There was no religious, political or cultural war after Army hero Timothy McVeigh did in 168 men, women and children in the name Christianity, the NRA, restoring honor and taking back our country from big government tax and spend not religious or white enough Democrats. Just a rogue extremist is all. No ties to anyone or anything.
Thankfully someone other than me has taken notice of this over the years. It especially came to my mind after the Muslim Army Captain shot things up at Fort Hood last year. One tenth the carnage, ten times the angst.
We’ve Seen This Movie Before
By STANLEY FISHThe formula is simple and foolproof (although those who deploy it so facilely seem to think we are all fools): If the bad act is committed by a member of a group you wish to demonize, attribute it to a community or a religion and not to the individual. But if the bad act is committed by someone whose profile, interests and agendas are uncomfortably close to your own, detach the malefactor from everything that is going on or is in the air (he came from nowhere) and characterize him as a one-off, non-generalizable, sui generis phenomenon.
The only thing more breathtaking than the effrontery of the move is the ease with which so many fall in with it. I guess it’s because both those who perform it and those who eagerly consume it save themselves the trouble of serious thought.