The Rude Pundit isn't afraid of terrorists. He doesn't get afraid of crime unless directly confronted with a threat. He's not an idiot. He knows there is plenty in this world to fear. He just chooses not to be afraid. He works on a college campus, he lives in one of the most-prized terrorist target areas, he goes to public events all the time, and he lives in a neighborhood where a fucking machete murder happened on his corner in broad daylight, and yet he is not afraid, even when he's stumbling home at 3 a.m. past the place where blood puddled from the machete murder.
Being white in the United States, of course, he can afford to fear a great deal less. He may get nervous when he sees cops, but he doesn't get the gut-level anxiety that many African Americans say they feel. And, even though he has been verbally attacked and physically threatened by white assholes because of his identity or his support of one thing or another, he generally doesn't feel that scared of racists and homophobes because, truth be told, he can pass whenever he wants to by just shutting up. That's why he's safely attended everything from a snake-handling church service to a Tea Party rally to a David Duke campaign stop.
But if he had to choose who scares him more, Muslim terrorists or armed white assholes, he'd choose the latter for one simple reason: He lives in the United States and there are a fuck of a lot more of them than there are Muslims here. And he's even taking into consideration that he lives and works among a substantial Muslim population.
Just today, a young woman in a hijab sat in his college office for advice on completing her major. She brought up her kids and shared pictures because that's what people do. It didn't even occur to him to feel any anxiety or suspicion. She's a good student, the kids are kiddishly adorable, and that's that. He has interactions like that on a daily basis.
That that needs to be said demonstrates how pathetic things have gotten just since the Paris attacks by people "loyal to ISIS," with freak-out knob turned up to "Bug the fuck out" since the San Bernardino massacre.
The entire Republican campaign at this point exists to scare the shit out of people into voting for whatever worthless sinker the GOP shits out of its nominating process. And, it seems, while no GOP candidate will beat Hillary Clinton, the coward caucus is gaining traction as we move into a "serious" discussion about whether to send in ground troops to fight ISIS. The quotation marks are there because anyone who actually is serious about a strategy in fighting the terrorist group knows that it desperately wants U.S. ground troops to become part of the equation because it will make a great recruiting tool: "Hey, check out these Americans shooting a woman. Don't you want to kill them?"
The yellow streak is so pronounced at this point that a retired army officer, Lt. Col Ralph Peters, lost his fucking mind on Fox Business channel and said, "Look, Mr. President we're not afraid. We're angry, we're pissed off, we're furious. We want you to react, we want you to do something. You're afraid. I mean this guy is such a total pussy, its stunning." Other than misunderstanding what "afraid" means, Peters is also a raging lunatic who is responsible for such brilliant columns in the New York Post like a 2008 one predicting that Israel would bomb Iran and oil would be $320 a barrel by 2012 and who called members of Congress "cowards" for daring to question President Bush's Iraq surge. Apparently, only Republican commanders-in-chief are immune to criticism. (Note: None of them should be.)
What's interesting about the rest of Peters' mad ranting is that he said what is being propagated in the right-wing media and on the campaign trail by Republicans: "This is a president who has done more harm to American police departments than he has done to Islamic State. This is a president who restrains our military. He uses it not to defeat ISIS, but for political purposes for political cover. This is a president who doesn't want to hurt our enemies. This is a president who cares more about thugs in Guantanamo, or thugs in Ferguson, Missouri, than he does about law-abiding American citizens and their right to live in safety and peace." Motherfuckers are gonna fuck some mothers. It's what they do.
Peters was going apeshit in reaction to Obama's brief Oval Office statement last night on the United States's response to low-level ISIS attacks, as well as attacks by the aforementioned armed white assholes. In his speech, Obama wasn't bloodthirsty enough for conservatives (Democratic or Republican or whatever), but the point of the speech wasn't to announce some new strategy or hold up terrorists' heads and declare himself the Warlord God. No, basically, Obama was saying, "Here's the shit we've been doing, even if you don't realize it. We should look into doing some shit online. Muslims should be calling out a hearty, 'You aint' no Muslim, bruv.' And, by the way, everyone else, chill the fuck out already. Fuck."
He seemed irritated, tired, and sick of this shit, and why shouldn't he be? Everyone loses their minds whenever a Muslim fucknut shoots a bunch of holiday partygoers but then they sit back and jack off into the void if a white asshole is the shooter. The Republican Party refuses to do anything that doesn't involve blowing even more shit up, more or less spitting on people who want some sanity on guns. The media is getting into war mode, like in the run-up to Iraq. Attacks on Muslims in the United States are growing.
We are becoming an insane country. Obama merely asked us to pause, breathe, and get a hold of ourselves. The response to him was "You're a pussy."
(The Rude Pundit started this post earlier in the day. He took a pause to live his life for a little while. In that time, Donald Trump released a statement that no Muslims should be allowed into the United States. So let's no longer doubt that "Make America Great Again" means "Make America White Again.")
