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Shooting from the Hip
By now, you’ve likely heard of yesterday’s shooting in California. I generally don’t delve into the news on these mass shootings and I feel no particular desire to do so here. I’m sorry for the people hurt but — if it’s remote from me — I remember that it’s a big world with a lot of evil, and I don’t have to feel personally involved in all of it.
But I’ve noticed something about both the reactions by the news and by other people to attacks: when the public reaction to the attack could be aimed against your “side” on some issue — generally because the attacker fits your demographic slot in one way or another — there’s a tension and awkwardness about discussing the attack itself. When the public reaction could go against the other side, then there’s an enthusiasm for every snippet of information or wild speculation.
Consider the reactions to yesterday’s shooting and those to the one at the Planned Parenthood clinic last week. To the Left, the latter was an opportunity to slam people who are anti-abortion, as well as the famous undercover exposés that brought the subject back to public attention. In the California massacre, I expect a lot will be made of the religion of the two attackers, and that will make fodder for the debates over admitting Syrian refugees.
But I think there’s something else going on, and it’s not just the desire to use these cases to push an agenda: a lot of this is defensive. By that, I mean that if we’re talking about a shooting in the context of whether or not we should let in Syrian refugees, or what this means about Islam as a religion, then that puts the Left is on the defensive; we subsequently feel the momentum, and we’re less likely to have the public debate saying much about the anti-abortion movement. On the other hand, I felt that we were on the defensive last week, and that the Left was on a roll. That sense of being on a roll is not always about advancing your own side; sometimes it’s about making sure the other side doesn’t advance.
I haven’t gotten caught up in much fervor over the Syrian refugee issue, but I also don’t have a particular beef against Muslims; I have some Muslim friends (mostly Pakistanis and east Indians, for whatever reason), and I don’t feel the need to portray them all as would-be terrorists. My big worry is that after two decades of strong successes in advancing Second Amendment rights, the Left might be able to turn opinion against it. I just hope our side can be on a roll and keep the Left on the defensive in some other way.
Published in Guns, Immigration
Are you a ringer? You can’t be so naive. Your presentation as just friendly, fair minded, not terribly informed old Tim sounds like liberal [redacted].
[Editor’s note: Please read the Code of Conduct.]
During a discussion of the Syrian refugees, before the San Bernadino episode, a friend brought up Timothy McVey in support of his statement that we have “just as much” reason to fear the Irish as we do Middle Easterners. This guy tends to parrot every meme from the left-wing media, so there must be some effort in the left-wing media to equate all the violence committed by Middle Eastern Islamists with Timothy McVeigh’s single attack.
In an interview published after his execution, Timothy McVeigh said science was his religion. Funny how leftists never mention that.
Tim H’s profile can be easily checked by clicking on his avatar, after which it should become fairly obvious that no, he’s not a ringer.
Thanks, M.F.R. I don’t know why my interest in finding out more about the people behind this terrorist attack makes me sound like a leftist.
I find it unusual (if not exactly unique) that the wife was directly involved. I find it interesting that they seemed not to plan this as a suicide attack but ran off and seemed intent of escaping with their lives…albeit unsuccessfully. I find it interesting that they supposedly filmed it on GoPro cameras (there’s an ad for GoPro—new uses!). Sounds like they wanted to make a propaganda video for recruiting other terrorists. I find it interesting that they had pipe bombs attached to remote control cars (which thankfully failed to go off).
Altogether, this has some aspects that seem a little different from our previous terrorist attacks here, and it intrigues me. I wonder if this is a new approach and if we’ll see more of this kind.
Consider Southwest Asia. Indonesia (the nation with the highest number of Muslims worldwide), the Philippines and Thailand have their own fair share of Islamic terrorism. The reason we pay more attention and get more reporting on Middle East Islamic terrorism is because of 9/11 and its continuing focus on the West. Yet, looking back to the 90s, I remember that Islamic terrorism in Southwest Asia was reported much more widely in the news, thanks in part to attacks targeting foreign tourist locations.
And thanks to a president whose middle name wasn’t Hussein.