They don’t attract people like this:
The FBI closely monitors online communities that discuss ISIS, at times running so many undercover accounts that agents end up investigating one another: An FBI policy guide, obtained and published by The Intercept, notes that online investigations have “previously resulted in resources being wasted by investigating or collecting on FBI online identities,” or employees working undercover. The Bureau also takes tips from a network of sources—from security firms to random vigilantes—who monitor these communities.
The small group of people who have been arrested on ISIS-related charges are an idiosyncratic bunch—they come from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds, and each case is distinctive. But many do share important traits with Moe and Jaelyn. According to the Center on National Security at Fordham University’s School of Law, their median age is 25. Three-quarters are American citizens. Nine out of 10 are male. Over one-third are converts to Islam. Although roughly a quarter of cases have involved people of Arab descent like Moe, whose father is Palestinian, most come from other ethnic backgrounds, including African Americans like Jaelyn. Few have criminal backgrounds. Many live with their parents. And roughly 90 percent of cases involve social media, sometimes including online conversation with a recruiter, either real or undercover.
So why is voting for Trump so scary? Have Americans really lost the capacity to discern different kinds of threats? Even words that trigger PTSD don’t have the same effect as a guillotine.
But the biggest problem with the jeremiads against the new P.C. is that they treat the so-called politically correct as radical freaks who are outside of mainstream American society—opposing the common sense free-speech position held by wholesome liberals and conservatives. Yet far from outlier ideas, trigger warnings and safe spaces grow out of impulses that are broadly shared. For many decades, the United States has been the home to a thriving vernacular therapeutic culture, where ordinary citizens borrow concepts from psychology and use them as tools of self-improvement, often, in the process, forming distinct political and social identities. In a society where Oprah Winfrey is a guru to millions and self-help books are perennial best-sellers, the adoption of folk therapy is hardly the mark of eccentricity. Moreover, trigger warnings and safe spaces echo the larger jitteriness that has marked American culture for many decades, gaining special salience after September 11, 2001.
Imagine that kind of understanding for white evangelicals.
And then duck.
Old Life 
When the therapeutic intersects with gender and racial grievance and New (Woke) Calvinism you get the Truths Table podcast. You need a glossary to follow it.
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Haven’t been able to post anything here at Oldlife for a while now. Not sure why. If I’m now relegated to moderation purgatory, please let me know via email link. I’m now aware of any posts I’ve made that are too off-topic, but meanwhile the typical sycophants (CW) seem to be doing well. If I’ve offended too drastically, please let me know.
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George, something you did was spammable. Sorry.
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I suspect this group of youth jumping to aid ISIS and other such organizations will continue to expand.
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Hey, George — I deny typical. #triggered.
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I think the key line about ISIS recruits is this: Many live with their parents. I just envision physically and socially unattractive people sitting in their parents’ basement with the only source of light being their computer screen(s), which they use for non-stop gaming and trolling. That’s enough to drive anyone insane, or to ISIS. Sorry if that triggered anyone…
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Imagine that kind of understanding for white evangelicals.
“Jaelyn attended Triumph Church, where her mom, Benita, teaches Sunday School. The pastor, Mike Fields, remembers her as a “precious, well-mannered” girl. The second half of Jaelyn’s freshman year brought big changes. She expressed interest in finding religion that fit her.”
“Young people in America have a rich tradition of feeling lost and trying to find themselves”
white ( black, any, all) true evangelicals know – and if only Jaelyn at her Triumph Church had come to truly know ..
…that we (believers) are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. (1 John 5:19-21);
and that though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, 2 Cor 103-5 ;
and that part of salvation includes deliverance from the world, its ideologies, viewpoints, its anti-God posture and system of lies and deceptions that oppose God and are contrary and hostile to the truth –ideas, ideologies, any kind of belief system, philosophy, psychology, theories –-every lofty proud expression of thought raised up against the true knowledge of the true God.
and that the three fronts/gateway for the world’s attack is- the lust of the flesh,the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life(1 John 2:16)
and that the victory that overcomes the world is our faith.(1 John 5:4) – the stopping of the believing the lies and instead believing the truth of God, embracing the things of God, loving God
as Dr. Phil says, one can’t change what one doesn’t acknowledge
which is why Jesus says “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
🙂
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Ali, so Jesus anticipates Dr. Phil who fulfills Jesus? There’s that therapeutic tic among evangies…
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oh, you don’t have to acknowledge you need a change of mind (repentance) for salvation. Zrim?
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Ali, I do but what’s Dr. P have to do with it? Get pop-therapy off the brain and come over to Protestantism.
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Zrim, Suggestion: Know the truth. Then whoever says it or whoever does not say it, is not the dominating factor; except for Jesus, that is, who always speaks truth and is always preeminent.
Just cause you like X, doesn’t mean he/she is always right and the source of all truth. Just cause you don’t like X doesn’t mean they can’t say something truthful.
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