What are we Thinking – Terror and Climate Change

On Terror, Climate change, and the next two Articles,

After the terror attacks in Manchester (a little over a week ago) I started writing on the issue of Islam, terrorism, and the idea that, in Europe especially, these attacks are supposed to be the “new norm.”

Terrorist attacks have become a sickening parallel to what was happening for a while with mass shootings in the United States.

I remember Europeans talking about how insane Americans were, asking frequently about why the US in any way allows this to happen and denies the connection to the rampant availability of guns.

I wrote one of my first articles on the topic of using these kinds of tragedies (mass shootings) as a platform for a political agenda. The politicization, so soon after the tragedy, was not only a disservice to the victims, but was also failing to address the hard questions of the reasons behind these mass shootings.

Right now we have the same situation playing out in much of Europe, however with far more tragic consequences and a far greater death toll.
But the response by many (especially those in government and media) to the incessant attacks has been a similar jump to platitudes while seeming to avoid addressing the hard questions, and the real issues at hand.

In my article on mass shootings there was a quote from Robert Higgs, a Senior Fellow in Political Economy at the Cato Institute, who wrote after the Orlando night club shooting something that in many ways still applies today; though the political response is different, the politicization of these tragedies is all too familiar. He wrote,

“Every time some homicidal Muslim lunatic lets loose and kills a bunch of people, the predictable response is, from one side, to ban something (guns) and, from the other side, to bomb something (a Middle Eastern country). Both proposals are merely opportunistic exploitation of a tragedy in the service of a longstanding agenda. Neither holds any real promise of achieving a decent, worthwhile objective, in general, and neither holds any real promise of diminishing the frequency of such wacko-perpetrated mayhem, in particular. Sad to say, each such tragedy becomes, for most Americans, only another day’s hike in the long march toward making the world a worse place than it needs to be.”

The same can be said of Europeans, torn between the desire to not return evil for evil, but at the same time seeing their homelands affected by violence that, until now, has only been seen in the most violent reaches of the Middle East.

Many people, seeing the growing tide of refugees and immigrants from Muslim nations in Africa and the Middle East, are worried that what the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said will become (or is already) the truth: that this is the new norm for Europe.

It’s easy to understand the pain and frustration of the people who see the seeming correlation between opening their doors for people from a very different cultural background, and the increase in violence and crime previously unseen in western Europe, not to mention terrorist attacks.
Originally, I had started working on this article in the wake of the Manchester bombing, where 22 people, many of whom were just children, lost their lives, and scores more were sent to hospitals with horrific injuries. Shortly after the terror attacks in Manchester there were suicide bombings in Iraq, at an ice cream parlor, where 26 more people lost their lives and many, many more were wounded.

An ice cream parlor…

A concert hall full of children…

The ruthlessness of it all is horrifying and almost beyond belief, the intentional targeting of children, the most innocent among us.

But again, the simple answers often ignore the nuanced realities. Stopping these kinds of attacks is not as simple as stopping immigration or keeping “bad people” out, it’s not as simple as blaming Islam and stopping short of understanding the deep tribalism and culture. The rhetoric about “not all Muslims,” while true, does nothing to help calm those who were deeply affected by these attacks – attacks carried out by Muslims – in pursuit of global jihad and the spread of Islam across the world.

And worst of all, the platitudes and the quick jump to ensure that the scared people of Europe don’t all of a sudden become racist, does nothing to comfort those who are scared to walk down the street, or go to a concert, or visit a Christmas market, attend church, let their children out of sight at swimming pools (in Europe or Canada), or do any of any number of activities that till recently were things they would do without a second thought, including drawing cartoons.
While the sentiment is correct, and innocents being harassed because of their faith, or how they look is wrong (I can not underscore this fact enough), when the emphasis on controlling a [feared] backlash seems to be more prominent in political and media conversation than the emphasis on stopping the death, stopping the attacks, and protecting the innocents that are dying, it feeds the fear rather than calming it. This topic is so vast and deep however.

After Manchester, I started writing about it, trying to get an objective point of view and put together a balanced and fact-based article on terrorism. However, about half way through the week, everyone’s focus changed to the Paris Accords, and Donald Trumps withdrawal from its proposed climate action plan.

