San Bernadino Terrorism and Radicalization

[FireIceTalon]

This country has gotten so politically correct, it's borders on obsessive to the point of being dangerous by not diagnosing actual threats to our nation anymore.

I think you are right about people getting too politically correct. It is the same in Europe (at least in the north.....in the south of europe they don't care about being politically correct).
However, talking about Trump being racist or telling the truth. Sometimes people can tell the truth and still be racist.
If I in a political campaign I start emphasizing continuously that there are more blacks than whites in prison and that I want to take extra police measures against black people that is racist, even though it is also true. Populist racism is taking real facts and not looking at the causes and actually stating another cause.
And that is what people like Trump and in Holland Wilders, in France Le Pen etc do. They are smart enough not to say racist things in the legal sense of the word.

After reading your post Eppie, as well as thinking about the "debate" I had with Taem a couple weeks back, I have reconsidered my position on how
'political correctness' is manifested.

You guys are right, people indeed have become "too" politically correct. However, not the people who you think, and not in the way that the word is used in its every day pejorative sense.

What I mean is, it is RIGHT WINGERS who have become "too politically correct", not people with leftist politics. Yes, right-wingers have their own (and extremely obnoxious) form of political correctness. For instance:

1. If you ever question the actions or very values of the country you were born in or live in, you are unpatriotic. My answer to this is, since when did I owe ANY nation my allegiance? I never have, nor will I ever owe allegiance to any country. Ever. And I will have no qualms vocalizing this to any patriot who says otherwise.

2. If you are anti-military or speak against the actions of the people who serve in the military, you are unpatriotic. To that I say, good. I am no patriot, nor do I support hired contract killers who get paid to go to other lands to murder, rape and pillage in the name of counter-terrorism and imperialism. Fuck them and the horse they rode in on. It pisses me off, in fact, that I am coerced to pay taxes to fund this shit.

3. Discrimination of atheists. Most of the religious right views atheists as being either arrogant, immoral, evil, or otherwise inferior. The whole irony of it all is, they label atheists as being arrogant, but I find people of faith to be far more arrogant and thick-headed than most atheists. If me not believing in some invisible man in the sky who watches our every move and has 10 rules we must follow or we go to some firey, fictional realm is arrogant, than I AM ARROGANT AND I MAKE NO APOLOGIES ABOUT IT. If me thinking that scientific fact should be taught in schools instead of creationist stories based on faith makes me arrogant, I am arrogant and again make no apoligies for it. If me demanding that theists prove their assertions with facts and real evidence makes me arrogant, than I am arrogant and you know the rest by now. The right views us, as atheists, as being lesser than they are (in some instances even sub-human) and are extremely arrogant towards us for religious reasons, like "how dare you question the existence of the 'Almighty Lord". Atheists are probably the only group that is hated more than Muslims right now in America.

Now, its my opinion most people should be able to believe what they want (yes, religious people included), but that doesn't mean that the entire concept of faith isn't utterly ridiculous to me, nor does it mean I won't express that view. Today, most adults would be be looked at skeptically (at best) if they said they actually believed in Santa Clause or the Tooth Fairy. But adults who believe in some invisible, supreme being in the sky that watches all we do and and the fictional stories within some backwards Bronze-aged book get a free pass?? Come on now....

Don't get me wrong here, atheists are far from being the most oppressed group in America, though we are arguably the most hated. Racism and gender inequality are far larger problems than anti-atheism is in this country - a person is far more likely to be beat or shot by cops for being a minority/poc or even a communist or feminist than they are for being an atheist. That being said, it seems us atheists have to walk on egg shells when we are around religious people - like we should be quiet and humble. That is wrong. I refuse to do that, I will not be silenced, tone down my views, or curse less or not state facts because people of faith might find it "offensive". Fuck no I wont. We need to be much more vocal and aggressive about our views than we currently are, and anti-atheism is something that needs to be vigorously challenged on all levels, both against people of faith and even against certain atheists themselves (yes, there are good and bad examples of atheists - Rosa Luxemburg was a far better representative of atheism than an idiot like Richard Dawkins is, for example). In countries like Saudi Arabia, it is even worse, where you can actually be executed for being an atheist. It is high time that atheists defend atheists, and atheism.

4. Any desire to help improve the condition or plight of those who are oppressed in society, whether socially or economically, is socialism or anti-capitalist (as if capitalism is so infallible it is beyond critique, lol). Socialism, for right wingers, has become a perjorative term to describe, well almost literally anything, that they dont like. Most of them actually have no clue what socialism/communism even is. Most liberals don't either actually, but I digress.

5. Same goes with burning/desecrating the flag in any way (see #1). If I want to wipe my ass with the flag, I will do so and anyone who has a problem with that, well, I couldn't care one bit. People who wave ANY flag around are incredibly strange to me - whether it is for patriotic purposes or even a red flag for revolutionary socialist purposes (socialists have much more constructive things they can and should do to combat capitalism and all of its oppression, since waving flags around gets shit done, obviously). Now, being "strange" isn't necessarily always a bad thing but in this specific case it usually isn't a good thing. Patriotism and nationalism are inheritently reactionary ideals, and are a slippery slope to fascism.

These are just a few forms of "right-wing" political correctness, there is a ton more of them, and they are all equally annoying and obnoxious. Many of them are also irrational if not downright strange (and when I say strange, I mean in a not-so-good, creepy sort of way).