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Protagonist506 from Oregon Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
#117051: Mar 23rd 2016 at 9:01:57 AM

I've heard that many extremists (of all stripes) come from relatively well-off backgrounds. Essentially, they get so bored with living a pleasantly uneventful "mundane" life that they start rebelling against it.

Leviticus 19:34
AceofSpades Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
#117052: Mar 23rd 2016 at 9:02:24 AM

On the ballot I voted on, we had someone named Starla Lorde. No idea who any of those guys were, but that's where the 2.4 of votes go, I guess.

Regarding flags: My town's flag looks like a business logo. In fact, many towns, if they even have flags, have them look like business logos. Which I guess makes sense since we're supposed to be business friendly, but man do they look ugly and unattractive. Also as far as I'm concerned Arizona needs to make the star or the red stripes in its flag white because the orange and the red are far too close together in terms of hue. It offends my senses as an artist. This concludes my being nitpicky over aesthetics.

Edit: Also it'd be cool if Louisiana would stop using the state seal and just stylize that pelican in its flag because no other state has a fucking pelican in its flag. I have stupidly strong feelings about flag design apparently.

edited 23rd Mar '16 9:03:29 AM by AceofSpades

Deadbeatloser22 from Disappeared by Space Magic (Great Old One) Relationship Status: Tsundere'ing
#117053: Mar 23rd 2016 at 9:02:36 AM

It's never the well educated and wealthy who're strapped with explosives and kicked into a crowed area to die. They may be the leaders, but the people they prey on and radicalise to achieve their ends are generally the poor and disenfranchised.

edited 23rd Mar '16 9:03:25 AM by Deadbeatloser22

"Yup. That tasted purple."
carbon-mantis Collector Of Fine Oddities from Trumpland Since: Mar, 2010 Relationship Status: Married to my murderer
Collector Of Fine Oddities
#117054: Mar 23rd 2016 at 9:04:09 AM

@ Adric De Psycho, Hell must be a half-decent place then [lol]

FieldMarshalFry Field Marshal of Cracked from World Internet War 1 Since: Oct, 2015 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
Field Marshal of Cracked
#117055: Mar 23rd 2016 at 9:04:27 AM

did you punch him in the nuts Adric? as that is nut punch worthy.

as for the flag thing, the worst one in the world goes to Whitesboro for out and out racism

edited 23rd Mar '16 9:04:45 AM by FieldMarshalFry

advancing the front into TV Tropes
Luminosity Since: Jun, 2012 Relationship Status: Lovey-Dovey
SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#117057: Mar 23rd 2016 at 9:11:10 AM

This seal?

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Hodor2 Since: Jan, 2015
#117058: Mar 23rd 2016 at 9:16:44 AM

"Supposedly" it commemorates a friendly wrestling match.

I thought that was hilarious when the story came out, not only because the town is called Whitesborough but because it reminds me so much of Pawnee in Parks and Recreation (for context, the fictional town has all of these politically incorrect murals, often involving violence against Native Americans).

Bense Since: Aug, 2010
#117059: Mar 23rd 2016 at 9:33:09 AM

It's never the well educated and wealthy who're strapped with explosives and kicked into a crowed area to die. They may be the leaders, but the people they prey on and radicalise to achieve their ends are generally the poor and disenfranchised.
But without the leaders there wouldn't be coordinated suicide bombings/mass attacks with the networks to fund, support and hide them. We would just have occasional "lone wolf" attacks with no funding or support.

desdendelle Hooded Crow from Land of Milk and Honey (Sergeant) Relationship Status: Hiding
Bense Since: Aug, 2010
#117061: Mar 23rd 2016 at 9:51:08 AM

[up]True, if you're killed by a single terrorist instead of a network you're just as dead, but less coordination, funds, weapons, etc. means less-effective attacks and fewer people killed in the first place.

AmbarSonofDeshar Since: Jan, 2010
#117062: Mar 23rd 2016 at 9:51:42 AM

[up][up][up]You can't prevent guys like Osama and most of the other leaders from radicalizing. Being well-off is not an antidote to radicalization when there are other problems at work. Just take a look at Trump if you want evidence of that.

