[jammies]

Back in my day, which wasn't all that long ago - since I'm still alive - it was the "Communists" that were the main driver of terrorism. Before that, major political leaders were getting killed by "anarchists". Before that, the West were the ones using terror to cow civilians, and it was called "empire-building". Now, the big threat to world peace is "Islam".

This putative causes are all examples of framing errors: the real threat is people that believe their values demand killing those that don't share those values, and controlling those that do. The threat is not Islam, anarchy, the patriarchy, the Jews, communism, colonialism, or any other strawmen set up to provide a primary cause of all the world's troubles. It is the toxic body of fanaticism, no matter the outer clothing, that sets the bombs and fires the rifles.

This is a cultural war where we only win over decades or centuries, and where, unfortunately, innocent people will die. We already have the solution, though, and have implemented it: societies built on the rule of laws designed to maximize freedom. Over time, that solution will triumph, if it isn't sabotaged from within by well-meaning but misguided attempts to prioritize freedom from the strawmen over maximizing freedom in general.

Not that there's nothing that can be done to treat the symptoms of fanaticism - so long as we understand that's this is exactly what we're doing. Just realize that we're already winning the war of ideas, and the war of bombs, and this is why our opponents are very angry and very willing to die in a hopeless battle to reverse that.