Calling A Spade A Spade

RESEARCH HAS SHOWN that we humans are prone to interpret the world subjectively, through the lens of our personal biases. That fact should surprise no one. Suppose a mass murder is carried out by someone who is later revealed to have been a fanatic Islamic. You are not likely to hear anyone within the Christian community describe the criminal as "psychotic" or "mentally ill", or "deranged". Instead, he will be described as a "radical Islamic terrorist", and woe be to any bleeding heart liberal who refuses to use the words "radical" and "Islamic". Obama was given hell for simply describing terrorists as terrorists, and leaving out the religious part. Obama pointed out that he did this because among Muslims, overwhelmingly, terrorism is rejected, and anyone professing to carry out acts of violence in the name of their sacred religion is not considered a true Muslim, but has forfeited his membership in the faith. that is true. People of the Islamic faith generally hate terrorism and violence as much as Christians. Obama also point out that none of his many advisors had recommended using the term "radical Islamic terrorism", nobody had told him that doing so would help win the war on terrorism. Only Obama's conservative haters remained unconvinced. They were opposed to Obama no matter what Obama did, simply because he was Obama. suppose a white member of the Christian faith commits an act of mass murder, of terrorism. Actually, nearly all terroristic acts in the United States are carried out by extreme right wing criminals professing to be Christians; you could look it up. UN every instance, the American media and public instantly describes the perpetrator as "mentally ill", or "deranged", not as "a radical Christian terrorist". Why is this? Because conservative Christians are members of the "in" group, members of the accepted religious and political faith, and therefore their fellow members are not willing acknowledge any kinship to them. Heaven forbid that a true Christian would commit a mass murder. The very act of doing so reveals mental illness, not Christianity. The Islamic terrorist? well, he was an Islamic terrorist, a typical example of the Islamic faith, a faith in which all members, Christians seem to believe, are perfectly capable of murder, because, well, they are Muslims, and therefore, radical, and potentially violent. Ever hear of the Ku Klux Klan? sure you have. they're still around. Actually, they at enjoying something of a resurgence, like all other extreme right wing groups, under trump, and the evident hatred and racism the American president displays and evokes in others. The KK has murdered more Americans, mostly black, some catholic, some Jewish, some atheists, than members of the Islamic faith could ever imagine, and yet, although the KKK is nothing other than a radical Christian terrorist organization, and has been since its founding by Nathan Bedford Forrest in 1866, heaven forbid that it should ever be described as such, identified for what it is, here in "Christian" America. we are subjective, biased creatures, and we allow our intellects to be captured by our personal biases, hatreds, and group affiliations. for this, we pay a heavy price, and have for a very long time. the price is truth.