By expressing our fear so much, are we encouraging more attacks?

[boomerang]

I'm not saying to not pay attention to attacks and threats, but I need to stop saying (and hopefully hearing) that they all scare me. I caught an interview with the head of DHS regarding the mall threat. He was saying, "Be very careful if you go to a mall today, but still go. Just be vigilant." What? It's obvious that there is more risk in going to the mall, but we can never be seen as impeding our giant economic engine based on consumption (i.e., destruction). So logically do we go?

Speaking of economic engines, whipping up fear is a boon to everyone at DHS, the Pentagon, all their contractors and everyone who depends on them. So will our fear spiral be never ending and always expanding along with its requisite profits? Will we ever defeat an idea or a movement? What's our part in all this besides being the victim? Man-up people.

So, because you're afraid you think you're in good company and a bunch more of us are afraid? Sorry, but that's not the case.

And what a spin you've put on the whole situation! The best thing that could happen to our economy would be a total annihilation of ISIS and radical Islam. We're devoting a ton of resources to the problem that could be put to better use and are poised to devote exponentially more in another half-in attempt to satisfy what essentially boils down to no one.

In all sincerity, you need help beyond what can be offered here. Going through life fearful is no way to live.

 

[werepossum]

I'm not saying to not pay attention to attacks and threats, but I need to stop saying (and hopefully hearing) that they all scare me. I caught an interview with the head of DHS regarding the mall threat. He was saying, "Be very careful if you go to a mall today, but still go. Just be vigilant." What? It's obvious that there is more risk in going to the mall, but we can never be seen as impeding our giant economic engine based on consumption (i.e., destruction). So logically do we go?

Speaking of economic engines, whipping up fear is a boon to everyone at DHS, the Pentagon, all their contractors and everyone who depends on them. So will our fear spiral be never ending and always expanding along with its requisite profits? Will we ever defeat an idea or a movement? What's our part in all this besides being the victim? Man-up people.

It was embarrassing how much braver were the French after being hit. Al Qaeda's latest pronouncement aside, Americans are a much better reason to avoid malls than are terrorists. An American has a larger chance of being targeted by a domestic terrorist than by an Islamic terrorist, and an astronomically greater chance of being killed while driving there.

Frankly, compared to how many we kill of our own, the Islamic terrorists are amateurs. Sure, they get the occasional big score, but we are killing our own day in and day out.

 

[bradly1101]

So, because you're afraid you think you're in good company and a bunch more of us are afraid? Sorry, but that's not the case.

And what a spin you've put on the whole situation! The best thing that could happen to our economy would be a total annihilation of ISIS and radical Islam. We're devoting a ton of resources to the problem that could be put to better use and are poised to devote exponentially more in another half-in attempt to satisfy what essentially boils down to no one.

In all sincerity, you need help beyond what can be offered here. Going through life fearful is no way to live.

I'm just saying we should put forward courage and strength, not fear. Fear leads to irrational choices, of which we've made a few. We thought the region would be remade in our image, but our fearful choices (remember the mobile chemical weapons labs and yellow cake) helped turn the region into a catastrophe.

 

[bshole]

Sometimes I wonder how you can ever get that inflated ego through a doorway.

Then I remember the muscles you've built up by tirelessly patting yourself on the back.

Damn Were, thats two in one day. You must be feeling frisky today. Did you get an extra serving of Wheaties for breakfast?

 

[Moonbeam]

It sure is amusing to see the folk who are scientifically demonstrated to be run by fear project that onto liberals. Funny how that works. You'd think it was liberals who had enlarged amygdalae an and shrunken cingulates and not the other way round.

 

[werepossum]

Damn Were, thats two in one day. You must be feeling frisky today. Did you get an extra serving of Wheaties for breakfast?

Nah, I worked all weekend, all night, and all day, so when I break loose for a moment I'm kind of loopy.

 

[werepossum]

I'm just saying we should put forward courage and strength, not fear. Fear leads to irrational choices, of which we've made a few. We thought the region would be remade in our image, but our fearful choices (remember the mobile chemical weapons labs and yellow cake) helped turn the region into a catastrophe.

That yellow cake story still pisses me off. You can tell by the way Bush phrased it that he knew it wasn't true. That's one of the few things the CIA got right - they almost immediately knew it was a forgery and also who forged it.

