Reading the Pictures: 100% of Your Weekly Dose of Terrorism Panic

This is a very bad TIME.

First of all, the word "terrorist," at this point, doesn't appeal to any thoughtful or intellectual understanding of anything. Instead, like spraying acid, it is targeted for a strict emotional response.

Few would consider this killing spree as an act of "domestic" terrorism -- by one of our own. Instead, the emotional take-away is that Hasan is a foreigner and a one-man sleeper cell. But then, what's one more reprehensibly act of scaremongering by the traditional media at the expense of the Muslim world?

What is especially warped about this raccoon cover -- beyond how it places Hasan's act in a strictly political, as opposed to a psychological or sociological context -- is how the "psycho x-ray" effect turns what is otherwise a tragically complex story into a one-frame horror movie (sign of things to come!), making out Hasan, with that Andy Kaufman-like smile, as a bandit mutant freak.

For more media and political spin, visit BAGnewsNotes.com

 

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Comments

[Neil Mick]

4/07 Rampage at VA Tech, 32 dead. The attacker: a South Korean with personality disorders.

11/09 Rampage in Fort Hood, TX, 12 dead. The attacker: A Muslim with personality disorders.

The difference? The Muslim, "clearly," was a terrorist.

To see how differently Time dealt with the VA Tech Massacre: check out their cover, here: http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20070430,00.html

[FCruz12780]

Whether it's to sell magazines or pursue a poltical agenda, there are those who live off of America's short memory. How does the random act of a lunatic help the Right's agenda? It doesn't. Now a terrorist attack on U.S. soil on Obama's watch, that's a keeper.

[dobberdoss]

Why aren't ALL Americans more scared of their Government who fully supported the Wall St 'terrorist' organisation that completely bankrupt the country? It's called the FED!

[talib123]

Interesting...have you ever given any thought to why the term terrorist was not used to refer to the university mass murder?

[GreedyOleParty]

I just don't understand why people are so afraid of "terrorists" anyway. An internet search reveals that more Americans are killed EVERY YEAR on the US highways than have EVER been killed by terrorists worldwide (the average is about 800/ yr in the last 30 years). We should have a war on highways!! I've got more chance of being killed driving to work by some idiot driver than I do of getting killed by a terrorist.

[Ameriki]

and the pharmaceutical, energy, mining and other industries are waging chemical warfare against us with the collusion of the government. Our drinking water is laced with poison. Tankers full of deadly chemicals, gases and explosives careen down our crowded crumbling highways and when there is a spill and entire towns must be evacuated it is an accident, not a terrorist attack. Toy companies sell toys coated with poison to our children. The president, the congress, and the wannabes, the cable companies, the networks, the newspapers and rest of the media conglomerates, the banks, the insurance companies and the rest of the financial industry and the people who are supposed to regulate them behave as criminal organizations, specifically like pickpockets. They distract us by pointing their finger and shouting "Terrorist!" while lifting our wallets, stealing our credit cards and identification and then selling our homes while we are still standing with our mouths open staring at the sky.

[alexa07]

". . .what's one more reprehensibly act of scaremongering by the traditional media at the expense of the Muslim world?"

Michael,
Yes, Time magazine never failing (for many yrs.) to be malicious on any matter related to Arabs or Arab-Americans has hit a new low. Thanks for the analysis. You've definitely got a new fan. We need this kind of media surveillance more than ever.

[pdog]

While certainly you can label Hasan a terrorist the term terrorist is being rewritten to paint anyone in a darker light. Look a Bill Ayers a guy considered a sixties radical until he was rebranded a terrorist. Hollywood makes movies glorifying people who would be labeled terrorist's today. i.e. Bonnie & Clyde.
More and more often the meaning of the word is being twisted to suite a political purpose. The word terrorist is used to stir fear in your hearts and make you willingly give up your freedoms to protect those freedoms which is absurd. I have not forgotten what FDR had to say about fear The Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself . I will not cower in fear at terrorist's nothing they do will make me fear them. Those who claim that we need to give up our freedoms to protect ourselves do so out of the desire to control you. They are the enemy as much as terrorist's are. Terrorist's threaten our lives but they can never take our freedoms only the government can.

[Ameriki]

Bonnie and Clyde would not be labeled terrorists today. They were white American crooks. We do not label the criminals who terrorize some of our neighborhoods as "terrorists". We do not even label the organizations that use violence, bombing and assassination to effect their political goals as "terrorist" if they are pro-life.

[InofTouch]

apprently asking questions is bad...cover

[winningticket]

Unfortunately, fear sells in the US.

[aspiecelia]

Thank you for your insight and attempt to insert some intelligence into the stream of idiot assumptions we have had on this case. I love that you compared Hasan to Kaufman because my theory about what happened to Hasan includes a possibility that he may have been on the autism spectrum and it is believed Kaufman was on the spectrum by many.People on the spectrum are bullied(often to the point of breaking, some to the point of suicide), and the military has a huge number of the Christian Mafia who bully people, unmercifully. He also was bullied at his apartment and had work related stress. PTSD can cause psychosis. It also can cause people to loose their faith ro more radical views (the religion the person has no longer works because they have been through hell and it makes it hard to believe in), if it is even true he was radical. They practice workplace bullying in the military and corporations of America, it makes people very sick and many shootings have occured. Dr. Hasan had no support because one of the things they do is isolate the person. If he was also mildly autistic(or something similar, but not Schizoid like NPR reported) he would have a tendancy to be less social and socially awkward. He would have had a hard time figuring out how to find a wife and also may have had too many rules about her which made her impossible to find.

[NuffAlready]

...autism.­..christia­n mafia...PTSD (by osmosis)...social awkwardness which maybe kept him from finding a wife (not his radical religious standards, as his own mentors admit)...

thank YOU for "inserting some intelligence", and for not adding any "idiot assumptions" of your own.

You are...to put it lightly...deceived.

[aspiecelia]

You might want to check out Mikey" Weinstein's Military Religious Freedom Foundation, or read Jeff Sharlot's, "The Family", or "Republican Gomorrah" by Max Blumenthal. I realize these concepts are very difficult to understand and seem like they are not true. This is one reason it makes people so sick, they don't get it either while it is happening to them. The reason I understand it is I have been in a situaltion very similar to the one Dr. Hasan was in. The difference is I figured out what was going on and took appropriate action to prevent problems. I actually had to battle the medical community where I was because they couldn't even understand it. Most people are familiar with domestic violence. We know the abuse is on a continuum and the end result is suicide or homicide. This is very similar. PTSD causes people to loose their religious beliefs. The change to a more radical belief system can occur. I lost my original faith also.