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Peter Howard is Wintermute, mythologist

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Crazy Irish-Catholic terrorists

23July2004 [directLink] [myth]

The news shows some of the hijackers getting through airport security and people get mad. But it’s only post-911 that security can get away with stopping and strip-searching anyone looking vaguely Middle Eastern.

I realise that if I was living 20-30 years ago, I’d perfectly fit the ‘racial profile’ for a terrorist of the time - I embrace the Irish and Catholic in my heritage, I’m young and idealistic, with vaguely socialist tendencies… (I work with a guy from Ireland who was in his 20s back when the IRA were the terrorists, and he was regularly stopped at airports).

It strikes me that the terrorist profile today is so different, which makes it so much more abusive. When the Irish were the terrorists, you couldn’t stop and abuse everyone looking vaguely Irish, as you might inadvertantly offend a decent Englishman. But nowadays it’s safe to stop anyone looking Mid-Eastern, as it doesn’t matter when you abuse non-Whites.

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