{"id":897,"date":"2016-02-07T15:35:00","date_gmt":"2016-02-07T15:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2016\/02\/newsweek-throws-red-meat-to-the-tribal-faithful.html"},"modified":"2016-02-07T15:35:00","modified_gmt":"2016-02-07T15:35:00","slug":"newsweek-throws-red-meat-to-the-tribal-faithful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2016\/02\/newsweek-throws-red-meat-to-the-tribal-faithful.html","title":{"rendered":"Newsweek throws red meat to the tribal faithful"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

And announces that it is Right Wing Extremists who are the real threat to Americans<\/a>.\u00a0 Of course they are.\u00a0 America is the third largest population in the world with 318 million Americans.\u00a0 Of those, only .9% are Muslim.\u00a0 31% are Conservative.\u00a0 That means 98,580,000 Americans identify as Conservative vs. 2,862,000 who identify as Muslim.<\/p>\n

Now, approximately 26.9% of Americans are under\u00a020 years old, and about 9.1% are 70 years old or older.\u00a0 That\u2019s about 36% who are outside of the adults who are capable of killing.\u00a0 I know that 19 year olds or 12 year olds or 75 year olds are capable of killing.\u00a0 But for the sake of arguing, let\u2019s try to keep the numbers around those adults in America who are between 20 and 70.\u00a0 That\u2019s 64% of these groups who are adults. <\/p>\n

Now, what is an extremist?\u00a0 Surveys repeatedly taken of worldwide Muslims<\/a> kept finding that between 10% to 16% of Muslims worldwide supported terrorism at least to some degree.\u00a0 That\u2019s actually Muslims who support terrorism.\u00a0 That\u2019s actually support strapping a bomb to a baby or killing a room filled with innocent civilians.\u00a0 I\u2019d say that\u2019s extreme.\u00a0\u00a0For the sake of arguing and charity, let\u2019s make it 10%. <\/p>\n

What about those Right Wingers?\u00a0 What is a \u201cRight Wing Extremist\u201d?\u00a0 For some liberals, of course, anyone not liberal is a Right Wing Extremist.\u00a0 But let\u2019s assume not.\u00a0 Is it someone against the Government?\u00a0 Part of the KKK?\u00a0 Neo-Nazis?\u00a0 Self-proclaimed militia?\u00a0 Someone who doesn\u2019t like Obama?\u00a0 A racist who happens to be\u00a0Conservative?\u00a0 Do they all have to support bombing federal buildings and shooting up black churches to be extremist?\u00a0 I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 It\u2019s not defined.\u00a0 So let\u2019s just keep the numbers relatively close.\u00a0 10% of Conservatives are extremists at least capable of killing in the name of their ideals. <\/p>\n

So that brings us back to the numbers.\u00a0 Based on the numbers above, approximately 181,000\u00a0adult American Muslims are extremists and either capable of, or fully supportive of, violence and killing.\u00a0 Compare that to around 6 million adult American conservatives who are the same.\u00a0 Since we\u2019ve been assured\u00a0 that illegal immigration isn\u2019t a problem regarding extremists, and the Muslim killers are always home grown, we won\u2019t worry about the immigration issue.\u00a0 Just good old fashion American terrorists like Grandma used to make.<\/p>\n

So there you go.\u00a0 You are more likely to get killed by an American Right Wing Extremist than a Muslim extremist.\u00a0 Naturally.\u00a0 Look at the numbers.\u00a0 How much more likely?\u00a0 Apparently quite a bit more likely.\u00a0 I would assume about 35% more likely, give or take.\u00a0\u00a0That would make sense based on population numbers.\u00a0 Of course I would also assume that I would be about 35% more likely to be killed in an auto accident with a Right Wing Extremist than a Muslim Extremist, or be swindled by a Right Wing Extremist than a Muslim Extremist, or 35% more likely to sit behind a Muslim extremist at a sporting event than sit behind a Right Wing Extremist at the same event.\u00a0 So in terms of killing, I would assume if there were 45 Americans killed by Muslims since 2002,\u00a0that there have been around 1530 killed by American Right Wing extremists.\u00a0 Correct? <\/p>\n