There were a lot of people saying this was the end for any chance of combating climate change (as well as the usual hysterics we see from almost any decision Trump makes) while others including Being Libertarian’s own Gary Baumgardner spoke (on his YouTube channel Talk Liberty) on how the accords were useless to their intended end – at best!

This, seemed to be another case of ambiguous wording and buzzwords used to push through a treaty which would take away jobs from many Americans and cost the taxpayers incredible amounts of money, without seeming to do much on a global scale to address the issue it purported to address.

So I decided I would push back the research into terrorism and focus on the more recent events in climate change, but then yesterdays attack in London took place.

I find myself now, at a keyboard with parts of two articles on two separate topics in front of me, and at the same time not wanting to write about either without better understanding them. These are real issues, both of them, but given what’s happened in the last 24 hours it seems only right to turn my attention back to the issue of terrorism.

Both subjects deserve thorough research in order to present a well-rounded picture, one that we can use to study further and hopefully come together to find a solution to these issues.

Or, if not a solution, if we at least have more information, we can understand both issues better, we can better empathize, and we can hold our public servants accountable to take action on them.

So, I’m going to ask for your forgiveness, as today’s article will not thoroughly address either terror or climate change.
I allowed myself to get caught up in the quickly changing tides of popular opinion and hysteria, and have not been able to give either subject the detailed attention that I wanted.

The purpose of this column is to look for the truth and to point out the rhetoric and empty platitudes used by our politicians and media, so that we the people can be informed, and can be aware of what is happening.

So, I will be releasing both articles, the first covering terrorism, and working towards uncovering the historical ties, the political and religious underpinnings, and the responses to terror by our governments, as well as looking at the realities of why these attacks happen and what is motivating/fueling them.

I want to explore more about these terror attacks and try to figure out 2 things:

1. I want to analyze the responses from all sides. From the response by many on the left that almost immediately seems more concerned with a backlash against Muslims than it does the dead, injured, and the families affected, to the response from many on the right, calling for stops on immigration from certain areas of the world, and blaming Islam in general for what is seen as a Middle Eastern problem now rampant on the streets of Europe.

Both may be right in their conclusions, but more than likely we will find that both miss important aspects of what is going on.

2. I want to look into how we, as ordinary people, can help stem this growing tide.

This article will be released on Sunday (June 18^th), please feel free to let me know in the comments if there are any particular areas that you would like to see researched and touched on in that article.

After that I will put out the finished article on climate change, covering the science behind both “alarmists” and “deniers” positions.

We will look at what exactly is meant when the term “climate change” is used. We will also look at the facts and science involved, we will look at the changes going on in our world currently (both good and bad), and we will take a look at what can be done (from what the research shows).

I will also do my best to call out myths surrounding climate change, and look into renewable energy and sustainable solutions, with the hope that when you’ve finished reading it you will have a better understanding of the current state of climate change and at least get past some of the rhetoric and ambiguity.

This article will come out on Sunday (July 2^nd) and again, if there are any particular points of concern or issues you’d like to see addressed in this article, let me know in the comments below.

Until then, please check out Gary’s YouTube channel called Talk Liberty to learn more about how the Paris Accords would have helped (or lacked in helping) in the fight against climate change, as well as the effects the withdrawal will have on the US.

Also, lets keep in mind those who are mourning the loss of their loved ones today in the aftermath of the most recent terror attacks in London, though it seems an almost empty thing to do at this point with the incredible increase in these tragedies – however, this is something we cannot become calloused to or accept as the “new norm.”

Keep those people in your thoughts today, and in your prayers. Lets keeping looking for the truth and pushing for change that will help to stop this kind of unnecessary, and uncalled-for violence on the streets of Europe, and an end to this terror the world over, including those places where these heinous acts are most rampant.

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Arthur Cleroux

Arthur Cleroux likes to ask questions in an attempt to understand why we do what we do and believe what we believe. He balances idealism with a desire for an honest, logical, and objective approach to issues. Arthur has always found it difficult to accept dogmatism and sees the pursuit of truth as his highest value no matter how controversial that truth may seem.

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