re: #35 SidewaysQuark

The historical point I already mentioned. The here and now is a different story. One shouldn’t throw one’s hands in the air and “give up” on assessing a situation just because it’s “hard”. Acknowledging a situation is necessary before one can find a rational way of dealing with it. Make-believing the burner isn’t on isn’t going to stop a kettle from boiling over. Islamic extremism is hardly a cultural threat to the United States or Europe, and the majority of Muslims in those areas have amalgamated with free society well. Pretending it hasn’t wrought considerable cultural havoc elsewhere, or that it’s only handful of extremists responsible for every situation that’s a problem, isn’t realistic either.

But to what end? What realistic action would we take to counter the harmful characteristics of a supposed dangerous faction of Muslims? We already spy on them and drop Hellfires on badguys and wedding parties.

(To answer my own question, we could wage cultural war with cultural weapons—subversion of governments, co-option of influence centers, and the injection of large volumes of sex/drugs/R&R. It ain’t gonna happen, we’re not that anthropological.)