ASA 2 A03
Blog 6
"Monster, Terrorist, Fag: The War on Terrorism and the Production of Docile Patriots" by Puar and Rai
I felt that is is an example of how terrorism studies posits terrorists as naturally evil or having had a flawed upbringing. On top of being factually inaccurate, the person who posted this is a high school peer who joined the Marines and is now stationed at Okinawa. We have a problem of where very culturally-ignorant young adults, fresh out of high school, are being conditioned and flown to military bases where they form very aggressive and hetero-normative ideas of the others.
I agree that terrorism studies and mainstream American conservative rhetoric reduces political, historical, and social complexities so they can blame supposed aggressors for their innate evilness and flawed upbringing. I recognize that this mechanism of blaming the other/the queer/the different and attributing their flaws to nature is not only found in the terrorist-monster context, but also in dealing with different races as well. For example, with Asian Americans, no one thinks about why they are overrepresented in high education because it is assumed they have a "natural" culture of hard work that encourages academic achievement. People fail to recognize the privilege and institutional advantages Asian Americans may have had.
Question: How else does the state/society use this mechanism of reducing complexities to justify their actions or hide a deeper problem?
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