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Terrorism in the Modern World

RymRym
edited December 2014 in News
A study published at fas.org essentially, among a wealth of other interesting data, shows that the far majority of all terrorist acts tracked in the world (in 2011) come specifically from Sunni Muslim extremists.

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http://fas.org/irp/threat/nctc2011.pdf

Muslims are also the far majority of victims of the same terror attacks.

2011, interestingly, saw the lowest number of terror attacks in the five year span ending in 2011.


Outside of the countries where these attacks are commonplace, there is been just in 2014 a rise in "activated" attacks by motivated but unconnected individuals, usually with a history or recent display of mental illness. The immediate response to this has been rhetorical at best (and indeed it may not warrant a response at all, considering the tiny probability of these attacks compared to the probabilities of dying in car accidents or other mundane circumstances).

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So, terrorism is real and deeply destabilizing, but at the same time primarily affects a very small number of countries. Meanwhile, people in, say, the United States seem increasingly terrified despite the clear lack of any statistically significant danger to them specifically.

What do?
Post edited by Rym on
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Comments

  • Mandatory at gun point classes on probability and risk assessment for all US citizens?
  • It frustrates me too, especially as our country slogan these days is "don't let the terrorists" even though we let them win all the damn time!
  • Is anyone in the US actually scared of terrorism?
  • Airport CEOs and soccer moms as far as I know.
  • Ilmarinen said:

    Is anyone in the US actually scared of terrorism?

    People who live in the sticks.
  • At least half of the people with firearms are waiting for some Terrorist to attack their super market in nowhere ville and they are ready for them. (the other half of gun owners are normal folks :-p)
  • Cremlian said:

    At least half of the people with firearms are waiting for some Terrorist to attack their super market in nowhere ville and they are ready for them. (the other half of gun owners are normal folks :-p)

    I think you meant to say "Obama's jack booted brown shirts" rather than terrorists.
  • Most of the terror-mongering happens through the media I believe.

    How can you control the media/ news when there's free speech?

    With the internet at least you have memes/ forums/ youtubes at your disposal, to voice against that sort of speech.

    How do you attack the news where that kind of audience is more susceptible to misinformation.




    There seems to be alot of ad hominems for Russell, but he still makes a point.
  • HMTKSteve said:

    Cremlian said:

    At least half of the people with firearms are waiting for some Terrorist to attack their super market in nowhere ville and they are ready for them. (the other half of gun owners are normal folks :-p)

    I think you meant to say "Obama's jack booted brown shirts" rather than terrorists.
    Pretty much.
  • These guys?

  • Dazzle369 said:

    Most of the terror-mongering happens through the media I believe.

    How can you control the media/ news when there's free speech?

    With the internet at least you have memes/ forums/ youtubes at your disposal, to voice against that sort of speech.

    How do you attack the news where that kind of audience is more susceptible to misinformation.



    There seems to be alot of ad hominems for Russell, but he still makes a point.

    Well the media formed manipulation is clear. the first time I watched a US TV news show I started laughing because I thought I was being pranked but deeply disturbed that it was real and people thought the information being conveyed was true.

    You can personally stop watching the news and broadcast TV but this doesn't stop uneducated people from being exposed and moulded by hysterical propaganda.

    The same thing happens in Australia but you tend to not see morons throwing around opinions as facts due to other media outlets waiting to eviscerate them for doing something silly. This method does not always work. Poor journalism may end up on a small show called Media Watch which fact checks inaccurate news. However Media Watch is limited by the limited audience.

    I guess self regulation is required, this can only happen on a medium where everyone has the same power such as the Internet. Once again this is obviously not the right answer as seen with the stupidity that ensued from the GamerGators, in truth it can be worse.

    The ideal solution would be education. However Governments are against improving the average education level of the public because it assists control.

    What do indeed.
  • I don't think there is any conspiracy about governments not improving education because dumb people are easier to control. I think the reality is that governments just aren't very good at a lot of stuff, and education is one of them. A government giving a shit about education one way or another would be more surprising.
  • Ahh, those darn govoonments! Who's their boss? Let me at 'em.
  • edited December 2014

    I don't think there is any conspiracy about governments not improving education because dumb people are easier to control. I think the reality is that governments just aren't very good at a lot of stuff, and education is one of them. A government giving a shit about education one way or another would be more surprising.

    That's true.

