Sign up for a free recipe e-book →

Clarissa's Blog

A Rapid Radicalization

Published by

Clarissa

on

Somebody on MSNBC said today that Tashfeen Malik probably became a terrorist because she came to the U.S., listened to Trump’s anti-Muslim comments, got “disappointed” and decided to become a terrorist.

Given that Trump has only been talking about Muslims actively for a couple of weeks, this must have been the swiftest radicalization in history.

Also, this argument supports Trump’s suggestion that Muslims shouldn’t be let into the US lest they get disappointed all the way to a shooting spree.

I wish people considered the consequences of their blabbing more carefully.

26 responses to “A Rapid Radicalization”

  1. Stringer Bell Avatar
    Stringer Bell

    Man, we do need to discuss Trump at some point. What the fuck is happening? Why is this guy’s vile rhetoric resonating so much in the US?

    I read somewhere that, no, Trump won’t be elected president but he’s opened the window for someone like him in the future to become president. Someone who’s much smoother than him.

    http://www.wmur.com/politics/state-gop-chairwoman-says-trumps-call-to-ban-muslims-from-us-is-unamerican/36847434

    “But Baldasaro, a co-chair of Trump’s state veterans coalition, said Trump is “100 percent right” and Horn is wrong.

    “What he’s saying is no different than the situation during World War II, when we put the Japanese in camps,” Baldasaro, a Marine veteran, said. ”

    Is this real life?

    Like

    Reply
    1. Dreidel Avatar
      Dreidel

      Ah, Stringer Boy, can’t you make a comment without using the word “fuck”?

      Like

      Reply
      1. Stringer Bell Avatar
        Stringer Bell

        It is unreal to me how a disgusting racist who calls me a monkey, calls palestinians sewer rats, and openly wishes for genocide is so fucking sensitive to the word ‘fuck’.

        Dude, if you are so concerned with politeness, take a few minutes and reflect upon your filthy racist posting history over here.

        And, please, shut the fuck up. I asked a question to Clarissa, let her answer it. If I needed your input I would’ve gone to a KKK messageboard.

        Like

        Reply
        1. Dreidel Avatar
          Dreidel

          “calls palestinians sewer rats”

          You haven’t seen the latest photograph of Hamas leadership?

          Like

          Reply
    2. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      The audience really went nuts with support when Trump made his announcement today.

      Trump is nothing, he doesn’t believe any of what he’s saying. If it were profitable, he’d just as easily say the exact opposite.

      It’s the audience that’s the problem because a crowd in this sort of mood is dangerous.

      Like

      Reply
      1. Stringer Bell Avatar
        Stringer Bell

        That is what I was asking. Why is he getting so much support in this country?

        Like

        Reply
        1. Stringer Bell Avatar
          Stringer Bell

          There doesn’t seem to be a economic explanation here at work, too. Like when the economy is in a slump countries tend to shift rightward.

          The US economy’s fine!

          Like

          Reply
          1. Clarissa Avatar
            Clarissa

            Exactly, the economy is OK but people are going crazy. And it’s a large number of people, not a tiny fringe.

            Like

            Reply
            1. valter07 Avatar
              valter07

              Perhaps it is not about some quantitative economic indicators, but about subjective feeling of uncertainty about the future?

              Like

              Reply
              1. Clarissa Avatar
                Clarissa

                Yes, people tend to self-pity more when life is easy.

                Like

            2. valter07 Avatar
              valter07

              Perhaps we should just accept that the Americans are not in any way morally and psychologically superior to the rest of the world, and in general react the same way to the same type of threats as nationalists of any other country?

              Like

              Reply
              1. Clarissa Avatar
                Clarissa

                When I heard Obama’s speech two days ago, it was very easy for me to recognize that not in a million years will I achieve this degree of tolerance, kindness, and desire to understand. So yeah, vastly superior en masse. With obvious exceptions.

                Like

              2. valter07 Avatar
                valter07

                Unless you are joking, you are contradicting yourself. You started this thread by expressing surprise re popularity of Trump in the masses, so to speak. Obama, however correct and/or touching he may be, obviously does not belong to the masses of Trump’s fans, so his example does not prove anything in this context.

                Like

              3. Clarissa Avatar
                Clarissa

                Obama was elected twice and so was George “Islam is a religion of peace” Bush. Trump wasn’t elected anywhere.

                And “better” doesn’t mean “perfect.”

                Like

          2. Shakti Avatar
            Shakti

            I saw a poll stating that Trump was the top choice of Republicans who had less than a college degree and Cruz was the top choice of those who had at least a college degree. Since most people do not have college degrees, Trump has the lead.

            Republican voters are most sharply divided by education. Among those GOP voters who hold college degrees, the race is a close contest between the top four contenders, with Cruz slightly in front at 22%, Carson and Rubio tied at 19% and Trump at 18%. Among those without college degrees, Trump holds a runaway lead: 46% support the businessman, compared with 12% for Cruz, 11% for Carson and just 8% for Rubio.

