Extremists are extremists – and pretty much all the same wherever you are.? They have their rules, they believe in those rules – and want to close out of society and demonize all those who have a more live and let live attitude.? Or, one might say, a more creative approach to life.
Here’s another key commonality – extremists are very easily led.? Just listen, and you can learn their code words.? Repeat the code words with vigor and determination – but never with humor – and then begin to point out the direction you want them to go.? Before you know it, you have a crowd of very dangerous people:? a mob.
It seems to me that’s how Ambassador Stephens was killed in Libya, that’s how the US Embassies in several Arab Spring counties were stormed.? That’s also exactly what you hear when you listen to Fox News.? (I literally couldn’t make sense of Fox News the other day, when I was inadvertently exposed to it at the neighborhood hardware store.)
One interesting variation, it seems to me, is how the Tea Party learned enough Republican language to get members elected to Congress – and then the Republicans learned the Tea Party language to get all that angry support (dollars and volunteers) for their ticket.
How’s that working out for them?
P.S.?? And now a strong Libyan group, which does not appear to be a mob, and which supports democracy and really liked our Ambassador, has chased two militias out of Benghazi.? Democracy is going to take time and practice – and we need to keep cheering them on.