WAR ON TERROR ALSO MEANS PLAYING WITH YOUR BRAIN

This should blow your mind—Americans think terrorism should be President Obama’s
top priority, according to a recent Pew Research survey.

Let’s follow this logic for a moment…

Americans consider terrorism a more pressing matter to address than the economy, race relations and scientific research.

Meanwhile, you have a better chance at being iced from a gun shot than being killed in a terrorist attack, with the odds latter being 1:20,000,000.

You’re more likely to be smoked by a cop than be killed by a terrorist attack!

But how much incremental funding do you see directed towards curbing gun violence or investigating police departments for possible reforms?

An interesting follow-up question Pew didn’t ask— without suggesting solutions—is what Americans want Obama to specifically do in this fight against terrorism.

Any set of answers that remotely resembles more wars and surveillance only demonstrates how the US War on Terror’s opinion-bending workstream operates: state the danger through politicians and media; transition the danger to fear; short-circuit or repress any ability to perform a rational examination of the danger and corresponding US response; tightly couple the US government’s chosen path to fight terror with a ridiculous acid test to assess citizens’ patriotism.

I’ll go back to an opinion I gave more than a week ago—the US should fight terrorism with the kind of engagement that leads to more economic development and less income inequality. Such an approach would negate the government’s need to pray that no one understands math…

song currently stuck in my head: “want you” – roy ayers