Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to You know, this is why I worry that Western society is doomed.

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Nobody expects Hitler or the Nazis to change their views.

Nobody expects ObL or his core followers to change their views, either. What I've been talking about, what Robert was talking about, is convincing other people not to join him.

What the hell does it say about people who look at bin Laden and say, "well, you know, maybe he has a point."

One thing it says is: Maybe they've never been given a reasonable alternative.

But: I'm still talking about the people he was addressing in that "manifesto": potential recruits. You're continuing to insist that an effort to comprehend the whys and wherefores of what he said, and why it's so effective in recruiting more terrorists -- in order to most effectively counter it -- is equal to agreeing with him.

I seem--seem mind you--to be being taken to task for not properly, and in an organized manner, RESPONDING reasonably to the ravings of a murderous psychotic who has, by his actions, already revealed his methods.

For not coming up with point-by-point rebuttals to demands for our conversion to Islam, our withdrawal into our own borders, our obliteration of capitalism and individual freedom, and complete subservience to people like him.

Not you personally, Tom. But your posts are symptomatic (if not syncophantic) of the problem with those whose responsibility it actually is. They think, as you seem to, that calling him insane is enough.

Maybe the whole "hearts and minds thing" sounds too wishy-washy, touchy-feely... Would it sit better, or be more easily comprehended, if we returned to the Cold War phrase for it: Psychological Warfare?

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