And yet, according to the Newsweek article, there were 45 people killed by Muslim extremists since 2002, and 48 killed by Right Wing Extremists.\u00a0 How can this be?\u00a0\u00a0 That almost suggests that either fewer Right Wing Extremists are willing to kill, or there are far, far fewer Right Wing Extremists than we\u2019re led to believe, or there are a crap ton more Muslim extremists, or something.\u00a0 Especially since the argument is we are spending too much time focused on Muslims and Islamic extremism when we should be focused on those Right Wingers.\u00a0 If that\u2019s the case, then it stands to reason we\u2019ve foiled more Islamic attacks than Right Wing attacks.\u00a0 At least I would think so.\u00a0 So something isn\u2019t right.\u00a0 Somehow, when I step back and look, I\u2019m far less convinced of the obvious bias that Newsweek is trying to get me to accept. <\/p>\n

I admit I\u2019m no statistician and numbers have never been my strong point.\u00a0 But I decided to play around with the numbers in my amateur fashion.\u00a0 After all, the article itself seemed to stink of hyper-left wing partisanship; bloody meat thrown to the rabid tribalists.\u00a0 For instance, it deftly avoids 2001 as the starting point for the casualty rate.\u00a0 That nicely dodges the whole 9\/11 thing.\u00a0 But then, I couldn\u2019t help but notice it drops the Oklahoma City Bombing in, just to remind us of what those Right Wingers are capable of.\u00a0 And yet, it never brings 9\/11 into the equation to remind us of what those rascally Muslim extremists are capable of.\u00a0 Even if they argue they\u2019re only worried about domestic terror, let\u2019s not forget the 9\/11 terrorists were here legally.\u00a0And it also isn\u2019t fair, then, to discount the possibility of immigrants\u00a0legal and illegal.\u00a0 But let\u2019s face it, that\u2019s not why they mention Oklahoma and ignore 9\/11. \u00a0First red flag that got me to thinking. <\/p>\n

It also tries to go through the history of right wing extremism, but without nodding to atrocities committed here or world wide by radical left wing organizations or Islamic nations through the years.\u00a0 That sort of \u2018ignore part of the evidence and you can prove anything\u2019 form of propaganda immediately sends up warning flares to me. <\/p>\n

Of course the article paints a bleak picture, linking extremists with Republican leaders, racism and the GOP, Conservatives in general with their worst counterparts.\u00a0 That\u2019s propaganda in the nutshell: use fact, twist facts, add lies, and mix with biases while ignoring inconvenient facts.\u00a0 How do you know Jews are corrupt?\u00a0 Find some corrupt people who happen to be Jewish and go from there.\u00a0 Same with Blacks.\u00a0 Same with Muslims.\u00a0 Same with Atheists.\u00a0 It\u2019s a time honored approach.\u00a0 Not that some of the violence or evil done by Conservatives wouldn\u2019t have a particular feel or tone about it.\u00a0 Sure it would.\u00a0 But the same goes for evil done by Christians, or Blacks, or Whites, or Muslims, or anyone.\u00a0 Or, dare I see, even liberals!\u00a0 <\/p>\n

