For the TED Talk “How young people join violent extremist groups and how to stop them” Erin Marie Saltman gives us her inside view on the growing problem of extremism. In the talk Saltman comprises her information into three sections, the first being her experience dealing with a white supremacist extremist group, education on research of why people are driven to extremist groups and then finally how to combat them (Saltman 2016). The way this TED talk is structured is very important because like anything in life, to combat a problem you must first know what the problem is and why it exist. As Saltman takes us through her journey we, with her learn more about why supremacy is on a rise, and why much of what we are currently doing is ineffective. …show more content…
This is especially prevalent when Saltman talks about the different ways they have combatted extremism. She shows that these methods are working based upon the Logos appeal of numbers proving her incremental success rate. By knowing the fact of why people join extremism we can now come up with solutions to attack those negative motivations (Saltman 2016). One example of this is simple dialog (Saltman 2016). Since we know people join extremist groups due to loneliness and search for meaning, we can combat that by showing how they can be involved in a more positive way and how negative the purposes of the hated groups are. However it may even be seen as an Affirmative conclusion from a negative premise logical fallacy because we use many of the same tactics the extremist use, to spread what we see as a positive message in the form of propaganda to this vulnerable age (Saltman 2016). One example of this is that anti-hate organization target these extremist websites with anti-extremist information and content hoping for them to get alternative facts and click away. She however backs up that this system works by showing the method has a 36% success rate (Saltman 2016). By giving us the final numbers and accurately showing us the steps to why and how those join extremist groups, Saltman gives us a logos appeal to her Thesis of why we got to know the symptoms of extremism to fight
In Jane McGonigal’s Ted Talk, “The game that can give you ten extra years of life” explains how she created a game called “Jane the Concussion Slayer” to help her overcome a concussion that didn’t heal properly. McGonigal describes to her audience the different levels and power-ups she created to make herself feel better. In doing so, she believed it helped her tackle challenges with more creativity, determination, and optimism. McGonigal then concludes her speech and challenges her audience to create their own game to add years to their lives. Taking away from this video, I have decided to create my own game so I can have a good and productive fall semester by creating “Power Points” to help me stay an organized and determined college student.
It is only human to be biased. However, the problem begins when we allow our bigotry to manifest into an obstacle that hinders us from genuinely getting to know people. Long time diversity advocate, Verna Myers, in her 2014 Ted Talk, “How to overcome our biases? Walk boldly toward them” discusses the implicit biases we may obtain when it comes to race, specifically black men and women. Myers purpose is quite like the cliché phrase “Face your fears.” Her goal is to impress upon us that we all have biases (conscious or unconscious). We just have to be aware of them and face them head on, so that problems such as racism, can be resolved. Throughout the Ted Talk, Verna Myers utilizes an admonishing yet entertaining tone in order to grasp our attention
In Brym’s article he discusses what research has shown about the motivations of suicide bombers. Brym and my fellow classmate explained to me how suicide bombers may be motivated by politics, religion, or retaliatory aims (Brym, Kyra Howard). Both Brym and Howard helped me view the issue of suicide bombers in multiple
Speckhard, A. (2013). The Boston Marathon Bombers: the Lethal Cocktail that Turned Troubled Youth to Terrorism. Perspectives On Terrorism, 7(3). Retrieved from http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/268/540
The balance between devaluing the enemy and empowering one's own population says as much about how the propagandising body views itself as how it views the enemy. The former is often drawn by inference from the latter. Propaganda takes many forms, and it is essential to understand the nature of the medium chosen to properly deliver the intended message.... ... middle of paper ... ...
1. Watch Dr. Alison Gopnik's Ted Talk "What do babies think?". It is 18 minutes long.
All the hate groups know that they can only flourish if they continue to recruit new members. Three of the most obvious similarities among hate groups members are their sex, male; their race, Caucasian; and their age, 35 years old or younger. Many people think that the reason young people are willing to join hate groups in high school and in college is that they are uncertain about their own futures. Often people believe that the young people who join hate groups are those with the least education and the least to hope for in the future in the way of jobs, but that does not follow anymore because hate has flourished on colleges and high school campuses. For members of the Ku Klux Klan, it is important that their message of hatred be carried to young people. The initiation of children and babies has being an important part of the Klan activities. It is so bad and wrong that the Ku Klux Klan has even gone so far as to hang out at playgrounds. They look for little boys who play unsupervised. The Klan believes that these boys are potential members of the Klan because their parents do not care enough to watch them play. The child is probably growing up in a dysfunctional family that gives him little attention and when he is older he will cling to the Klan because membership in this group will provide him with a strong family structure that his ...
The horror of domestic terrorism is a problem all Americans should be concerned with, especially since there is a violent subculture in this nation which seeks out and indoctrinates people into their way of life. The crime that I will be focusing on during the course of this paper will be domestic terrorism, specifically hate groups such as the KKK, and various other white supremacy groups. The theory that I will be using to try and explain these crimes will be subcultural theory, but more especially the Subculture of Violence theory provided to us by Marvin Wolfgang and Franco Ferracutti. The reason I will be using his specific subcultural theory is because I feel that it bests describes how the people in these situations are desensitized to the evils they do and then begin to believe that the acts and beliefs are normal, or superior to all other views.
