The Meme Terrorists
Violence in synagogues and mosques is kindling for a larger inferno of distrust online.
The aim of terrorism is terror. It’s an easy tautology to overlook, for it appears to carry no information. But terrorism’s aims are political and social, even when its methods are violent.
When a gunman in a synagogue in Poway, California, near San Diego, on Saturday, he killed one person and wounded three others. Those figures are low by mass-shooting standards, but the attack has broader implications. Anywhere, everywhere, Jewish worshippers might fear similar violence at their own temples. The same distress descended on Muslims after a on three mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, last month. These attacks infect the innocent with suspicion. With no way
