Why U.S. elites don't think radical Islam is a problem
Americans seem to divide into two different groups when regarding Islamic fundamentalists: Non-elites hear Islamists say they want to kill "infidels" and take over the world (pardon me: "re-establish the caliphate," which is meaningless to those with only a sketchy knowledge of world history), and believe they really want to--intend to--do just that. So it's game on.
By contrast, our self-styled elites dismiss all such statements from Islamists. They simply cannot believe the latter would ever be that open about their deadly plans, and if you show 'em a video clip I suspect they'd do one of those hand-waving dismissals that we've all seen when you back a liberal into a logical corner that forces them to come to terms with their cognitive dissonance.
For some years now I've been wondering how any sane human can breezily wave away a direct, mortal threat from another group without a shred of worry or concern, and at last I think I've figured it out:
The vast majority of American "elites" seem to be either atheists or even actively hostile to religion. At least what they write and say would imply they are. Accordingly, with no direct knowledge of how religious people think, they simply project how they think religious people *must* think and act. Unfortunately, not having any direct knowledge of those things, they're left to guess, apparently based on the stereotypes of religious believers pushed by American media.
Ah yes, truth according to sitcom writers. What could possibly go wrong?
Of course television portrays religious Christians as goofy, bumbling wackos. (Think Ned Flanders on The Simpsons.) So even though Hollywood portrays them negatively--as meddlers who want to run everyone's lives--they're also shown as gentle, somewhat stupid yokels who wouldn't know a bomb from a beanbag.
Thus liberals have every reason to conclude that Islamists must be cut from the same cloth.
If this is correct, no amount of education can possibly change this misperception. Liberals will never be able to see a serious threat from any group billing itself as religious, period. So when conservatives point out that Iran and Saudi Arabia hang gays from cranes in the public square, libs react with this utterly blank look, as if you said something in an unknown language. It simply does not compute to them.
This refusal by liberals to believe Islamists are actually determnied to either convert us or kill us was reinforced when Barry praised Islam to high heaven shortly after taking office. Because the media had built up the myth of Obama as brilliant, low-information voters believed everything he said, no matter how unreal. So when Barry praised Islam, that was good enough for a big chunk the electorate.
So at this point I suspect fully a quarter of the electorate either believes Muslims don't want to harm us--or alternatively, that any desire they may have to destroy the U.S. and kill "infidels" is completely justified by our mistreatment of them.
Oh, and these are the same liberals who regard the U.S. as the worst nation in the world, and the U.S. military as knuckle-dragging mobsters.
By contrast, our self-styled elites dismiss all such statements from Islamists. They simply cannot believe the latter would ever be that open about their deadly plans, and if you show 'em a video clip I suspect they'd do one of those hand-waving dismissals that we've all seen when you back a liberal into a logical corner that forces them to come to terms with their cognitive dissonance.
For some years now I've been wondering how any sane human can breezily wave away a direct, mortal threat from another group without a shred of worry or concern, and at last I think I've figured it out:
The vast majority of American "elites" seem to be either atheists or even actively hostile to religion. At least what they write and say would imply they are. Accordingly, with no direct knowledge of how religious people think, they simply project how they think religious people *must* think and act. Unfortunately, not having any direct knowledge of those things, they're left to guess, apparently based on the stereotypes of religious believers pushed by American media.
Ah yes, truth according to sitcom writers. What could possibly go wrong?
Of course television portrays religious Christians as goofy, bumbling wackos. (Think Ned Flanders on The Simpsons.) So even though Hollywood portrays them negatively--as meddlers who want to run everyone's lives--they're also shown as gentle, somewhat stupid yokels who wouldn't know a bomb from a beanbag.
Thus liberals have every reason to conclude that Islamists must be cut from the same cloth.
If this is correct, no amount of education can possibly change this misperception. Liberals will never be able to see a serious threat from any group billing itself as religious, period. So when conservatives point out that Iran and Saudi Arabia hang gays from cranes in the public square, libs react with this utterly blank look, as if you said something in an unknown language. It simply does not compute to them.
This refusal by liberals to believe Islamists are actually determnied to either convert us or kill us was reinforced when Barry praised Islam to high heaven shortly after taking office. Because the media had built up the myth of Obama as brilliant, low-information voters believed everything he said, no matter how unreal. So when Barry praised Islam, that was good enough for a big chunk the electorate.
So at this point I suspect fully a quarter of the electorate either believes Muslims don't want to harm us--or alternatively, that any desire they may have to destroy the U.S. and kill "infidels" is completely justified by our mistreatment of them.
Oh, and these are the same liberals who regard the U.S. as the worst nation in the world, and the U.S. military as knuckle-dragging mobsters.
posted by SF at
7:05 AM
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