I mean, I could give you a pretty good guess as to why bin Laden radicalized. His father married his mother, who was a teenager, got her pregnant with him, then divorced her and married her off to one of his employees. Osama proceeded to grow up in a household where nobody, including his adoptive father, would tell him what to do, because he was the son of the boss, which is an instant recipe for narcissism. Through in his loathing of what he saw as his father's abuse of Islamic laws regarding divorce, and you've got all the ingredients that eventually saw him get pulled into the orbit of guys like Abdullah Azzam.

Other radical leaders will of course have different stories. Al-Zawahiri was mostly radicalized, for instance, by the trauma of living in a ruthlessly secular dictatorship that suppressed religious thought like his own. It's a very different story from bin Laden, because of course it's a very different story from bin Laden. Like I said above, the leadership caste of groups like al-Qaeda are drawn to it for a wide variety of mostly personal reasons. You can't prevent that. What you can prevent are the circumstances that allow those men to attract followers to them.

For the sake of a comparison, nothing save an early childhood intervention was ever going to prevent Adolf Hitler from being a sociopathic jackass. However, it was the economic and political misery of 1930s Germany that granted him a political platform and people desperate enough to believe in him, letting him be a dictator instead of a man ranting on a street corner. The same thing applies to groups like al-Qaeda, Daesh, et al. You can't stop the leaders from wanting to hurt people. But you can prevent them from getting the henchmen to help them do it.

edited 23rd Mar '16 9:52:11 AM by AmbarSonofDeshar

desdendelle Hooded Crow from Land of Milk and Honey (Sergeant) Relationship Status: Hiding
Hooded Crow
#117063: Mar 23rd 2016 at 9:53:25 AM

[up][up] If the current (third) and second Intifadhas are anything to go by, it's much harder to stop the "Imma knife some Jews" guys than it is to stop the "let's make a terrorist organisation" guys.

On empty crossroads, seek the eclipse -- for when Sol and Lua align, the lost shall find their way home.
Luminosity Since: Jun, 2012 Relationship Status: Lovey-Dovey
#117064: Mar 23rd 2016 at 9:53:58 AM

[up][up][up]And without people to prey on and radicalize the leaders can't coordinate, fund, and weaponize anything resembling an effective group. The opportunist without opportunity is just a random jerkass.

edited 23rd Mar '16 9:54:04 AM by Luminosity

Bense Since: Aug, 2010
#117065: Mar 23rd 2016 at 9:59:16 AM

So what are the factors that have prevented Moroccan immigrants in Belgium from having economic opportunity?

vandro Shop Owner from The little shop that wasn't Since: Jul, 2009
Shop Owner
#117066: Mar 23rd 2016 at 10:05:33 AM

The seal was about a wrestling match, at least that's what The Daily Show purported in the segment they did.

desdendelle Hooded Crow from Land of Milk and Honey (Sergeant) Relationship Status: Hiding
Hooded Crow
#117067: Mar 23rd 2016 at 10:05:43 AM

Economic opportunity is far from the only thing that causes terrorism. Cf. "Alaqsa is in danger!"

On empty crossroads, seek the eclipse -- for when Sol and Lua align, the lost shall find their way home.
AngelusNox Warder of the damned from The guard of the gates of oblivion Since: Dec, 2014 Relationship Status: Married to the job
Warder of the damned
#117068: Mar 23rd 2016 at 10:07:10 AM

[up][up][up]Speaking the language and lack of a decent forming education for one?

edited 23rd Mar '16 10:07:57 AM by AngelusNox

Inter arma enim silent leges
BlueNinja0 The Mod with the Migraine from Taking a left at Albuquerque Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
The Mod with the Migraine
#117069: Mar 23rd 2016 at 10:12:25 AM

Arizona Democrats are demanding an investigation, alleging that "cost saving measures" are effectively voter suppression when it comes to closing polling places. Emphasis mine.

Liberal activists are demanding an investigation into what they see as possible voter suppression as a result of Maricopa County officials' decision to reduce the number of polling stations as a cost-saving measure. The activists are planning to outline their frustrations at a press conference Wednesday that the reduction in polling places led to long lines and dissuaded voters from casting ballots during Tuesday's presidential primary.

Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell, a Republican, defended the closings on Tuesday night, telling Fox 10 Phoenix voters could have voted via early ballots rather than risking waiting in line. There were at least 200 polling stations in 2012 and 400 in 2008, but just 60 open Tuesday, in Maricopa County, the most populated county in Arizona.

