She fit perfectly the description that George W. Bush gave of his countrymen in his second acceptance speech:
“… sturdy and honest, and hopeful as the break of day.”
With innocent delight she told me about her wonderful luck in business. She and her husband lived in Florida; they owned a furniture factory in the Caribbean which earned them extraordinary amounts of money. They were very rich. God had guided and protected them all the way.
…
“It’s amazing!” she marvelled. “We are so blessed! You know, we hardly have to pay the workers anything!”
It seems that, like the powerful all through history, we in the prosperous West have been blind to the most fundamental of truths: that all human beings truly are of equal worth. Without this knowledge rooted in blood and sinew and bone, we’ve taken it for granted that somehow, we matter more than the rest.
So we’ve fallen into what is, in fact, exploitation
Add memories of colonial shame, governments slyly in league with global finance, a hyped-up religious fundamentalism and a few tighter turns on the screw… and you have a time bomb.
Yeah for some reason it’s always one particular religion 🙄
It’s also straight up not true, the main man behind the attacks was ‘rich’
From 1968 to 1976, Osama attended the prestigious Al-Thager Model School in Jeddah,[15][29] and then an English-language course in Oxford, England, in 1971.[30] In the late 1970s, he started studying economics and business administration at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah.[31][32]
He was simply following Islam as he best felt he could:
Bin Laden was reportedly an avid reader, and often quoted Bernard Montgomery and Charles de Gaulle.[37] He was raised into Sunni Islam,[38] and subscribed to the Athari school of Islamic theology which interprets the Quran literally, rather than figuratively.[39]
For religious reasons, he was against gambling, homosexuality, intoxicants, masturbation, music, premarital sex, and usury.[40][41][42]
and then used that as a base to attack anyone not Muslim, scraping the barrel for reasons to kill civilians, as is the case with many Muslims (not ALL Muslims), even here in Australia:
The ASIO head’s statement says that while Sunni violent extremism represents the majority of the case load of the spy agency’s work, the terror threats have diversified online since September 11.
STATEMENT VO: “Al-Qaeda, ISIS and their affiliates are exploiting permissive spaces in the real world and online to grow their capabilities, demonstrating a renewed capacity to conduct and inspire attacks outside their immediate spheres of influence… These groups still see western interests as legitimate targets.”
Can I just say as well
It seems that, like the powerful all through history, we in the prosperous West have been blind to the most fundamental of truths: that all human beings truly are of equal worth
Holy crap this lady sounds naive as hell for 2026
Yeah, i felt writing that and not recognising Bin Laden’s wealth was an oversight that she needed to address for her narrative to work properly. I don’t think it disqualifies the narrative though, but glad someones highlighted that.
Not to mention theres still open questions about how much the Saudis knew, the extent of their involvement, and how high that went. And they are by no means poor or powerless, even then.
Yeah for some reason it’s always one particular religion
Thats just incorrect bigotry about a whole religion, spanning many sects and classifications, not to mention countries and cultures
Definite props though for stating later (not ALL muslims). But blaming a whole set of people at all for the crimes and shit behaviour of a few is never right.
Its like blaming all Jews for what Israel is doing to Palestinians, or all Christians for what the IRA did to British people. Or vice versa in all cases. Was the Pope responsible for Bloody Sunday?
I think theres something real in what you’re picking up on though. But i think its a systemic issue to do with the historic construction of what has become the ‘Islamic world’. European colonialism was influential here, but also more localised and ongoing tribal conflicts. Even environmental pressures.
The conflicts across the Sahel due to the expansion of the Sahara pushing groups into each other’s lands they use for subsistence has been an underlying driver of conflict across that region. Tim Marshall Prisoner’s of Geography was a good distillation of that.
Its like blaming all Jews for what Israel is doing to Palestinians, or all Christians for what the IRA did to British people. Or vice versa in all cases. Was the Pope responsible for Bloody Sunday?
This line used to work on me back in the olden days, I remember back when Christians would say, can you blame all Christians for the Westboro Baptist Church?
The hardest part to square was that there are billions of Christians and Westboro only represented a tiny fringe few people, literally just 1 family.
On the other hand with Islam, it’s not isolated incidents or groups is it?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_designated_terrorist_groups
These are groups with 100’s of millions of followers committing atrocities literally all over the globe
And as mentioned they currently consume a majority of our head security agencies time in preventing terrorism despite them being in Australia (a peaceful country where there is no need for violence) and despite being only 3.2% of the population.
The ASIO head’s statement says that while Sunni violent extremism represents the majority of the case load of the spy agency’s work, the terror threats have diversified online since September 11.
Melbourne btw:
This level of lets all just be friends :D may have worked back in 2006 but it doesn’t work in 2026
The conflicts across the Sahel due to the expansion of the Sahara pushing groups into each other’s lands they use for subsistence has been an underlying driver of conflict across that region.
