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Comment by ferdo | Hacker News Reader

Personally, I'm sick and tired of "OMG! SHARIA LAW!" being used as the excuse to spy on all of us. The same demagoguery was used by the Nazis (using Jewish law) as the basis for their depredations.

> "Why do so many countries want to attack us?" the person asked.

> The general replied that America stands in the way of them reaching their objective, which is to force everybody to comply with sharia law.

> "They want to attack us because we're bombing them!" shouted another person, to much chuckling from the audience.

And General Alexander should get a costume that doesn't make him look like one of the Love Boat crew.

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I doubt most "terrorists" even care about sharia law. A crew of terrorists is basically a crew of thugs and gangsters who want money and power. The so-called sharia ideology is just propaganda to get new recruits. Good example was Abu Zarqawi the Jordanian gangster who went to Iraq to fight for AQIM. He lived like Tony Montana and certainly didn't give a shit about sharia law. He was only interested in making cash G money and running the streets with his coke and guns in Baghdad.

Another example is Boko Haram in Nigeria, who's leader dressed up like Tupac in some photos and cruised around in a Mercedes while denouncing the west. He recruited through prison breaks releasing drug dealers and other gangsters in exchange for membership.

And General Alexander should get a costume that doesn't make him look like one of the Love Boat crew.

Cheap ad hominems only detract from the actual arguments to be made. Ad hominems that focus on an individual's clothing are especially weak, given the average attire of a programmer.

Costumed popinjays have proven far more dangerous in history than those that make fun of them.

General Alexander isn't worried about social niceties. I won't worry about them either when expressing my opinions about him and his peers.

Alexander could have worn business or business casual attire to this event, but he chose wear official military garb to a non-military event in order to cloak his arguments with official authority.

As I've argued elsewhere, the amount of political authority "Emperor Alexander" has managed to accumulate, and the unquestioning treatment he has received in congress and elsewhere, are signs of weakening in the republican system.

I don't think it was to cloak his arguments with official authority. I think what he was trying to do is use the blackhat conference as an open forum between the technology experts/hackers and the government. He had to have balls to wear that uniform in front of thousands of outraged people. I may not agree with what the NSA is doing, but you have to respect the man for talking at that conference especially in that uniform.

> America stands in the way of them reaching their objective, which is to force everybody to comply with sharia law.

That just can't be.

Coming from a supposedly educated man who was also granted enormous power is immensely frightening. It's just not possible, circumstances like these will ultimately lead to the destruction of the country.

My jaw dropped when I read that line. I thought that line was just used by the crazy nutballs on Fox news. I honestly had no idea that was a literal justification used by people in power. Crazy.

I hate it when i find myself agreeing with a reductio ad hitlerum, esp when its in response to an argument based on the same kind of fallacy, but i do.

I also hate using reductio ad hitlerum, so imagine my confusion in finding it pertinent.

I actually agree that that's exactly the jihadists' objective. However, it's silly to say that this can be achieved with random acts of terrorism.

1) 9/11 2) ??? 3) Sharia law!

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