Terror in the skies and in our midst, or keeping the sheeple docile

If you haven't been following the story of Annie Jacobsen's "Terror in the Skies, Again?" you've been missing out.

Annie J wrote an overwrought, racist, paranoid account of an experience that she found so terrifying it "caused [her] to question whether the United States of America can realistically uphold the civil liberties of every individual, even non-citizens, and protect its citizens from terrorist threats."

What was this horrific ordeal? A plane trip on which 14 Syrian males went to the john frequently, refused to smile at her, and carried musical instruments.

S.Z. of the wonderful World O' Crap gave Annie the smackdown here (scroll down) in a hilarious dissection of the original article. Read the ongoing story about the fallout and web tizzy caused by Annie J and by S.Z.'s spirited response here, here (scroll to "Somebody's Been Reading Your Comments"), here, and here (scroll down to find these gems in each link). S.Z. includes links to all related stories and comments, including a response from a Salon.com writer (yes, you have to consent to watching an ad before you can read it, but "The Hysterical Skies" is worth it).

I don't even wanna know what Little Green Footballs (nope, I won't link) or Free Republic (ditto) had to say about Annie's tremulous narrative, because remarks offered by their brethren on World O' Crap's comments page were disturbing enough.

What's striking about Jacobsen's story and the wingnut response to it is how fear-based it is, and how that fear is based on ethnicity. In other words, kind of the official government line, so I guess it isn't so striking after all ...

In all seriousness, though, the naked use of such tactics to keep the sheeple docile and unquestioning is stunning, even Hitleresque, one might say. (Yes, I'm going to use the H word--why not, when the wingnuts use it so often when talking about Hitlery Clinton--ain't they clever, the little dears?)? That the sheeple are so willing to follow, to allow irrationality rather than rationality determine their actions, is disturbing. I suppose it's quite psychologically convenient to displace all of our fears on the Other, that monolithic entity that wishes us ill and represents ultimate danger. (For "our," of course, you have to read "Caucasian Americans.") Creating a demonic Other, whether an evil dictator or an entire people, is exactly what this administration did--and continues to do--to stop the process of rational thought and replace it with blind fear.

The justification of racism offered by Jacobsen et al. frightens me more than the specter of terrorism. It isn't that long ago in America's history that African-Americans were the victims of various rationales for their mistreatment by the larger society. We should also not forget the lessons of Nazism. Wherever a group is scapegoated and made into a subhuman group possessing uniquely villainous tendencies, there lies the potential for a whole spectrum of injustice to be rationalized and imposed, from "small" injustices to murderous violence.

It is irresponsible for politicians and for news media to showcase, exploit, and even praise this kind of hysteria. Annie Jacobsen and her fans aren't alone in spreading this virus, either. Via the excellent Orcinus comes a Time magazine story (available only to subscribers) on the "Highway Watch" program, which is to enlist 400,000 truckers in the WOT (that's War on Terra, for those of you who are acronym-impaired). Here's a lovely little introduction to the people who will be on the lookout for suspicious characters:

After the session in Little Rock, two newly initiated Highway Watch members sat down for the catered barbecue lunch. The truckers, who haul hazardous material across 48 states, explained how easy it is to spot "Islamics" on the road: just look for their turbans. Quite a few of them are truck drivers, says William Westfall of Van Buren, Ark. "I'll be honest. They know they're not welcome at truck stops. There's still a lot of animosity toward Islamics." Eddie Dean of Fort Smith, Ark., also has little doubt about his ability to identify Muslims: "You can tell where they're from. You can hear their accents. They're not real clean people."

No stereotypes here! Orcinus makes quick work of this nonsense:

Um, yes, Ann Coulter would agree on the cleanliness thing. Except there are also a few other teeny little problems:

-- "Islamic" terrorists planning an attack are extremely unlikely to make themselves stand out or otherwise draw attention to announce their presence by wearing something like a turban.

-- In much of the country, as the story goes on to explain, many of those turban-wearing truck drivers are Sikhs, not Muslims.

-- Tim McVeigh did not wear a turban.

This whole passage makes clear that the purpose of the program is not to do anything serious about terrorism: It's to enable these truck drivers in harassing "non-American" minorities.

Read the rest of the Orcinus post--it's well worth it.

And what's likely to be--nay, what already is--the result of this encouraging of stereotyping and racism? Orcinus, in "The waxing of the dark tide," gives us the not unexpected, though dismaying, news: hate crimes are on the rise, and

Americans need to begin looking in the mirror for answers. It isn't very hard to see that the current milieu is a prime environment for this to occur.

-- The country is being led by a cadre of thoughtless fearmongers who do not hesitate to wave the bloody shirt of terrorism to silence their critics and stigmatize anyone who acts "different." The harmful effects of this behavior from our leadership on the general populace is incalculable.

-- A particularly shallow brand of patriotism -- replete with jingoist sentiments, hatred of The Other, and a hollow symbolism -- has been promoted in every possible avenue, from national television broadcasts to the corner drugstore. This kind of thoughtless "Americanism" is an important feature of many hate crimes (including the one Death on the Fourth of July focuses upon) and plays a significant role in formulating the motivations for this violence.

-- Most of all, a fog of intolerance has filtered across the national landscape over the past decade, thanks mostly to right-wing propagandists with massive popular reach: Rush Limbaugh, Michael Weiner (aka Savage), Dr. Laura, Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, and the whole phalanx of their imitators. The thrust of the modern conservative movement has morphed from any sense of real conservative values into a relentless attack on the very notion of tolerance for anyone who is not part of that movement: liberals, gays and lesbians, other faiths, other colors.

These pose the real threats in this country. The hysteria whipped up by the Annie Jacobsens and her more well-known counterparts in the right-wing media is used and manipulated by those who wish to wield power, to remain in power, to use that power to wreak their will upon the nation. That fear is used to rationalize what "must" be done, even if our civil liberties are eroded, even if we make unjustifiable war on a sovereign nation. "Terrorism" is invoked at every term to keep Americans too frightened to think and to act rationally.

Because no one who is rational could vote again for George W. Bush, and that, in the end, is what it's all about.