I have to press X for doubt, these conflicts have been going on for decades and decades
The earliest levels of violence came directly from Mohammad himself:
The early Muslim conquests, or the early Islamic conquests (Arabic: الْفُتُوحَاتُ الإسْلَامِيَّة, romanized: al-Futūḥāt al-ʾIslāmiyya),[1] also known as the Arab conquests,[2] were a series of wars initiated by the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and continued by the early Muslims
I’m not saying ‘lines’, I’m trying to get you to wake up to the historic systems that create these sharp divisions and friction points.
I used to think Religion was a cause of hatred, but its actually a post-hoc rationalisation by the people experiencing circumstances they can neither see the cause of, nor explain. That includes people like Bin Laden, with all his wealth he was born into a part of a system, and became a part of that system where the logical reaction is to attack and try to pull down your perceived foe.
You’re hatred for religion, and one in particular helps nothing, and actually hinders the development of a less religious world, which I suspect you see as a better way. It hijders it because you make an enemy out of the majority of the people on the planet, and enemies are famous for having little trust in each other. And trust in each other is key if you want them to take notice of your ideas.
Also a picture of a guy protesting with an ineffective protest sign, like its not even witty its just rage in printed form, and a wikipedia list of recent terrorist attacks by small groups of terrorists is your idea of presenting a case for hundreds of millions of followers and supporters? … pffft thats horribly a undercooked for the population sizes, and doesn’t even make logical sense, as I will explain in two ways below.
US Republicans just had a convention in Texas where someone was advocating shooting some Democrat and was apparently cheered for it. By your incoherrent logic that means all Republicans and those that vote for that Party are blood thirsty murderers, because a guy did a thing at a convention. Its just not true.
Many, not all, Germans genuinely cheered on the Nazi’s for years, but they would never have committed the crimes Nazi’s committed, or thought thats what they were supporting by supporting the Nazi’s. Its one reason why the allied forces decided to march 1000 people from Weimar (or a village nearby) up to Burchenwald concentration camp to witness the attrocities that had been committed there. Because they knew the support was still there, the cognitive dissonance was so strong that without the incontrovertable evidence in so many of the German’s own eyes and nostrils that the attrocities could be dismissed as the occupying force propagandising.
US Republicans just had a convention in Texas where someone was advocating shooting some Democrat and was apparently cheered for it. By your incoherrent logic that means all Republicans and those that vote for that Party are blood thirsty murderers
If US republicans in Africa, Asia, North America, weirdly not latin America, maybe not a whole lot of muslims?, across asia pacific, indonesia, the middle east were all advocating for shooting democrats and regularly killed democrats, beheading them, drove cars through crowds of democrats, blew them up, regular “moderate” republicans showed up saying anyone who insults trump should beheaded in public… in australia… then yeah i would?
or at least i would argue us republicans are a dangerous and deranged group… wouldn’t you?
If US republicans in Africa, Asia, North America, weirdly not latin America…
This sentence makes no sense Claude. Recalibrate and try it again.
Lololololol!!! 😆 Its like your heads been buried in the sand for the last 15 years. Do you only consume right wing propaganda? Like on a scale from ‘Zero’ to ‘Only Consume’, how much Sky/News24 do you watch per week?
The right wing terrorists, that vote overwhelmingly Republican, are regularly targetting Democrats, racial minorities, religious groups like Islam all over the USA. Don’t let facts get in the way of good time though…
Heres a list. For interests sake scroll to the bottom for a comparison with Islan and Left wing.
So the point stands. You don’t attack whole groups for the actions of individuals. Even if some members of those groups commit or applaud the commitment of heinous crimes.
This is why all men aren’t in prison for domestic violence against women, its not all men, but theres a pattern of rape and murder of women by men.
This sentence makes no sense
because you made a bad analogy and i was simply throwing it back at you
Like what does
2020 Zagreb shooting 12 October 2020 Croatia
what does this have to do with us republicans?
Do you only consume right wing propaganda? Like on a scale from ‘Zero’ to ‘Only Consume’, how much Sky/News24 do you watch per week?
Please stop these echo chamber tier insults, you know how much I detest America
Not a bad analogy. Very appropriate, as has been proven by the right wing terrorism list reference and how much the US appears in that list. Sorry, I didn’t think I needed to spell out we were interested in the amount the US appeared in that list.
I used both the German analogy and the Republican analogy to demonstrate that you its the individuals that must be held to account while the rest try to bridge the divisions in a society.
Please stop these echo chamber tier insults, you know how much I detest America
Well it gets a bit hard to take you seriously sometimes, but fair enough. I thought that line, and it definitely was a line this time, was nicely pithy though.
