While our resident righties of the Brownpants Brigade are jumping between fight:
- We must have our guns!
- Take back our country!
- Say the tough things! Muslims are our enemy!
And Flight
- Our allies need to protect themselves!
- No more immigrants!
- Kick out the ones already here!
Let's take a step back and see if Terrorism is some existential threat to our very existence.
It's true terrorism deaths have been on the rise, outside of war torn areas it's about 5-7000 deaths or so. In western countries it's in the hundreds.
Now don't get me wrong, these deaths are tragic and we should be doing something to stop terrorism. But is arming ourselves to teeth, isolating the country and ejecting the 3.3 Muslims who live here, (millions being actual
Americans), without due process the right thing to do?
When we compare the number of deaths to other risks the answer is hell no.
Worldwide yearly deaths from:
- Automobile crashes: 1.3million
- The flu: 250,000 - 500,00 per year in industrialized countries
- Aids: 1-2million per year.
So do you see these guys religiously avoiding cars, using condoms and actually washing their hands after using the bathroom? Hell no.
Why not? Because they are not nearly as sphincter loosening as terrorism. If people were rational they wouldn't own a weapon for terrorism defense because accidental shooting deaths occur more often than deaths from terrorism.
It's been proven psychologically that people will accept more risk when they are in control of the situation. They'll accept virtually none when they are not. A terrorist attack is as far from control as you can get.
So what can we rationally do about terrorism? A whole bunch of stuff that's not going to assuage that fight or flight reflex but that actually improves the situation.
- Finish the action against ISIS - those assholes need to go
- Increased effective security but balanced against rights and due process.
- Increased effective surveillance at home and abroad but balanced against rights and due process.
- Middle East policy that works towards an enlightened and stable area - how? No idea, but there's a Nobel prize there. Would probably involve using the soft powers of the US instead of the military.
- Policy that reduces global poverty to reduce radicalization - Another Nobel prize here
- Policy that improves mental health treatment and reduces the stigma of mental illness to help identify and cure those susceptible to doing violence to themselves or others.
- Understanding in a free society it is impossible to prevent all such attacks but we can reduce them significantly