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The Internet Makes You A Terrorist



It’s unfortunately time to put on my “I told you so” hat. Via Wired & BoingBoing:

Disaffected people living in the United States may develop radical ideologies and potentially violent skills over the internet and that could present the next major U.S. security threat, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said on Monday.

“We now have a capability of someone to radicalize themselves over the internet,” Chertoff said on the sidelines of a meeting of International Association of the Chiefs of Police.

“They can train themselves over the internet. They never have to necessarily go to the training camp or speak with anybody else and that diffusion of a combination of hatred and technical skills in things like bomb-making is a dangerous combination,” Chertoff said. “Those are the kind of terrorists that we may not be able to detect with spies and satellites.”

I hate to be right in cases like this, but it’s all in the cards - in this case the media. If you read between the lines on news stories and press releases, you can begin to see the meta-narrative that these people have been surreptitiously setting up for months now: the internet turns you all into terrorists. Moreover, your “disaffected” lifestyles (because you’ve been lied to by government and manipulated by corporations since birth) make you an easy target to spot, track and further alienate. In fact, I have a sneaking suspicion that news stories like this are in fact intended to further radicalize these people who have been radicalized by the internet - in effect, fanning the flames. How can we douse them even when news like this comes out?

The obvious question for conversation here, of course, is: does the internet in fact radicalize people? Short answer: yes! Long answer (in my opinion): it’s not the internet but quick and easy access to people all over the world with similar interests and “disaffected” lifestyles, as well as the ability to rapidly analyze events and information in parallel to spot inconsistencies and outright falsifications….

In other words, maybe the best way to not become enraged by a news story such as this is to recontextualize it, and thus focus how we interpret the story and tell it to others. It is not the internet or simple access to information and like minds which radicalizes people, but the alienating actions of people in power who seek greater and greater levels of control at the cost of humanity. So how can we read this story? We can read that these people are continuing to do what they do best, and there really is nothing new to see here. The only thing that seems to be changing is that they are coming more and more out into the open, and calling in all the subtle triggers they have been laying in media for some time now.

Are you going to take their bait and become further radicalized or become further humanized…? For as much control as these people have, the choice is always up to you.

[Thanks Garrett, for spotting this!]

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8 Reader Responses

  1. L Bradley Says:
    October 20th, 2006 at 2:51 am

    Well said! reminds me of this old quote: “Ye’ shall know the truth, and it shall make you really, really, mad.” Often what’s radicalizing people is the rift between highly controlled corporate media (which is a NEW phenomenon due to unprecedented conglomeration) and grass roots sources. They see they are not getting the full story, and it makes them mad. But ultimately, more information from all sources leads to a better all around individual, and maybe being a little radical isn’t such a bad thing! :)

  2. skip sievert Says:
    October 20th, 2006 at 8:26 am

    The scene in the last 6 years has developed that our government, being backed onto its heels, seems to be turning on us , as it has turned on people that oppose it elsewhere also.

    This trend dates from the late 1940`s but has accelerated now. It would seem that the overwhelming desire is to preserve what the politicos consider the status normal , rather than try creative approaches , so anything a little creative is considered terrorist or threatening.

  3. J. Says:
    October 20th, 2006 at 8:59 am

    It’s all been leading up to this point: the inevitable crackdown on internet freedom. Whether it’s sexual predators, rapists on MySpace or mysterious “terrorist” websites (without IP addresses, I guess), the powers-that-be have been conditioning us to view the internet with fear. We need them to make laws to protect us and especially, the innocent children, right?

  4. Gnomely Says:
    October 20th, 2006 at 11:54 am

    Yeah, I have been spiritualized by the internet. Spiritualized is a great band too! Not making any sense let me say, TaoZenDada, Gnostic Jesus, and spirituality is outside/inside you do not need the internet when the heart is in a poetic building. But the internet was gasoline that lit my inner sparklers.—It has been an educational delight to discover and read the perspectives online that ate my perspective alive and pooped out a new perspective.. For example I agree “happy is to practice the yoga of renouncing one’s own country” Milarepa

    “happy is to practice the yoga of renouncing one’s own country”

    Sorry, America my love is for life not for ugly nationalist state! And America has really let itself go- with all the war, and lies, and delusions, and illegal wiretapping, and torture. But I wish all Americans a happy Halloween and suggest they watch Night of the Creeps!!!!

  5. Abbas: Send in the Technocrats! - Pop Occulture Blog Says:
    October 20th, 2006 at 12:59 pm

    […] Another one for the “I told you so” files…. Have you heard Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’ recent comments? Evidently he has openly declared that he would like to see a temporary government of technocratcs come in and solve his region’s problems. “A government of technocrats would be the simplest and most practical solution,” Abbas told journalists in the West Bank city of Ramallah. […]

  6. Fell the Don Says:
    October 20th, 2006 at 12:59 pm

    If you’ve not become radicalised, or can acknowledge the affects of such an article on yourself, then why does this become such news? We choose to observe and react to the an infinite amount of stimuli in our environment and the ones that rile us are the ones that reflect who we are. That, in turn, can illustrate our own perceptual limitations and will define us.

    By polarising yourself from what they’re trying to do, you explicitly radicalise yourself by being not that. Becoming opposed, as such, may seem to indicate a difference, but its the binary nature of it that actually defines the reaction as part of a whole that includes the apparent problem you are reacting against.

    According to not only myth, but to the likes of Ramsey Dukes, Grant Morrison, and many others we’re familiar with, to escape the trappings of being polarised — and, in turn, being defined by others — it takes an embrace of what we fear/hate in order to understand it. Through the process of the monomyth, we all enter a Dark Night of the Soul and emerge a master of both worlds: elevated to look down upon the characteristics of both sides of the argument as two parts of the same whole.

  7. Tim Boucher Says:
    October 20th, 2006 at 1:06 pm

    Well put, Fell! I guess my approach to it was through the idea of the double-bind: don’t take the bait of the trap, but back away until you can contextualize in a larger sense, and wrap your arms around the greater situation!

  8. Fell the Don Says:
    October 20th, 2006 at 3:45 pm

    Now that I totally dig. Good to see you’re still going hard. Cheers!

    Well put, Fell! I guess my approach to it was through the idea of the double-bind: don’t take the bait of the trap, but back away until you can contextualize in a larger sense, and wrap your arms around the greater situation!



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