"If U are standing in very long line to cast your ballot today, this is what @AZGOP's claimed imaginary voter suppression looks like #AZ Votes," tweeted Arizona State Sen. Martin Quezada, a Democrat and Bernie Sanders supporter. The Arizona Democratic Party has asked voters who had trouble voting to complete an online form describing their challenges. The group plans to share the information with the Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan, a Republican.

Activists allege that decreasing the number of polling locations from 200 to 60 left some residents completely lacking any or only one polling location in their neighborhood. "Voting is a right not a privilege — it should be fair and accessible to all our people," said a post on the Arizona Black Voter Alliance Facebook page.

Republican officials have defended the closings, saying there was less demand for polling places because so many voters mailed in their ballots. "They're not to blame for standing in line. But they went to the polling places. They could have voted early or that was their option in this instance," Purcell said. "I don't mean to blame voters. I think it's wonderful voters went to the polls." She added that officials chose polling places to close based on areas with high mail-in ballot returns.

The delays appeared to frustrate both Republican and Democratic voters alike. The editorial board of the Arizona Republic, the state's largest paper, said some residents "waited in line more than five hours to vote in an election with high stakes for their country."

The board noted that Pima County, Arizona had 130 sites, more than twice as many as Maricopa County, for one-quarter as many voters. "That led to ease of voting in the southern part of our state, and disaster in urban Phoenix," they wrote.

Purcell said she's willing to reevaluate the decision. "We will certainly look at this and see if we need to do something different," she said.

Translation: Everything went exactly as planned.

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw
Bense Since: Aug, 2010
#117070: Mar 23rd 2016 at 10:18:25 AM

Speaking the language and lack of a decent forming education for one?
Yes, that's certainly a factor. I lived in the (right next to Belgium) Netherlands in the mid-90s, and there were lots of people living there who didn't speak a word of Dutch.

edited 23rd Mar '16 10:22:26 AM by Bense

AmbarSonofDeshar Since: Jan, 2010
#117071: Mar 23rd 2016 at 10:34:36 AM

It also doesn't matter how much opportunity you might have in a new home if you radicalized in your old home when you lacked it. That's the problem that people often fail to grasp—bad situations may cause people to be attracted to negative ideologies, but the removal of those situations doesn't cause everyone who has already radicalized to change their mind. Otherwise the German populace would have stopped supporting the Nazis after the beginnings of economic recovery.

Improving the economic situations of various Arab countries isn't going to get rid of the current crop of Islamist terrorists. For the most part, they've already radicalized into true believers in the cause and things getting better won't fix that. It will, however, prevent the creation of the next generation of terrorists, which is the goal we need to be working towards.

sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#117072: Mar 23rd 2016 at 10:44:02 AM

"Lawmakers say NSA plan to expand sharing data ‘unconstitutional’" - http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN0WP28K

Posting mostly due to the sheer rarity of a Democrat and Republican working together.

Greenmantle V from Greater Wessex, Britannia Since: Feb, 2010 Relationship Status: Hiding
V
#117073: Mar 23rd 2016 at 10:58:00 AM

Speaking the language and lack of a decent forming education for one?

Which language? Belgium (like Canada) has two, a French-speaking region in the South and a Flemish-speaking region in the North. There are also some German-speaking parts.

Keep Rolling On
AngelusNox Warder of the damned from The guard of the gates of oblivion Since: Dec, 2014 Relationship Status: Married to the job
Warder of the damned
#117074: Mar 23rd 2016 at 11:09:00 AM

[up]None of the above.

I've met a few immigrants in the US who couldn't do anything but wash dishes and mop the floor when I was working because they could barely speak English, I'd figure that it would be the same for immigrants who can't speak at least one European language.

Inter arma enim silent leges
ironballs16 Since: Jul, 2009 Relationship Status: Owner of a lonely heart
#117075: Mar 23rd 2016 at 12:16:23 PM

So, according to the AZ Central, Maricopa County's scarcity in polling places meant an average of 21,000 voters per polling station. Most other Arizona counties averaged roughly a tenth of that, at 2,500 or fewer depending on which county.

"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"

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