# Why should we be afraid of terrorism? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 18, 2017, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-we-be-afraid-of-terrorism/799172 "2017-10-18T00:38:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2017, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-we-be-afraid-of-terrorism/799172/41 "2017-10-19T03:18:32Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > That’s why people are afraid of nuclear power and not every other form of energy, or more afraid of flying than driving. Well, things like coal which kill a lot more than nuclear power do it slowly and quietly. While availability has something to do with fear of nuclear power, the ability of the owners of nuclear plants to execute almost worst case scenarios probably has something to do with it also. Remember, in the early 1950s when nuclear power began it was not feared at all. Something had to change that perception. > [@](#): > > It’s like outlawing bump stocks, or the NFL players protesting police shootings of blacks rather than black shootings of other blacks - if they were reacting to the total numbers, they would have been taking a knee during the National Anthem for the last twenty years. But the perception is that doing something or other about police shootings is easier than addressing the problems of black-on-black crime, because police are responsive to public pressure, and drug thugs are not. > > Regards, > Shodan You’ll be happy to know that there are lots of protests against black-on-black crime in places like Oakland and East Palo Alto, usually by mothers and kids. Always peaceful, gets a mention, and as you they don’t do much good. Perhaps there would be more outrage if the perps, when caught, frequently got off. ---
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2017, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-we-be-afraid-of-terrorism/799172/42 "2017-10-19T09:06:00Z")
I feel we’ve lost our sense of humour somewhere. And that’s led to a lack of perspective. In the UK we had terrorism for decades and the usual response was some form of gallows humour. Ok, some of that was based on centuries of racism against the Irish and wasn’t exactly PC. But it did help to deflate the terror. But with Islamic terrorism it’s all taken so seriously. Maybe because of the scale of 9/11 left little room for jokes. But there have been enough minor failed incidents that we should be laughing at. The shoe bomber who couldn’t get his fuse to light for instance. Chris Morris produced the excellent ‘Four Lions’ which depicted a bunch of inept terrorists. But I’ve seen little else that takes the piss out of the terrorists. And it’s hard to be scared of someone when you’re laughing at them. Maybe it’s easier for us Brits as we’ve had decades to get used to it, whereas it’s all new to Americans. I remember talking to some American tourists in 2002 and they were still shocked by 9/11 because it had happened only one state away from where they lived. I told them about the car bomb I’d walked past 10 minutes before it had exploded and they went pale. ---
**Author:** ![igor\_frankensteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/839c29/32.png) [@igor\_frankensteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/igor_frankensteen)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-we-be-afraid-of-terrorism/799172/43 "2017-10-22T02:12:10Z")
> [@Skepticalthegreat](#): > > Why are we so afraid of terrorism when deaths are few and far between compared to automobile accidents ect? Hmmm. Okay, I’m not seeing “being afraid” as the driving force behind why terrorism is addressed more fiercely than automobile accidents. What I’m seeing, is that there is more ANGER about terrorism. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2017, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-we-be-afraid-of-terrorism/799172/44 "2017-10-22T05:43:39Z")
> [@igor\_frankensteen](#): > > Hmmm. > > Okay, I’m not seeing “being afraid” as the driving force behind why terrorism is addressed more fiercely than automobile accidents. > > What I’m seeing, is that there is more ANGER about terrorism. More fierce, maybe, since almost no one intentionally causes an accident. But I think far more money (and consumer money, not just government money) has gone into the successful effort to reduce the auto accident injury and fatality rate. There used to be major coverage of estimates of the carnage on the highway over the Memorial Day weekend, to the extent that Mad did a spoof of a Jerry Lewis telethon where he was trying to make sure drivers hit their death numbers. You don’t hear that any more, perhaps because the rate has fallen so far. All thanks to items like airbags, seat belts and now collision avoidance systems. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2017, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-we-be-afraid-of-terrorism/799172/45 "2017-10-23T19:25:07Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > The disconnect is that you don’t need to be inordinately afraid of terrorism to vote based on that issue. I am well aware that me or a member of my family is more likely to be hurt or killed in a car accident than terrorism by a thousand percent. However, I mitigate the risk of car accidents by buying and maintaining a safe car, and operating the car safely. The burden of car safety is 80% me, 10% car manufacturers, and 10% the state and county who maintain and build the roads. > However, there is nothing I can do to protect me and my family from terrorism except stay away from populated areas which I am not willing to do. The federal government can decide who they let in this country, attempt to infiltrate and disrupt current plots and future ones, and decide policy about the countries where the terrorists live. The burden of safety against terrorism is therefore 90% federal government, 9% local government, and 1% me. > It may sound odd for liberals who believe that the government has the answer to every problem but as a conservative I want elected officials trying to fight terrorism even though I am not afraid of it. Actually regarding the car accident, it should probably be 50% on you and 30% on the other drivers on the road over which are as completely out of your control as some crazy with a bomb. But even taking your numbers at face value, with terrorism being 99% governments problem while car accidents are only 10% governments problem, the 10% of the accidents that are governments problem are much much more than the 99% of terrorism. So if survival is your primary interest, you would be far better off voting for governments based on their policies on traffic accidents than voting on their terrorism policies. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Parker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2017, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-we-be-afraid-of-terrorism/799172/46 "2017-10-23T19:31:50Z")
It’s not just availability bias. It’s also that people fear being killed by outsiders. This is maybe particularly acute in America, but is a general thing humans do. We don’t like being killed by outsiders and are willing to spend a huge chunk of time and money (and kill a whole lot of innocent non-Americans) to try to marginally reduce the chance of it happening. ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2017, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-we-be-afraid-of-terrorism/799172/47 "2017-10-24T16:54:58Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > Actually regarding the car accident, it should probably be 50% on you and 30% on the other drivers on the road over which are as completely out of your control as some crazy with a bomb. But even taking your numbers at face value, with terrorism being 99% governments problem while car accidents are only 10% governments problem, the 10% of the accidents that are governments problem are much much more than the 99% of terrorism. So if survival is your primary interest, you would be far better off voting for governments based on their policies on traffic accidents than voting on their terrorism policies. It makes sense to vote for local and state governments based on road quality but not for the federal government and vice versa for terrorism. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-we-be-afraid-of-terrorism/799172.md?page=2)