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Paris Shootings and Explosions Kill Over 100, Police Say
371–380 of 672 posts
Re: Paris Shootings and Explosions Kill Over 100, Police Say
#372The repeated attacks, heavy immigration of refugees...I'm hoping for the best, but I feel like there is a powder keg here. Whether or not it is based in any fact, how this is handled and plays out is a serious concern.
The population of France is about 7.5% Muslim. France has had a close relationship with the Muslim world since the 19th century when they colonized parts of North Africa and the Middle East. Sadly, the position in French society of colonial immigrants and their descendants is not very high. Also sadly, France has had a lot of experience with this sort of violence, both in the colonies and "at home". If you know the a…
Context: It was French colonization that put an end to the predations of the Barbary pirates and the Arab slave trade.
Re: Paris Shootings and Explosions Kill Over 100, Police Say
#373Earlier quoted context omitted.
Terrorism is usually a rational act. It is terrible, but it has political goals. This, for instance, may be aimed at ending the European involvement in Syria and their taking in refugees.
It might be not about political goals: http://www.gwern.net/Terrorism%20is%20not%20Effective
Gwern's analysis looks hopelessly naive in the face of modern ISIS-related acts; and ignores the difference between USA, where poison Tylenol causes a huge response, and China where people expect bad fake drugs with a certain frequency.
And he ignores that over-complicated (in gwern's view) cost over a trillion dollars in US response, from NSA to TSA to Afghan and Iraq war.
Re: Paris Shootings and Explosions Kill Over 100, Police Say
#374Earlier quoted context omitted.
The data on terrorist attacks does not support this conclusion. Terrorism is rarely effective in its political goals and studies have concluded that it is not a rational or cost effective strategy.
Citation needed. The US and Israel are 2 rather successful examples of countries born out of terrorism.
Terrorism (attackif civilians to upset people) or asymmetric warfare against a ruling power apparatus?
Re: Paris Shootings and Explosions Kill Over 100, Police Say
#375Earlier quoted context omitted.
Indeed. I'm sure a bunch of dipshits are already claiming that this is what happens when you allow Muslims into your country, somehow. Gonna wind up hurting a lot more innocent people.
Can we at least wait until people start saying these things before we complain? I'm getting tired of seeing a bunch of comments complaining about other people supposedly making arguments of which I see no trace.
"Howdy, lefties? Still arguing for disarming the citizens and letting in imigrants without control?" -- a (translation of a) friend's post on Facebook I just saw.
Yes, they will make those comments. They always do, even if nothing is happening.
Re: Paris Shootings and Explosions Kill Over 100, Police Say
#376Earlier quoted context omitted.
Terrorism is usually a rational act. It is terrible, but it has political goals. This, for instance, may be aimed at ending the European involvement in Syria and their taking in refugees.
It has had a 0% success rate of achieving political goals http://www.gwern.net/Terrorism%20is%20not%20about%20Terror
Gwern had a very limited view of "political goals".
Re: Paris Shootings and Explosions Kill Over 100, Police Say
#377Right now we don't know who these people are, where they came from and what their aims were (besides terror). Of course terror is exactly this, you don't know, you imagine the worst, and everyone reacts, often pointlessly. I wonder why France?
We know exactly who they are: islamists. We have video recordings where you can hear them yelling "allahu Akbar" while shooting. 42% of young Muslims in France believe suicide bombings are justified (35% overall). http://www.pewresearch.org/files/old-assets/pdf/muslim-ameri...
I agree they most likely were Islamist, although incidentally saying Allahu Akbar is not a very precise way of identifying an Islamist: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takbir
To quote from the page: 'In videos released during the course of the Syrian Civil War, Free Syrian Army, Al-Nusra Front, other rebel and Islamist groups and ISIL are heard shouting "Takbir" and "Allahu Akbar"'
Some of those are Islamist groups, some are not.
Also, we don't know if the perpetrators were French or not, so what 42% of young French Muslims believe is not relevant at this point. Even if it was relevant, it would be hard to draw any conclusions from it. In the same link you provide, it seems that over 75% of French Muslims are concerned about the rise of Islamic Extremism.
Re: Paris Shootings and Explosions Kill Over 100, Police Say
#378Earlier quoted context omitted.
No. It can be rational in the context of anti-colonialism and sovereignist ideology and historical revanchism, as well as many other not at all irrational ideologies. It might or might not be effective, depending on the specific political goals in question. It is not, in general, about religion per se, except in so much as religion is part of group identity (in a similar vein as say, nationalism). But that is not the…
You really think that the sincere belief that you will spend an eternity in heaven and secure a place in heaven for 70 family members of your choosing and earn the love of God has nothing to do with it? It's hard for people who are not religious fundamentalists to understand that some people really believe this with as much certainty as you and I believe that the sun will rise tomorrow. This belief is precisely why s…
Quite a fraction of suicide attackers were blackmailed into the act.
Re: Paris Shootings and Explosions Kill Over 100, Police Say
#379Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not European but travelling in Asia at the moment. Have had a couple of discussions with run-of-the-mill Europeans concerned that the refugees areproportionally made up much more of young men than women/children with the implication that these guys are up to no good. I'd say the subtleties of the humanitarian crisis is going to be lost on the average European Joe in the wake of this
The refugees who have travelled to Europe to seek asylum are disproportionately young and male. Because if you have a family group in a refugee camp in Turkey, you don't send your grandmother to take a dangerous boatride across the Med and then traipse around the countryside of the Balkans trying to find a way to get to talk to a German government official about the possibility of making an asylum application for you…
No, you set fire to your refugee camp because when seeking help from people to flee violence and oppression the best thing to do is start more violence ... /s
It's like being mugged for your wallet and then when someone comes to help you mug them for their wallet, then you wonder why no one wants to help you.
Re: Paris Shootings and Explosions Kill Over 100, Police Say
#380Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The reasons for its strength have actually less to do with immigration than the continuous state of crisis of the French economy combined with the corruption of the political establishment. The political establishment in France is in thrall to a radical, globalist agenda that seeks to increase its power by performing 'divide and conquer'. A multicultural society has many more fault lines that can be exploited for p…
Offtopic, but while multiculturalism makes certain things difficult (like congress in the US now, agreeing on policy) diversity also helps in other ways (like being able to understand and deal with those who aren't like you and don't agree with you). One example of an extremely sucessful, multicultural society is Singapore. And, be honest, for all of America's faults, it's still a world power and one of the largest e…
One example of an extremely sucessful, multicultural society is Singapore.
So that's one. And one overseen and enforced by an autocrat.