Tuesday Heresy Quartet 2 of 4: "A proper response to the Islamic State has to be proportional to the real threat."

"After all, we have fire departments always on call, but they don't ride around spraying water on homes 24/7 out of 'an abundance of caution.'"

This essay is incredibly sensible. These ideas doesn't stand a chance, do they?

You Won't Like It, But Here's the Answer to ISIS, by Peter Van Buren (Common Dreams)

Giving advice to a presidential candidate who wants to "DO something"

... If your candidate needs a what-hasn’t-worked summary statement, it’s simple: everything. To any argument you make to your preferred presidential candidate about what did not “work,” you need to add a sober assessment of the real impact of terrorism on the United States in order to ask the question: Why exactly are we engaged in this war on this scale?

"Politics is the art of persuasion and rhetoric a weapon of mass persuasion."

And they're not finished yet, unfortunately.

Philippe-Joseph Salazar: the philosopher whose essay on Isis has shocked and enlightened, by Agnès Poirier (The Guardian)

To win a war on the ground, you need first to win the war of words, says in essence French philosopher Philippe-Joseph Salazar in his latest essay, Paroles armées: Comprendre et combattre la propagande terroriste (Armed Words: Understanding and Fighting Terrorist Propaganda), which has made a mark on the public debate about the Paris attacks. It is through words that statesmen galvanise their compatriots, and call to arms. Words have the power to spur millions of people into action. La Marseillaise, the French anthem which has echoed through the world since the Paris attacks, as a symbol of defiance and a cry to defeat the oppressor, is a perfect example. And so is the jihadi propaganda freely available on the internet. Politics is the art of persuasion and rhetoric a weapon of mass persuasion.

But if rhetoric is the art of influencing the thought and conduct of an audience, and the ability to use language effectively, we democrats, we French republicans, have lost, and they have won. Who are they, he asks. An enemy whose name we cannot even start agreeing on. And that’s not the least of our problems.

Paris: We cannot defend values by abandoning them.

Photo credit: The Nation

I'm a cosseted white male American who has traveled a bit, just enough to understand that he doesn't know much at all about the wider world, and as such, intends to think about matters a while longer before spouting glib, ignorant gibberish on social media.

I'm a human with a brain, not Pavlov's mutt. Salivate at the ring of ISIS's bell, and it wins. Yes, I favor crushing terrorism, but not through emulating the methods of terrorists.

These three essays encapsulate my point of view, as stated far better than I'm capable at the moment. Take a moment, read and think.

The Guardian view on the Paris attacks: amid the grief, we must defend the values that define us (The Guardian)

To Defeat ISIS, We Must Call Both Western and Muslim Leaders to Account, by Laila Lalami (The Nation)

Paris: You Don’t Want to Read This, by Peter Van Buren (Common Dreams)

"Liberal Racism: 25 Things I Learned After I Wrote About ISIS and White Racism."

Yesterday, "What ISIS really wants."

Today ...

Liberal Racism: 25 Things I Learned After I Wrote About ISIS and White Racism at the Daily Kos, by chaunceydevega (Daily Kos)

Racism is not an opinion. It is a fact.

White supremacy is one of the most powerful social forces and ideologies in the United States (and the West). As such, it is reflected in our political discourse, and both intentionally (through active racism) and unintentionally (implicit bias) reproduced by individuals.

Online spaces are a great lens into white supremacy because they are a type of public arena where individuals can drop the mask of social conformity and desirability, revealing their private thoughts and true selves.

Thus, comment sections are transformed into a space where “backstage racism” can be transformed into direct and public acts.

Must read: "What ISIS Really Wants."

A long and very worthwhile essay, and perhaps the best place to begin understanding what ISIS is about. It's also worth remembering that as we focus on choreographed atrocities, more than 200,000 Syrians have died in the country's four-year civil war.

What ISIS Really Wants, by Graeme Wood (The Atlantic)

The Islamic State is no mere collection of psychopaths. It is a religious group with carefully considered beliefs, among them that it is a key agent of the coming apocalypse. Here’s what that means for its strategy—and for how to stop it.