The Distraction of Word Games

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Robert Ringer: The Distraction of Word Games

Posted on December 7, 2015 by Robert Ringer — Comments (33)

It’s bad enough that politicians and media pundits have obsessed over the question of whether or not the word “Muslim” should be used to refer to someone who is a Muslim and has committed mass murder. But in the case of the San Bernardino massacre, the hand-wringing centers more around the source of Syed Farook’s “radicalization.”

 

It’s absolutely amazing how the media is consistently able to divert people’s attention away from the real issues and create news out of nothing. “Radicalize” means to make someone “radical,” and radical means extreme. So when someone is radicalized, it means he’s arrived at a state of mind that is extreme by civilized standards. I would therefore make a case that all mass murderers are radical.

 

That’s right, John Wayne Gacy was a radical. Ted Bundy was a radical. Charles Manson was a radical. Jeffrey Dahmer was a radical. And certainly Virginia Tech mass murderer Seung-Hui Cho and Columbine High School killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were all radical. All mass murderers have become radicalized, or they wouldn’t think radical thoughts or partake in a radical activity like murdering lots of people.