I\u2019m not saying\u00a0that there isn\u2019t a story here.\u00a0 I\u2019m not saying that we shouldn\u2019t be looking at everything honestly \u2013 including violence done by Left and Right Wing extremists, and how such a small percentage of the population manages to kill almost as many as one of the largest demographic groups.\u00a0 But this article is not trying to look at facts.\u00a0 It is a little bit of raw meat thrown to the rabid wolves.\u00a0 In fact, anyone who takes this and immediately uses it to build any case at all\u00a0should send up warning flags to the rest of us about that person\u2019s credibility.\u00a0 I know I\u2019d be hesitant to listen to such a person again.\u00a0 Which is why I seldom read Newsweek anymore. <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And announces that it is Right Wing Extremists who are the real threat to Americans.\u00a0 Of course they are.\u00a0 America is the third largest population in the world with 318 million Americans.\u00a0 Of those, only .9% are Muslim.\u00a0 31% are Conservative.\u00a0 That means 98,580,000 Americans identify as Conservative vs. 2,862,000 who identify as Muslim. Now, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2805,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nNewsweek throws red meat to the tribal faithful<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"And announces that it is Right Wing Extremists who are the real threat to Americans.  Of course they are.  America is the third largest\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2016\/02\/newsweek-throws-red-meat-to-the-tribal-faithful.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Newsweek throws red meat to the tribal faithful\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"And announces that it is Right Wing Extremists who are the real threat to Americans.  Of course they are.  America is the third largest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2016\/02\/newsweek-throws-red-meat-to-the-tribal-faithful.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Daffey Thoughts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-02-07T15:35:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dave Griffey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dave Griffey\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2016\/02\/newsweek-throws-red-meat-to-the-tribal-faithful.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2016\/02\/newsweek-throws-red-meat-to-the-tribal-faithful.html\",\"name\":\"Newsweek throws red meat to the tribal faithful\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-02-07T15:35:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-02-07T15:35:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/#\/schema\/person\/9de3f33a0818ebc53727444b649c82a7\"},\"description\":\"And announces that it is Right Wing Extremists who are the real threat to Americans.  Of course they are.  America is the third largest\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2016\/02\/newsweek-throws-red-meat-to-the-tribal-faithful.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2016\/02\/newsweek-throws-red-meat-to-the-tribal-faithful.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2016\/02\/newsweek-throws-red-meat-to-the-tribal-faithful.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Newsweek throws red meat to the tribal faithful\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/\",\"name\":\"Daffey Thoughts\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/#\/schema\/person\/9de3f33a0818ebc53727444b649c82a7\",\"name\":\"Dave Griffey\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/546cf1ab64797c201cc8ad19185f2e57?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/546cf1ab64797c201cc8ad19185f2e57?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dave Griffey\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/author\/dgriffey\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Newsweek throws red meat to the tribal faithful","description":"And announces that it is Right Wing Extremists who are the real threat to Americans.  Of course they are.  America is the third largest","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2016\/02\/newsweek-throws-red-meat-to-the-tribal-faithful.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Newsweek throws red meat to the tribal faithful","og_description":"And announces that it is Right Wing Extremists who are the real threat to Americans.  Of course they are.  America is the third largest","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2016\/02\/newsweek-throws-red-meat-to-the-tribal-faithful.html","og_site_name":"Daffey Thoughts","article_published_time":"2016-02-07T15:35:00+00:00","author":"Dave Griffey","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dave Griffey","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2016\/02\/newsweek-throws-red-meat-to-the-tribal-faithful.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2016\/02\/newsweek-throws-red-meat-to-the-tribal-faithful.html","name":"Newsweek throws red meat to the tribal faithful","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-02-07T15:35:00+00:00","dateModified":"2016-02-07T15:35:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/#\/schema\/person\/9de3f33a0818ebc53727444b649c82a7"},"description":"And announces that it is Right Wing Extremists who are the real threat to Americans.  Of course they are.  America is the third largest","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2016\/02\/newsweek-throws-red-meat-to-the-tribal-faithful.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2016\/02\/newsweek-throws-red-meat-to-the-tribal-faithful.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2016\/02\/newsweek-throws-red-meat-to-the-tribal-faithful.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Newsweek throws red meat to the tribal faithful"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/","name":"Daffey Thoughts","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/#\/schema\/person\/9de3f33a0818ebc53727444b649c82a7","name":"Dave Griffey","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/546cf1ab64797c201cc8ad19185f2e57?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/546cf1ab64797c201cc8ad19185f2e57?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Dave Griffey"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/author\/dgriffey"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2805"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}