The headlines are so routine that you can write them in your own head long before they appear on the front page of the Huffington Post. The hashtags are pre-written and ready to start trending the moment they are needed. From CNN’s Manhattan studio to your facebook friends at home on their laptops, the response is always the same. Every time a terror attack grips the world, you can easily guess at what’s coming.
Politicians saying empty words, promising that we will not give into hate or division, that the attack won’t break us. Mainstream media articles screaming about Islamophobia and “moderate” Muslims condemning the attack. Facebook avatars adorned in the colors of the affected country. Candlelight vigils. Prayers for the victims and their families. Condemnation of the “senseless hate” and “violent brutality” of a few evil, mentally sick individuals, as if they came out of the nether to carry out their unspeakable acts. #NotAllMuslims trending, along with #LoveTrumpsHate, and #LoveConquersAll, and #PrayForX. The response is so identical every time that you wonder if it’s all rehearsed. The politicians’ speeches start to blend together.
CNN has previously been caught heavily exaggerating the response of Muslims in the aftermath of terror attacks
You struggle to find meaning in anything they say. And always, the conclusion is the same. Carry on. There is nothing to worry about. Our policies won’t change. Muslim extremists are a small minority. Islamophobia is the real enemy. And eventually, after a series of stunning mental gymnastics – the attack is Trump’s fault, somehow.
Especially since the latest spree of Islamic terror in the Western World, this knee-jerk response has begun to look empty and meaningless to casual observers. At a benefit concert for the victims of the Manchester concert bombing in May, Katy Perry introduced the world to her own fascinating ideas on foreign relations. She urged concertgoers to turn to the person next to them, embrace them, and say “I love you.” Love, according to the pop star, would stop future attacks. If only the terrorists had been shown enough love… if only someone had hugged them when they first got off the train…
The generally Leftist Mainstream Media does not however focus on other demonstrations conducted by Muslims which go against their narrative
On Monday June 12th, the city of Orlando commemorated the one year anniversary of the bloody Pulse shooting. Government officials, media commentators and everyday social media denizens all spoke about “love conquering hate,” and praised the “outpouring of love” the city received from around the world following the attack. As if love could undo the violence. As if love could bring back the 49 lives lost. There is nothing wrong with offering support, both emotional and financial, following a terror attack. But to a large contingent of society, it seems that love is all you need. Every attack is just proof that we didn’t love each other enough. To stop future attacks, we just have to love even harder. We have to hug each other. We have to make our Muslim friends feel welcome. The idea that this #Love ('hashtag Love') will mostly take the form of welfare and government services goes unsaid.
Taken at face value, you might think that this response is meaningless. But there is actually a lot of meaning to be gathered from these seemingly empty words. The instinctive response – love, prayers, more refugees, more tolerance, more money – is done very much on purpose. One has to keep in mind that terrorism is not a natural, normal thing. At least, not at the scale it’s happening in the West today. In the post-WWII era, terrorism was an extremely isolated occurrence. The 1972 Munich massacre, the IRA bombings, an occasional massacre of one group of Muslims by another – this was the whole experience Americans had with terrorism before 9/11. Terrorism did happen, but it did not happen to this scale.
The increase in Islamic terror attacks has been comorbid with the rapid growth of the Muslim population in the Western World
When attacks keep happening in the name of Islam, people have a response. They sense something is wrong. Even through all the tolerance conditioning they’ve gotten from their education and media, they sense there is a problem. People should not be dying in public areas like restaurants, concert halls and sports arenas. Islamic terrorists almost always yell out the name of Allah or pledge their allegiance to the Islamic State before they carry out their rampage. They aren’t exactly being subtle about it.
Through media conditioning and indoctrination at Universities, which have become hotbeds of Marxism, advocates of Islamic immigration have been able to distort the narrative. However with attacks becoming increasingly frequent, people sense that there is a problem with letting in millions of refugees who adhere to the ideology that the killers keep pledging to. Moreover, they sense there is something to be worried about. This is the natural human fight or flight response. If people are being killed in the name of Allah while peacefully going about their day – well, it follows that you shouldn’t keep going about your day as normal. You should do something.
Politicians who advocate for the immigration of Muslims into Western nations lay wreaths at the scene of one of Paris' ever-more-frequent terror attacks.
#Love gives people something to do. #Love makes people feel like everything is okay. #Love presents a solution that doesn’t require them to change their habits, routines, or beliefs. #Love gives them the promise that things will get better. As soon as we tolerate more. As soon as we make them feel more welcome. As soon as we get rid of Islamophobia. As soon as we stop hating. As soon as we give them more money. As soon as we stop electing right-wing politicians. These are all the things #Love implies, and the adherents of #Love truly believe they are the solution.
#Love is a religion. At the very least, it occupies the same spot in the primordial human brain that primitive religions once did. In ancient times, humans used mythology and mysticism to explain natural phenomena that logic and science couldn’t. Today, science explains things like what rocks are made of, why it rains, what stars are and why we get sick. What science can’t explain – why one group of people, who we are told over and over again are no different from any other group, keep killing innocents in the name of religion. Because people choose not to use logic to answer this question, they instead turn to a very modern form of religion. #Love explains why terror happens. #Love will fix things. #Love will conquer all.
The great majority of people who post the hashtag do not stop to ask themselves what #Love implies – more tolerance, more refugees, more welfare, more changing of society to accommodate foreigners, and more refusal to hold the Islamic community accountable. All they know is that #Love feels good. It is easier to type #LoveTrumpsHate, #NotAllMuslims, #PrayForX, then it is to ask the hard questions to your politicians, media, community, and yourself.