            Increasingly, people are hosed economically if they don’t have higher education. Every single person I’ve ever heard saying “You don’t need college to make a good living” has been white. Those days are definitively gone, just in case nobody noticed before. One of the Facebook job groups I’m in has people posting “I’m a single mother/veteran/felon — who’s hiring?” For the most part, they don’t have college educations, and they get responses that Walmart/Macys/day labor/calling centers are hiring. They pay for their gas and fast food with fistfuls of change. In contrast the people I know with at least college degrees barely noticed the recession. Like maybe, they didn’t get a raise one year. They’re all having expensive weddings and buying houses and having babies without strain.

            Like

            Reply
      2. Clarissa Avatar
        Clarissa

        Fox News was priceless today. They said very openly that they were about to make an argument that there is no anti-Muslim sentiment in the US, and then Trump had to go and “destroy our moral high ground.”

        Trump is priceless to the GOP because he makes everyone else look warm and fuzzy. I caught myself today watching a Bush campaign ad with approval. And I used to detest him. But now that I’ve seen Trump, Jeb is not that bad.

        Like

        Reply
        1. matt Avatar
          matt

          There is a lot to this. Cruz a little bit, and especially rubio look very moderate compared to him. I am not a cruz fan, and am a rubio fan for the most part, so I think this is good, but my bet is that Hillary and the Democrats are worried that if Rubio wins he will seem very centrist compared to her and Trump. Which, again, trump is probably the most liberal on issues of abortion and even some tax policy of the conservatives so the narrative is not really true, but his hard immigration stances makes it easier for the rest of the party if they do win the nomination.

          Like

          Reply
    3. matt Avatar
      matt

      Part of it is that many americans (especially conservatives) think obama has been very very weak on terrorism related issues.

      Calling Isis a JV team, saying they are contained, being overly PC on not saying that of course the terrorists are radical islamic jihadists (which doesn’t mean anything about the majority of muslims), make him look weak.

      Donald is an overreaction to the other side. Its pretty much that simple in my opinion. There are other causes, but Trump is a reaction to the perceived and/or real weakness. There is a lot of room between the two… wish and still think we will find someone strong, yet less repugnant in delivering the message.

      Like

      Reply
      1. Stringer Bell Avatar
        Stringer Bell

        “Part of it is that many americans (especially conservatives) think obama has been very very weak on terrorism related issues.”

        24/7 bombing targeting ISIS isn’t enough. I’m sorry if Obama doesn’t oblige you and Dreidel by nuking the entire middle east. Guess that makes him ‘very very weak’.

        Like

        Reply
        1. Dreidel Avatar
          Dreidel

          Be patient, Stringer Boy: a few more slaughters in European capitols like London or Berlin, or in homeland U.S., and your cowardly string of appeasement will have run its course — and clueless, gutless cowards like you will be pushed aside while men and women of honor will rise up to defend the free Western world.

          Like

          Reply
          1. valter07 Avatar
            valter07

            Dreidel, are you for real, or are you just conducting a psychological experiment on the “progressives”? Or both? 🙂

            Like

            Reply
            1. Clarissa Avatar
              Clarissa

              People complained the blog was no longer confrontational, so here is Dreidel to make it as confrontational as one can.

              Like

              Reply
          2. valter07 Avatar
            valter07

            But seriously, you are confusing principles that are different from yours with being gutless…

            Like

            Reply
        2. matt Avatar
          matt

          You very deftly (not) avoided all the obvious reasons people think he has been weak on terrorism and ISIS in particular. The fact that you are unable to admit that calling them a JV team, saying terrorism is on the run, demagouging people for being skeptical of how many refugees to take, while not admiting there is a material screening risk (aka the current female terrorist scum from last week came and was vetted after LIEING about her address / background overseas), all are example of him being weak.

          But you continue showing your huge intellectual straw burning fest claiming that we want him to nuke the middle east.. thankfully you don’t lead our country as it would be even worse

          Like

          Reply
          1. Clarissa Avatar
            Clarissa

            Matt, remember how I keep talking about self-care? You need to start thinking about it because you’ll do yourself harm.

            To answer your somewhat garbled message: saying that the enemy is weak and on the run even if it’s patently not true is a standard method of warfare. Ever wonder why all armies conceal their actual losses while in combat? There is such thing as morale. A leader can’t say, “The enemy is extremely strong and we are losing.” That’s not how wars are won.

            Are you at all aware of warfare propaganda and how it’s conducted?

            Like

            Reply
  2. cliff arroyo Avatar
    cliff arroyo

    This is like the argument sometimes made in Europe: “All (or almost all) the terrorists carrying out attacks in Europe were born here!”

    This singularly fails to be reassuring as it suggests the current migrants aren’t a danger, it’s their children they’ll give birth to in Europe we need to worry about!

    It somehow never enters the mind of the people who say it that it’s actually an effective argument against immigration from muslim majority countries.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment

A conservative literary critic and college professor

Recent posts