    I'm just disheartened with the current Australian PM (and party in power) cutting funding for tertiary education, privatising student loans and removing funding for Student guilds. There is also talk of deregulating the pricing structure, hiring only heterosexual teachers and removing "left wing" topics such as Indigenous studies.

    Post edited by sK0pe on
  • sK0pe said:

    I'm just disheartened with the current Australian PM (and party in power) cutting funding for tertiary education, privatising student loans and removing funding for Student guilds. There is also talk of deregulating the pricing structure, hiring only heterosexual teachers and removing "left wing" topics such as Indigenous studies.

    image

  • Sounds like Abbot is the australian equivalent of a tea partyist.
  • Sounds like Abbot is the australian equivalent of a tea partyist.

    Very astute. He also started bringing Christian religion into political speeches and comments when all his predecessors have been secular.

    Basically looked at American politics and said I'm going to copy that, mix it with a bit of British right wing and be the biggest asshole this country has ever seen.
  • Still, he's a godsend to comedy and political writing alike. It's practically having a paycheque handed to you on a silver platter except for the part where we don't use physical cheques anymore because we're not barbarians from the stone age.
  • Churba said:

    Still, he's a godsend to comedy and political writing alike. It's practically having a paycheque handed to you on a silver platter except for the part where we don't use physical cheques anymore because we're not barbarians from the stone age.

    lol
  • "Like a bitcoin handed to you on a titanium flash drive"?
  • sK0pe said:

    Sounds like Abbot is the australian equivalent of a tea partyist.

    Very astute. He also started bringing Christian religion into political speeches and comments when all his predecessors have been secular.

    Basically looked at American politics and said I'm going to copy that, mix it with a bit of British right wing and be the biggest asshole this country has ever seen.
    Strangely the same thing is happening over here. Cameron keeps on trying to bring up god in some of his public speeches. Pretty much everyone is scratching their heads and wondering what he's going on about.
  • There was a large attack just now in Paris. 2 Islamist gunmen killed 12 people at the offices of the French equivalent of MAD Magazine or The Onion.

    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30710883
  • Still pissed that my kids' schools are doing lockdown drills. May as well do "plane crashing into the building" drills and "lightning struck the teacher" drills.

    During the last one, triggered by an IT worker having the audacity to use his keycard access to a rear entrance of the elementary school, my 5 year old was "misplaced" by her kindergarten teacher and left to wander the halls while everyone else was locked in their classrooms. She was twice refused entry at the doors she came to in tears.
  • How often are teachers struck by lightening to warrant a drill.
  • edited January 2015
    I don't know but I would be willing to bet that school shootings are only a few tenths of a percent more likely at any specific campus.
    Post edited by muppet on
  • edited January 2015
    Not much we can do but hope and pray the FBI and CIA are doing their jobs to prevent large attacks like 9/11 or the London train bombings. On a smaller scale, everyone's always told to "be vigilant," or "see something, say something," which probably ends up causing more hysteria than it should (I remember Scott whinging on about his commute being delayed or something due to a bomb scare in an older Geeknights), but the training videos I've watched (for my job as a security officer but at the same time these were on my own time) do suggest if you see someone walking away from their baggage that you politely inform them they've left something.

    More topical for the recent event in France, is this video:

    (the takeaway being don't mill about in a lobby)

    What are your chances of actually being in an active shooter event? As Muppet said, probably a little over the chance of being struck by lightning, but better to know what you're going to do ahead of time rather than try and Google what to do in the heat of the moment. That's probably the best advice I can give as a security professional; think up scenarios, no matter how far out or statistically improbable, and make a personal plan for what you'd do. Believe me, the civilian security personnel wherever you may work will probably be just as scared and unprepared as you are.
    Post edited by Jack Draigo on
  • I think that "being prepared" becomes "ritually traumatizing our children" when you have bi-annual lockdown drills for kindergarteners in which they're instructed to hide in a dark classroom with the door locked because "bad men" are in the hallway. It's far worse than duck and cover ever was, which was also stupid and basically propaganda.
  • muppet said:

    I think that "being prepared" becomes "ritually traumatizing our children" when you have bi-annual lockdown drills for kindergarteners in which they're instructed to hide in a dark classroom with the door locked because "bad men" are in the hallway. It's far worse than duck and cover ever was, which was also stupid and basically propaganda.

    Yes, and it isn't going to help anyway. Okay, you've physically locked yourself and a group of 30 scared kids in with a gunman, what now?
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