When three bombs exploded in London in Spring 1999, targeting the capital’s black, Asian and gay communities, the threat of Neo-Nazi terrorism finally seemed to have become a reality. The Neo Nazis who are more commonly know by the term "Skin Heads,” are a growing force in hate groups. The German police put the number of active neo-Nazis at 47,000, a 4.5 per cent increase on the previous year. There hatred of Hispanics, Jews, Blacks, and others are now the fastest growing force in America. The younger kids usually do the Skin Head movement. These kids are drawn to the Aryan Nations and Neo Nazis by the promise of free drugs, free booze, heavy metal music, ultimate freedom, and rebellion. Many of these kids stay because of family troubles at home and, like in a gang, feel like they have a family with the group and feel loved.
One of the most complex aspects of counterterrorism (CT) for the intelligence community (IC), law enforcement (LE), and CT communities is the psychology of terrorism. In the broad study of the psychology of terrorism, a highly misunderstood and challenging subject area is the recruitment of terrorists. A “normal,” rational person would wonder why an individual would pledge to commit acts of terror that would inflict lethal or grave danger upon innocent civilians for a politically educed cause. When in matter of fact, that rational person could also be susceptible to recruitment by a terrorist organization based upon any anti-political ideologies they may hold against their respected government. There are many reasons an individual may want to join a terrorist organization which includes aspects associated to an individuals psychology, ideology, theology, and state of mind. It also includes factors like an individuals religion, culture, morals, influences, integrity, and environment. More specifically terrorists go through a top-down or bottom-up process to enter the life of a terrorist and either have a strategic choice or psychological forces which make them susceptible to terrorism and recruitment. For IC, LE, and CT professionals the psychology of terrorist group recruitment is gravely important because it will allow them to identify indicators of individuals who are at a particular point in the recruitment process, who are already recruited, and who may also be planning attacks against U.S. assets, infrastructure, and personnel. Terrorism is a serious threat to national and homeland security and it all starts with a terrorist recruitment. If an individual is identified, exploited, or neutralized before ...
Ezekiel, Raphael S. Introduction The Racist Mind: Portraits of American Neo-Nazis and Klansmen. New York: Penguin, 1995. xxviii-xxi.
Video number four features a “TED Talks” presentation from Jen Holladay. Jen Holladay described herself as a beginning teacher (she just took a job at a school in Denver, Colorado at the time of the TED Talks presentation), but her main role in education is being a mother of a child.
Today we have looked at the problem known as hate crimes and the varied causes which keep it in existence. We have also discussed some solutions to this act of hate.
Our society consists of consumers that buy into stereotypes and the propaganda that is being fed by the government and the media. Stereotypes steer individual's perceptions of a group of people in a certain way, usually negative, and generalize that opinion to all members of the group. Aware of the influence stereotypes have on people's views, governments use stereotypes already imbedded in society as a propaganda tactic to persuade people's thoughts, opinions and beliefs in order to benefit their cause. The media was used for disseminating stereotypes the effect violent music has on teenager's behaviours such as in the shootings at Columbine. After the September 11 attacks, the U.S. government used the media as an outlet to emphasize Muslim stereotypes to influence people to support the invasion of Iraq. Stereotypes and other propaganda techniques such as "name-calling, manicheanism, and censorship" are powerful instruments used in propaganda, because it tactfully influences the population to think in the way that the government and media want them to think (Shah, 2003). However, its success depends on how strong the stereotypes are instilled in society, how well they are maintained within propaganda and if the public is unaware of the propaganda techniques used.
Political violence is the leading cause of wars today. Personal agendas have led to many of the political objectives that cause violence today this has caused many problems throughout the world and will continue to do so until a solution to this issue is found. Political objectives have been advanced involuntarily dependent upon the kind of government a nation exercises. For instance, in a democratic nation political groups must worry about convincing the majority in order to advance ethically. Those who try to influence the majority through acts of violence are considered today as “terror” organizations. Though perhaps if it were not because of the recent 9/11 terror attacks that maybe such warrants would not be seen as terror attacks, but instead the result of partisan advancement. Acts of terrorism have been around throughout the evolution of mankind. Terror attacks have even been traced back as far as the religious roots of an ancient middle east (Ross, Will Terrorism End?, 2006). However as man evolved, so did terrorism. Today’s extremism involves some of the main characteristics of ancient terrorism, but much more developed. Political advancement is no longer the root cause of terrorism acts. Instead influxes of “holy” wars have been appended the prior definition of terrorism. Mistakably modern terrorism has been confused for Political violence with political objectives, but research will establish that the nature of terrorism is fundamentally different from other forms of political violence.