Tag / terrorism
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After The War In Afghanistan
The year is 2029. The U.S. pulled out of Afghanistan in 2022, ending the Afghan war. This had been a long time coming. The U.S. invaded Afghanistan over twenty years prior, in retaliation for the September 11th attacks. After President Bush’s initial campaign failed to defeat the Taliban and al-Qaeda, the U.S. invaded Iraq in…
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Islamophobia In China
Islamophobia has long been frowned upon in Western societies, as many deem this an act of religious discrimination or xenophobia; this is not, however, the case in China. In recent years, posting anti-Islam speeches on China’s social media almost became a politically correct thing: people would speak of Muslims in the way Westerners talk about…
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How Shootings Spread
On October 10 at about 10 pm, Stephen Paddock opened fire on a crowd of concertgoers. From his room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort, he shot and killed 58 people, injuring hundreds more. National discourse on gun control erupted, as it does whenever there is a gun massacre. Paddock had committed…
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The Rhetoric of Dehumanization
On the evening of April 19, 2013, crowds in Boston cheered, waved American flags, and shouted, “USA! USA! We got him!” as Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was taken into custody. Mayor Thomas M. Menino was recorded saying that he hoped the court system “throws the book at [Tsarnaev]” by giving him the harshest sentence…
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Reconstructing Our Conscience
Las Vegas county sheriff Joseph Lombardo called him a “lone-wolf type actor.” President Trump called him “pure evil.” Las Vegas mayor Carol Goodman called him a “crazed lunatic.” But why does Joseph Paddock — a 64-year-old man and now the perpetrator of one of the largest terrorist attacks in American history — not get called…
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The Unproductive Response to Shooters
Two years ago I wrote an article about gun control for my high school’s political review following the tragic shooting at Oregon’s Umpqua Community College. Prominent news sources were quick to follow the tragedy with articles describing both the shooting and the shooter himself. Many of the articles I read focused on the shooter, his…
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Terrorism Vs. Gun Violence: A Proportional Threat?
Most Americans would find these numbers surprising, expecting that more violence results from the terrorist groups at the forefront of our national security efforts. However, the data says otherwise. One reason for this discrepancy between actual and perceived violence is where we see violence depicted most – in the media. Consider how the media covers…
