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On topics and today's gnus. Definitely opinionated. Set to 18+ for a reason. |
| The Insurrection of January 6, 2021 was an attack against western ideals. The events of September 11, 2001 were horrific but it was an external attack. Terrorists from other countries (fifteen of them were citizens of Saudi Arabia, two were from the United Arab Emirates, one was from Lebanon, and one from Egypt) took away the false sense of safety but not American freedoms. Whatever "freedoms" were compromised was an American decision that Americans and their government did to themselves. Freedom of religion, language and identity were compromised as Christians began to cry out that Christianity was under attack. White people pointed out that the attackers were brown-skinned. Islamophobia and nationalism were on the rise. When Obama was elected folks who felt this was a White nation felt threatened. The rising economic power of China lay bare the falsehood of American exceptionalism. Nativism, a belief that protects or favors the interest of the native population of a country over the interests of immigrants, set in. Easier to blame others, especially if they were brown-skinned. Former President Trump did everything in his power to promote the fear of 'others' before and after the 2016 election and even after he lost the election of 2020. Muslims were labeled 'terrorists' and denied entry. Migrants and immigrants were vilified. Nativism and nationalism became a cornerstone of his presidency. White Norwegians were cast as desirable immigrants over those from the shithole country of Africa (look it up; this is a fact; the Norwegians were horrified). White supremacy, as exemplified by the events in Charlottesville, Virginia, was given a free pass. Racism was back as an American virtue. Trump's need to instill fear to manipulate the fearful was clearly evident to all ... except those who were already fearful. Now China was to be blamed for everything covid while the ineptitude of the American response to the lethal virus was to be overlooked. The attacks against Asians underlined the power of fear. Masks were an affront to freedom instead of a sensible community response to a pandemic. It must've been a shock when America didn't fall in line and reelect him. Instead of graciously handing over power Trump stoked conspiracies and ignored the existential threat of covid. It's not surprising that a segment of Americans, many of them his followers, became angry, and on January 6th decided that Trump himself had given the green-light to overthrow the legitimately elected government. The Insurrection was stoked by the former president himself and carried out by American jihadists. It was domestic terrorism and the insurrectionists need to be prosecuted with that in mind, even those who merely 'joined in the party'. If September 11th was a terrorist attack on America by others, the Insurrection of January 6th was a terrorist attack by Americans against themselves and their democracy. To quote former President Bush: "So much of our politics has become a naked appeal to anger, fear, and resentment. That leaves us worried about our nation and our future together." Notes from the news: Cynthia Miller-Idriss, the director of the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab at American University, addressed the resurgence of far-right extremism in a recent Foreign Affairs op-ed. "In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the rise of violent jihadism reshaped American politics in ways that created fertile ground for right-wing extremism," she wrote. "The attacks were a gift to peddlers of xenophobia, white supremacism, and Christian nationalism: as dark-skinned Muslim foreigners bent on murdering Americans, al Qaeda terrorists and their ilk seemed to have stepped out of a far-right fever dream," she added. https://www.businessinsider.com/white-supremacists-biggest-extremist-threat-us-s... The cost of the 20 year war in Afghanistan is calculated in this recent AP article from August. https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-business-afghanistan-43d8f53b35e80ec18c13... ~615 words Posted in "Blogville "  744 |
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