I think, closest to the truth, is the analogy of the pirate (ISIS) and the emperor (the US). Yes, the pirate is despicable, but he is hanged for the same crimes that the emperor is hailed for. The pirate beheads, the emperor rains death from the sky. The emperor has more power, and has ravaged far more countries, and yet everyone only has moral indignation toward the pirate. The world is run by people who do not think, who have walled off their own actions from themselves and instead point only at the actions of others. ISIS operates this way, but so few Americans also think that their own country operates that way, even when only a few of its most murderous actions (the war in Iraq, in Vietnam and Cambodia, various coups) have created body counts that ISIS could only dream of creating. ISIS is a glimpse into the void, but so is the empire that cannot look at itself. I mean, what is ‘shock and awe’ but ISIS’ goal in creating terror? We are who we hate.
On ‘Islamic’ Terrorism:
“Well answer the question,” he continued, assertive. “It’s not Islamic terrorism? It’s not Islamic?”
“I don’t care, isn’t American terrorism inherently American? Doesn’t drone-bombing the whole fucking world come from some sick sense of exceptionalism, a pseudo-religious doctrine designed to justify murder? We rain down hell from the skies and no one’s critical in the slightest, maybe that’s a pathology?”
“How dare you conflate the two.”
“Yeah, you’re right, they can’t be conflated. America killed hundreds of thousands of people in Iraq and two million in Vietnam. ISIS would cum at the thought of killing that many people, so you’re right, they can’t be conflated. We’re far worse.”
On Intellectuals:
Critique the self, not the other. You can control the self, you can’t control the other. A great transgression of this standard would be Americans criticizing ISIS. They’re too blind to look at themselves, so they point at others. And so what? It’s easy to point at others. It takes no courage, no honesty, to condemn the killer who lives thousands of miles away. What about the killer in our own hearts? No one, in any country, in any era, ever wants to talk about that. It’s too uncomfortable, too painful. Thus we are cowards, and we reap judgement somewhere else.
How do you create something as extreme as a suicide bomber? Someone making themselves into fire? I don’t know, probably when something extreme has been done to them. Like, a missile destroying their childhood home and killing their parents and sister. I don’t think Lindsey Graham could look so fucking smarmy after that. But he, like all politicians, are cowards without empathy for others, and thus are subhuman.