Quote Originally Posted by gimmick View Post
Quote Originally Posted by GringoStar View Post
Even though I understand the argument of cultural relativism and the idea that terrorists are just as vicious as our military, only with fewer resources, which results in a cruder, imprecise result. However, I believe Druff is correct in pointing out that drone strikes at least have the intention of killing a specific person or group of people, as opposed to terror attacks, which are becoming increasingly random and less specific.

The factor that has really started to differentiate Islamic terror groups from groups like the IRA or PLO is that they have been attacking people for things as petty as drawing cartoons or, more recently, just driving into crowds in major cities, seemingly to reach the highest body count possible and to make the biggest public display of horror before essentially committing suicide.

This is a very different thing than Catholic terrorism or even genocidal Sikhs. I honestly think all religions are ill-advised and I know there are socio-economic factors at play, but to overlook the fact that ISIS, and the many groups that comprise ISIS and Al-Quada, find legitimacy in some of the strongest underpinnings of the religion (jihad, death to apostates, women owned by father/husband, etc.) is telling and we can't just continue to exoticize Islam as some "religion of peace.'

It is actually quite racist to treat Islam like some pure, untouched culture that, without that provocation of the horrible white man, would be free of this hyper-violent religious turf war. We treat Africa the same way. As a liberal (not a Progressive), I am fucking tired of it. By the way, both Muslims and Africans had slave trades that pre-dated the European slave trade and any historian will tell you that these were much more brutal as well. Sorry, correction, some still have continuing slave trades... and they cite their holy book to justify this, only they don't really need to stretch too hard to make that claim, as no reformation of any slavery claims exists widely in Islam.

This isn't to say that Western culture hasn't committed some of the greatest atrocities in history, but be very careful of the soft bigotry of low expectations, as well as the soft bigotry of broadly assuming the infallibility of people, based primarily on a misplaced sense of guilt.
Terrorists from every religion have been known to target civilians and "seemingly to reach the highest body count possible and to make the biggest public display of horror" has always been the point of it. That includes IRA and PLO (they are Muslims btw). IRA used to blow up pubs and PLO member organizations were best known from a school bus massacre (killed 9 kids) and the Munich massacre that targeted Olympic athletes.

Pretty much every terrorist organization have sacred religious texts that give them justification for their actions. It's always some variation of end justifying the means. Usually they are the only ones that draw that conclusion for what ever material we are talking about (Quran, Bible, Torah, Das Kapital, Mein Kampf ect.).

ISIS and friends aren't some special snow flakes that are doing unprecedented things. They are very much derived from the past. They are much wealthier than previous organizations and they spend a lot more resources on spreading propaganda compared to their predecessors. But those are pretty much the only differences.

Africa and middle-east were ahead in the slave game simply because that's where the earliest civilizations were formed. Ancient Greece and Rome got their slavery on as soon as they were advanced enough. How brutal any of it was is something no one knows. Something any decent historian can tell you. No idea what slavery has to do with anything quite honestly. It's endearing that you deem it important to mention that Roots didn't invent slavery, but that has more to do with your "education system" than anything that's relevant to this thread.
1) The point about slavery was directly correlated to the tendency for Westerners to make themselves into the ultimate predator in history, while treating other cultures as these innocent, untouched people who weren't capable of such horrible atrocities until the white man bothered the beehive.

2) I sense you think you are educating me every time you respond to one of my posts, but in your condescension you've overlooked that I over-stand your position. I used to be a culture relativist too, it is an easy stance to take because you can just lean back on the subjectivity of brutality and scope while coming across as worldly, enlightened, and (most importantly) in adamant defense that no other culture is inferior to Western/European culture.

3) Yes, I know that the PLO is technically Muslim, but you to make any claim that the PLO and ISIS are the same, you merely reveal your ignorance or that you will shape your argument however best keeps you ahead (classic relativism).