In addition to causing a bunch of asshat politicians to instill fear and xenophobia for the purpose of getting elected, the terrorist attack in Paris has caused people in general to spend a disproportionate amount of time thinking about terrorism. The response is not generally proportional to the threat, but psychologically, that's what Americans need for some reason. We need to be scared of things.
Technically, that's what terrorism is supposed to achieve, so when you decide to be scared, give up your civil liberties, or support a pandering, hate-mongering dipshit running for office, the terrorists do win. I don't even mean that as a joke... their objective has been achieved. Well done.
Still, if you remove the snark, there are even better reasons to not spend so much time being worried about terrorism. Those reasons are math. Here's a sample of things to worry about in the US. Lifetime odds of dying:
It's not my intention to trivialize the death of innocent people. Certainly that is tragic, and impossible to explain. What I'm trying to say is that the energy spent responding to the "threat" is completely disproportionate, and that energy would be better spend on a million different things that could prolong your life or make the world an incrementally better place.
In a massive bout of irony, the 9/11 attacks seemed to unify people for a brief amount of time. Americans seemed more willing to help each other out, regardless of gender, race or religion. That sentiment didn't last long. Culturally, we're bigger dicks to each other than at any point in my lifetime. Feeding into the current round of nonsense won't make that better. If you're living a life of fear, turn off the goddamn TV and Facebook and live your life. Volunteer doing something worthwhile, or plant a tree, or help out a school... anything else.
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