Anti-Muslim sentiment was embedded in American society well before 9/11 -- it started as a cheap pop culture trope in the 1980s and has now become the unquestioned assumption.
The similarities between today and the 1980s reflect a country now run by those who came of age in that decade. No matter where we look for the roots of today's political debates, we find the tropes of '80s popular culture.
Connections between the Pentagon and the entertainment industry, first intensified in the 1980s, continue to embed militarism in seemingly non-political products like video games and action movies.
