doesn't have the potential to kill millions simply ignores not-to-distant history. We cannot ignore what has already happened many times before.
- kmonsen 6y agoMy answer is actually “No”. Terror, both from right wing and religious extremists is extremely rare.
- JshWright 6y agoThe Venn diagram of "right-wing extremists" and "Islamic extremists" approaches a circle. This is especially true in an attack on the LGBT community.
- Swenrekcah 6y agoI'm fairly certain that Venn diagram would be almost disjoint if representing individual people. But both groups are definately conservative and hold some of the same ideas. They both want the world and power they or their grandfathers had 50-150 years ago.
- JshWright 6y agoYeah, I suppose what I mean by that is if you took the ideologies of both (and abstracted out the language for the specific "god"), you would have a hard time distinguishing between them.
- walrus01 6y agoThis is pretty much the point Atwood was trying to make in the original novel version of the Handmaid's tale, which depicts a Christian ultra fundamentalist version of the Taliban's brand of Sharia law. Even though it was written a while before 1994/1996. Of course fictionalized for dramatic effect.