re: #131 Walking Spanish Down the Hall

My point was that the specific religious memes that make attack on the innocent attractive are few, and so it is mere belief in those few that encourage religious terrorism. It’s a sort of Orientalism, of mystifying humanity to claim that a specific belief is somehow inherently different when believed by a Arabic speaking Saudi than when believed by an English speaking American. There’s no magic here, people are just people, their beliefs are just their beliefs, their decisions their decisions.

To point out that one needs a sort of emotional makeup to be a terrorist too isn’t saying anything deep, because the same sort of bored lack of sensitivity that characterizes sociopaths also characterizes anyone who is an excitement seeker. It’s not saying very much.