(no subject)

[theweaselking]

Terrorists plant IED in Austin, TX. Nobody gives a shit because the only potential targets were women.

I'll say that again: TERRORISTS PLANTED A BOMB IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND NOBODY GIVES TWO SHITS.

And why? Because the terrorists in question are white, male, heterosexual, and Christian, and the US media and to a lesser degree the public doesn't care about anything white, male, straight Christians do to brown people, females, queers, and heathens.

Feministe has more, with more links.

Comments

[dolston.livejournal.com]

This kind of thing has been done for 30 years. It has stopped being news and become a common occurrence which is terrifying in its own right.

[toku666.livejournal.com]

Just so I'm clear:

How is assuming that this crime was perpetrated by white male Christians any better ethically than assuming that any given suicide bombing was done by brown male Muslims?

Your all-caps rant is off, too. Do you suppose the police force just decided to call off the investigation once the bomb was detonated? Do you know how any of the local groups involved reacted? I care.

Just because this wasn't scooped up by every media outlet and at the top of every update doesn't mean that your logic holds.

Your underlying point is well-taken, but this post is a little over the top.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

How is assuming that this crime was perpetrated by white male Christians any better ethically than assuming that any given suicide bombing was done by brown male Muslims?

Actually, the assumption that any given suicide bombing was performed by a male muslim is actually pretty good - it's news when they're not.

The assumption that an abortion clinic bombing was performed by a white, male, heterosexual Christian is not only a good one, but
a) every one so far has been a white male heterosexual Christian
b) white male heterosexual Christians are the only ones who insist that abortion clinics should be bombed.

[missysedai.livejournal.com]

every one so far has been a white male heterosexual Christian

Er, no. In 1987, The Center for Choice in Toledo was bombed by a woman. Marjorie something (hey, it's been 20 years).

Women DO bomb clinics, just not as often as men.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Really? I'd *never* heard of a clinic shooting or bombing that wasn't a white male heterosexual Christian terrorist before.

That certainly invalidates my argument that it's *never* been the case, but I maintain that the core points remain: that this crime is not taken seriously because it's a terrorist act *by* heterosexual white Christians *against* "non-Christians"[1], and that the assumption of a white male heterosexual Christian at fault in an attempted bombing of an abortion clinic is just as valid as the assumption that a suicide bomber in the Middle East is going to be a male Muslim. It's like serial killers not being at-least-middle-class males: major, nigh-incredible news when it's not the case.

[1]: Where "non-Christian" is defined simply as "does not believe exactly as the terrorist believes"

[missysedai.livejournal.com]

Oh, I totally agree with your core points. Just correcting an important detail.

The number of women who commit this crime is small, but it is not insignificantly so, and I personally think they're more dangerous than the men who do so, because they usually feel they have a lot more invested in their cause.

(I remembered the name of the woman in Toledo - Marjorie Reed. She set fire to the Toledo Clinic three times in the early and mid-80s, and bombed the Center for Choice in 1987.)

[toku666.livejournal.com]

The weirdest pro-lifer I ever met lived in my freshman dorm. He was anti-abortion and anti-capital punishment but on the creepy end of both of those, and was an atheist, but one that held himself to masochistically high ethical standards. Total vegan, hippy, anti-abortion, but anti-death penalty atheist. And he scared me. He had a bulletin board in his room that he pinned pictures of fetuses and post-execution corpses to, and he burned through three ex-roommates before they just let him have his double room to himself.

So... That's obviously the epitome of "anecdotal," but still, I'm just sayin'...

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Did he insist that abortion clinics should be bombed and that abortion doctors should be killed?

I suspect "no" given his stance on the death penalty, but I'd like to know for the record.

[toku666.livejournal.com]

I don't really know. It never came up. It would certainly be inconsistent, but as I said, he was a really strange cat.

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

Well, it turned out to be a white male Christian with a myspace page.

ping

[ironphoenix.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but he's, you know, weird: "His myspace.com page suggests he's into tattoos, dislikes sports and doesn't watch television." Trenchcoat-mafia painting? You decide. I can't actually find his myspace page; it may have been taken down.

I also can't find anything online about his religious beliefs; do you have some source certifying that he's Christian?

This is a more complete article about the case, btw.

Also, this pro-life site has published a statement by Texas Alliance for Life director Joe Pojman repudiating the attack.

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

According to a report I heard on our local NPR station, he claimed "Protestant" as general religious belief when he was *last* in jail.

I don't claim that that proves anything about motive, though.

[shbe.livejournal.com]

Why do I feel like I just logged onto the Warcraft forums...

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

I don't know. Why *do* you feel that you've logged into the Warcraft forums?

(Was it the giant headline?)

[dreamshade.livejournal.com]

Well, it was also aimed at a pro-choice group, and there's nothing wrong with killing those heathen murderers.

[singingnettle.livejournal.com]

Well, no one cares if a bunch of baby-killers get pulverized, right? I mean, if they're not fulfilling their role as incubators, who needs 'em?

Shee-it.

[ulitave.livejournal.com]

the brown people, queers, females, and heathens have known this for ages. It's called white privilege - Tim Wise writes extensively on the topic