IT'S NOT JUST ABOUT THE FALSE POSITIVES

Sat down for a dinner and a nice chat with Thomas Nephew and his lovely family tonight (really felt like summer -- pool party and all!).

I accused him, unfairly, in retrospect, of being too evenhanded with this post on the Annie Jacobsen, post-9/11 Syrian El Mariachi hysteria story. What I should have said is that, at the end of the day, I think that Thomas's post needs to be read in conjunction with David Neiwert, here. False positives are an important side-effect of public hysteria -- recall, for example, all of the sightings of supposed WWII Nazi saboteurs on the east coast, when in fact less than twenty ever landed and they were apprehended (without much public help) before they could do any damage. But it's important to remember historical examples of the systematic effect of public hysteria aimed at particular racial or ethnic groups. Nothing good can come of it, as Neiwert points out with reference to Japanese internment.

We live in a fear-drenched culture. Seems to me that one should work to limit that fear, or at least not spread it. Neiwert has some advice:

[T]he reality is this: It's extremely, extremely unlikely that you will witness real terrorists in action, whether merely "warming up" or actually carrying out a plot. Suspecting someone merely because they are a different color or are acting in a way you think is unusual is almost certainly a leap of logic based in prejudice and false stereotypes.

Of course, genuinely suspicious activity should be reported. But even then, it's important to keep your feet on the ground and not stir up any unnecessary fearfulness, either in yourself or in others around you. Recognize that the authorities will in fact address your concerns and investigate anything you report, and it's best to let them do so. Whatever you do, don't leap to assumptions based on nameless fears and stereotypes.

The real point of this story -- or at least Malkin's approach to it -- was to once again beat the "racial profiling" drum in an effort to paint liberals as responsible for terrorist violence. This may be fun sport for the political literati on the right, but I really don't see how it makes anyone a whit safer. (Not counting the effect of cementing one's livelihood as a scourge of fuzzy-headed liberals, of course.)