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defrogJust a few thoughts:
1. Yes it is horrible. You don’t really need me to tell you that.
2. The reaction from certain political quarters has been 100% predictable, especially regarding Muslims and immigrants (to include Syrian refugees). Which, as others have pointed out, plays nicely into ISIS’ hands. And as usual, pointing this out to those certain political quarters makes no real difference whatsoever. They’re very much into their fear/hate trip, which means anything that doesn't feed that trip is enemy propaganda out to confuse their moral resolve.
3. To be fair, I will say that the attempt to use the Paris attacks to score political points about the Mizzou protests was less predictable. Inexplicable, stupid and just plain mean – but not that predictable.
4. Most of the same people are also predictably using the attacks to bash President Obama and his foreign policy of not invading all the Muslim countries and killing as many Muslims as it takes until they are sufficiently terrified by American Exceptionalism to give up terrorism. (As if that would actually work.) I’ve already said what I have to say about that here if anyone’s interested.
5. I’m not a fan of social media memes, but I’ve seen a few that make a perhaps harsh but thoughtful point: this kind of thing happens in lots of other places in the world, but we in the West tend to be selective about which ones we’ll change our Facebook profile pic for. Paris gets worldwide sympathy and prayers (and deservedly so), but not Beirut or Kenya’s Garissa University or other places where terrorist attacks also happen. It’s worth taking some time to reflect why that is. The point isn't that Paris should matter less, it’s that other victims of terrorism should perhaps matter more.
6. This is a minor point, but I can safely say I never expected to read a story like this and see the words “Eagles Of Death Metal”.
Which I only mention because I’m a fan of the band, and they’re not exactly a household name – so much so that some news media outlets were initially describing them as a death-metal band (which, if yr not familiar with them, they’re not – they’re more like a 70s-influenced blues-rock-boogie outfit).
Also, it’s rather sad that this was how I learned the news that they have a new album out.
Okay, that’s enough.
I love Paris,
This is dF
1. Yes it is horrible. You don’t really need me to tell you that.
2. The reaction from certain political quarters has been 100% predictable, especially regarding Muslims and immigrants (to include Syrian refugees). Which, as others have pointed out, plays nicely into ISIS’ hands. And as usual, pointing this out to those certain political quarters makes no real difference whatsoever. They’re very much into their fear/hate trip, which means anything that doesn't feed that trip is enemy propaganda out to confuse their moral resolve.
3. To be fair, I will say that the attempt to use the Paris attacks to score political points about the Mizzou protests was less predictable. Inexplicable, stupid and just plain mean – but not that predictable.
4. Most of the same people are also predictably using the attacks to bash President Obama and his foreign policy of not invading all the Muslim countries and killing as many Muslims as it takes until they are sufficiently terrified by American Exceptionalism to give up terrorism. (As if that would actually work.) I’ve already said what I have to say about that here if anyone’s interested.
5. I’m not a fan of social media memes, but I’ve seen a few that make a perhaps harsh but thoughtful point: this kind of thing happens in lots of other places in the world, but we in the West tend to be selective about which ones we’ll change our Facebook profile pic for. Paris gets worldwide sympathy and prayers (and deservedly so), but not Beirut or Kenya’s Garissa University or other places where terrorist attacks also happen. It’s worth taking some time to reflect why that is. The point isn't that Paris should matter less, it’s that other victims of terrorism should perhaps matter more.
6. This is a minor point, but I can safely say I never expected to read a story like this and see the words “Eagles Of Death Metal”.
Which I only mention because I’m a fan of the band, and they’re not exactly a household name – so much so that some news media outlets were initially describing them as a death-metal band (which, if yr not familiar with them, they’re not – they’re more like a 70s-influenced blues-rock-boogie outfit).
Also, it’s rather sad that this was how I learned the news that they have a new album out.
Okay, that’s enough.
I love Paris,
This is dF