Not that it took an Einstein to figure that out. Saddam was sitting on over five hundred tons of prime yellow cake, of which he could enrich a few ounces a year. He had a gazillion years supply. I don't know what he wanted from Niger, but it surely wasn't more yellow cake uranium.

 

[bradly1101]

That yellow cake story still pisses me off. You can tell by the way Bush phrased it that he knew it wasn't true.

I remember one of Bush's fear-mongering speeches. "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from AFRICA." The way he hit the word Africa makes me think he was trying to make it sound extra evil. The fear won out in the end, not the facts.

 

[Moonbeam]

I remember one of Bush's fear-mongering speeches. "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from AFRICA." The way he hit the word Africa makes me think he was trying to make it sound extra evil. The fear won out in the end, not the facts.

Fear is the nose ring conservatives are led by.

 

[piasabird]

Bush started a war in Iraq and then fed our enemy. We should never go to war unless it is to kill our enemy. The kindler gentler war is for losers.

 

[bradly1101]

Fear is the nose ring conservatives are led by.

Both sides have led us down this path before. Another disastrous war was preceded by the Gulf of Tonkin incident and subsequent resolution. But yes lately one side is trying to scare us more into violent reaction.

 

[1prophet]

I caught up on some news today and I must have seen and heard the word 'terrorism' a thousand times. I was thinking about the word with its built-in confession of fear. We become terrorized.

But do we want to first and foremost express fear before, during and after a threat? It says, "You can scare me to an even greater extreme the more you threaten and attack."

What if we said, "We're not afraid," and called it extremist or enemy attacks instead of terrorism? Shouldn't we be on the side of bravery, not fear, in these times?

The more solid and deeper one's foundation is, the less power fear has over them,

Likewise a porous and shallow foundation makes it much easier to intimidate one through fear tactics.

 

[Darwin333]

That's a classic proggie trait.

Oh, and regarding the OP's question, if we decided to refer to terrorism as extremist or enemy attacks, eventually you'd be fearful of those words too and we'd have to rename it to bunny rabbit or something like that and Easter, well, it would be all messed up.

Besides, the regime has already coined the term "man caused disasters". It's covered. Your task is to get the media all in line using that term. The bunny rabbits will be thankful.

It isn't the words we use that prove how fearful we are, it is our actions.

 

[bshole]

The more solid and deeper one's foundation is, the less power fear has over them,

Likewise a porous and shallow foundation makes it much easier to intimidate one through fear tactics.

No matter how deep one's foundation, they are still going to die. You have plenty to fear, DEATH. It will happen to you no matter what you do or do not do. You and everybody else on the planet is doomed to die. If that doesn't scare the shit out of you, nothing will.

 

[bradly1101]

It seems as if the things that get the most news coverage are the ones that are on video, and Jihadi John knows this and uses it to great effect on us. Even though we don't show the actual beheading, we can use our imaginations. He beheads westerners so we are doubly outraged and fearful. And he's there on video talking to us.

The video, its dissemination and our reaction are all coldly calculated by our enemy. I know not showing it may smack of propaganda, but I say that we should give this minimal coverage if at all. What do you say?

 

[Londo_Jowo]

Stop watching the news.....end of problem.

 

[bradly1101]

Stop watching the news.....end of problem.

It's not just TV news, it's print news describing the video. It's everywhere. Jihadi John this and Jihadi John that. We give him power over us and the war they want. We think of it as a war against the barbaric, they see a Holy war with the infidel Christians and their tolerance for artistic nudes, porn, gays, uncovered women, education of females..., but mostly our interventionism in what they see as their lands and Holy places. The latest thing is the shock value of seeing antiquities destroyed. I'm not surprised that they did this. If we act less shocked, would there be so much shock value?

 

[Londo_Jowo]

Looks like to me you're giving them power. Stop giving them a voice.

 

[Moonbeam]

Don't think Hippopotamus. Don't be afraid of a dog or it will bite you. Don't react to terrorism or it will encourage them.

Superstition and sympathetic magic have a place in human psychology because we have brain defects in our ability to assess risk. We fear yellow moving in the grass, but not climate change owing to how those risks are processed, one via purely automated processes, and the other via 'consequence' thinking. The former grabs attention at gut level. Any job that requires the human brain to ignore knee jerk fear reactions in favor of logical thinking as to why that's not a good idea, will fail with most human beings. The level of self reflection and self understanding to do it requires special education beyond the level of our present average conscious understanding. It's one of those things that only real progressives, far in advance of the norm, can understand.