I'm not afraid of terrorism, are you?

[RobertE]

IF we're talking about personal safety, I probably have the least to fear from Terrorists given my current location and the utter unlikelihood that they might attack it. I just don't think only about myself or indeed on that small a scale whenever I'm worried about terrorism. And the OP certainly didn't show signs of asking us (only) about this side of the issue. The OP seems to think Terrorism isn't a problem, or, at least, that saying so is somehow his small way of fighting it. I bet this warped notion has been implanted in his head by a misinformed, regressive and utterly idiotic media, so I'm not about to blame him for it, but I would gladly hear his further reasoning on the matter.

I think that pretty much sums up your attitude to those who are not scared of terrorism. It is very likely that most have been through it, lived near an attack and thus have been able to adapt to any other future terrorist acts. You criticise those who are not scared anymore and you call them "keyboard warriors." Once you live through it, you learn to live with it and adapt accordingly.

[The Grand Nudger]

Is it -not- discredited? Muslims the world over immediately distance themselves from the most faithful representatives of their cult just as soon as those guys do anything remotely devout.

(and I beg to differ...killing the most motivated representatives of any given people wins a fight in a way that saying mean things and making people not like them doesn't, especially when you combine the two. Breaks em body and soul.)

[downbeatplumb]

I am a little concerned about terrorism but only because for two days running there have been near misses in places similar to where I work near to where I work. Two knife wielding men tried to force a man at knife point into a car at RAF Marham and some gentlemen with rifles were spotted near Bulford Barracks. But as a brit in the MOD people have been trying to hurt us since I started work, only the reasons have changed.

[RobertE]

Is it -not- discredited?  Muslims the world over immediately distance themselves from the most faithful representatives of their cult just as soon as those guys do anything remotely devout.

(and I beg to differ...killing people wins a fight in a way that saying mean things and making people not like them doesn't, especially when you combine the two.)

That is correct, unless the land that is being bombed is called Israel. In that case, it would be acceptable to the Muslim community. In fact, I know full well that if the American army killed a load of Shi'as in Iraq or Iran, and the Israelis killed10 Palestinians who were armed, they would 9 times out of 10 support the Palestinian community and stick two fingers up to the Shi'a community in Iraq/Iran.

[Excited Penguin]

IF we're talking about personal safety, I probably have the least to fear from Terrorists given my current location and the utter unlikelihood that they might attack it. I just don't think only about myself or indeed on that small a scale whenever I'm worried about terrorism. And the OP certainly didn't show signs of asking us (only) about this side of the issue. The OP seems to think Terrorism isn't a problem, or, at least, that saying so is somehow his small way of fighting it. I bet this warped notion has been implanted in his head by a misinformed, regressive and utterly idiotic media, so I'm not about to blame him for it, but I would gladly hear his further reasoning on the matter.

I think that pretty much sums up your attitude to those who are not scared of terrorism. It is very likely that most have been through it, lived near an attack and thus have been able to adapt to any other future terrorist acts. You criticise those who are not scared anymore and you call them "keyboard warriors." Once you live through it, you learn to live with it and adapt accordingly.

You can't have it both ways. You're either concerned about it and scared because you've nearly experienced it or watched it from nearby, in a sense, or you don't because it's not a problem. You're either deluding yourself or in denial.

[paulpablo]

My lifestyle doesn't put me in a high risk factor for being a victim of terrorism.

I work in the countryside, I live in a small town.

I live surrounded by Muslims and an Indian girl asked me if I was afraid of terrorism the other day like I might be targeted for being white, if I was Jewish I might be worried but as it is I think a lot of the Pakistanis seem westernised in my area.

If I attended large music festivals or sporting events it then terrorism would be on my mind a bit.

[The Grand Nudger]

I understand why there's a wide islamic antipathy towards Isreal.  You realize that those guys are assholes...right?  They've got a little concentration camp they manage....in a strange reversal of fortune. I'm not really interested in discrediting those points of view that see modern day Isreal as a belligerent and oppressive state. They are.

[RobertE]

I think that pretty much sums up your attitude to those who are not scared of terrorism. It is very likely that most have been through it, lived near an attack and thus have been able to adapt to any other future terrorist acts. You criticise those who are not scared anymore and you call them "keyboard warriors." Once you live through it, you learn to live with it and adapt accordingly.

You can't have it both ways. You're either concerned about it and scared because you've nearly experienced it or watched it from nearby, in a sense, or you don't because it's not a problem. You're either deluding yourself or in denial.

Deluded???? Not day goes by when a suspect package is found on a metro, a train or a bus here, which means a delay until the controlled explosion goes off. After a while, you become numb, immune, desensitised to it. Should there be another Paris attack, nothing is going to stop me from going out and enjoying myself. Even when the bomb went off on the 7/7 in London, people were still going to bars and enjoying themselves because as kids, they had to live through that shit because of the stinking IRA.

[henryp]

The flaw in the rationale here is the idea that historical terrorism statistics are how you should base your concern on future terrorism. We don't know the statistical probabilities going forward, because the capabilities/opportunities/strategies aren't static.

If it's a rando shooting up his office or a night club every other month, that's sad, but ultimately not that meaningful.

But 9/11 was a big deal. Aside from loss of life, it was estimated to have cost as much as 2 trillion dollars depending on how loose you get with the math. (http://www.iags.org/costof911.html)

Larger scale attacks like that, that could disrupt the country in a meaningful way, are cause for concern. I almost like the terrorists having access to guns, because it's small scale. If they are shooting up their office, they're not trying something at a nuclear power plant, or in a packed stadium, or at Disney or with Biological weapons, or etc...

But to sum up in regards to OP question, I would say Terrorism is legitimately a big deal because of the potential damage that could result from it.

[Fidel_Castronaut]

I don't necessarily fear terrorism, but what I do fear is both the normalisation of the attacks, and the political backlashes which may/will occur as a result.

To be clear, once we 'get used' to them, we enter dangerous territory.