they're a sign that ISIS is not their priority, hence the deflection to whatever the poster's priorities are (US foreign policy, fixing current inequalities due to past wrongs etc.). It's rude to do so in a thread not about one's topic, but many DUers deflect all the same.

The other reason is because ISIS doesn't fit the narrative of some DUers. Islam is a minority religion in the US with little power here, and many DUers identify with Muslims as another minority, but ISIS and many other Muslim countries have a lot of power and privilege, and it causes them some consternation that they can't resolve the two.

And another reason I see is to somehow show that these aren't "real" Muslims like Westboro aren't "real" Christians. Of course, polls have been done showing hundreds of millions of Muslims hold incredibly conservative views on all sorts of topics, and the Quran and Hadiths are filled with heinous shit, but again, it's hard for some DUers to see how a minority in the US could be powerful, privileged, and bigoted overall worldwide. They have no point of reference and are a bit provincial.

It's really that simple.

When you focus on atrocities of one side of a conflict when the other side has committed similar atrocities in that very same war then you are pushing an agenda.

How many lynchings occurred before 1942?

How many between 1942 and 1945?

How many after 1945?

One is too many, but what's the point?

gets buttons pressed and is manipulated into war mentality!

I fail to see the philosophical basis of attempting to punish ISIS when US American war criminals are not punished for similar actions. Let's talk again when the US formally recognizes the ICC and turns Bush and Cheney over to it.

In WWI we German Americans were considered the enemy simply because we had German ancestry even though many of us had been in the USA for generations. In WWII we were luckier - we did not have our property confiscated and our family sent to an internment camps like the Japanese. During bushes years many people were interned in Gitmo not because they were guilty of anything but because they were from the ME. Many are still there after being tortured for years without being brought to trial because there was not enough evidence to try them.

We need to remember that we have made these kind of mistakes in the past and not make them again this time.

I voted other.

...many of us have lived long enough to have amassed enough awful memories and knowledge with which we can draw analogies to tragic and atrocious, present day events. The fact that you seem to only be able to obsess on this recent violence does not, and will not, preclude others from relating it to other horrific violence, some of which has been perpetrated without recourse or prosecution right here, where we live. I's a natural and understandable reaction to make such comparisons in our memory for anyone who actually cares about those tragic events in our own nation's history.

One of the fatuous arguments against drawing parallels between the ISIS violence and other U.S.-based violence has been that it excuses or condones the killings; that those who make the comparisons must not care about the ISIS violence (even though each and every one citing an analogy has made clear their disgust and revulsion with the ISIS killings).

If that's so, the converse must be true. In rejecting the comparisons, you must be downplaying the U.S.-based violence; ignoring it's horrific impact; disregarding its impact and consequence; demonstrating a callous lack of concern for the victims. Could that really be the case?

In each and every expression of 'disgust' with those making such analogous comparisons with the ISIS killings, there is absolutely zero empathy shown for the victims; just an insistence that the ISIS killings should take dominance in our psyche. Are we really expected to shut ourselves off from feelings of helplessness or even responsibility; or even complicity by some in the violence committed by our fellow citizens; by our government? Who are you to judge where individual's antipathies should reside?

I believe it's a perfectly natural and healthy exercise to ask ourselves whether there is something unique and singularly endemic about violence like ISIS has committed; whether Americans are immune from that same propensity for violence; or if this is something which resides in all walks of humanity. It's a worthwhile question - one which I think critics of these analogies are ignoring, furiously avoiding; possibly out of fear that we might just find our own nation's violent image staring us in the face.

I get what you're saying. But THEN WHAT?

...let's not forget just how many expressions of misguided hatred toward Muslims, for example, have arisen in the wake of these attacks; how that antipathy toward Muslims has been a staple of bigots and demagogues since the original attacks on our nation in 2001. What many are guarding against is a self-righteous assumption that Americans are entitled, even obligated, to respond with a broad brush of retaliation. We've witnessed a decade of that in Iraq. We see uncountable instances of vigilantism directed at Muslim citizens, their homes, their workplaces, their mosques.

It's a healthy reminder that we Americans are not immune from perpetrating unjust or atrocious violence; especially as we proceed forward to confront others'.

We should be teaching basic logic in our schools. Most people don't recognize logical errors when they see them. We've stopped teaching people about flaws in logical arguments. We should get back to doing that.

It's like watching mediocre college freshman who think they're bright.

Seriously. The Crusades. We're trying to discuss contemporary geopolitics, and people think bringing up shit from 700 years ago is relevant and clever. "We did it, too!"

That's like saying, "Well, you can't really get too het up about your thieving employee. Didn't you steal a candy bar when you were like 12?

It's so effing stupid, and the people who do it always seem so pleased with themselves.

Definitely a pet peeve of mine.

I'm just glad "Trash Thread" is unlimited. But I do wish it was one-click.

It just means he's a hypocrite.

Just because a person is a hypocrite doesn't mean his argument is wrong.

And it's possible to acknowledge and condemn American savagery while still being in favor of using force to put down ISIS and Boko Haram.