ESR's Anti-Idiotarian Manifesto

[hermit22]

Originally posted by MaggieL

We haven't seen binLaden or Zawahiri themselves flying any airplanes into buildings. And even their minons who did were convinced a martyr's reward awaited them personally at the end of the tunnel. This doesn't demonstrate that the movement as a whole is "principled", any more than Jim Jones or Marshall Applewhite or others of their ilk were. How much time have we all spent studying *their* beliefs for "interesting social insights"--beyond adding to the demagogery HOW-TO?

Actually, it's a pretty well-researched subject in Sociology and psychology. The difference, of course, is that they are researching it, and not making blanket statements based on a few soundbytes.