New polling shows 70% of our fellow Americans believe ISIS is a major threat,

[procon]

even worse than a nuclear armed North Korea, Russia or China. As an educated woman, I'm obligated to say that I'm supposed to be shocked at the rank stupidity on display in this, the Information Age, we live in, but pragmatically I'm ready to throw in the towel.

Even a 3 second Google search shows that there are only 27,000 and 31,000 foreign fighters who have have joined ICIS terrorists in Iraq and Syria. They rely of theft to fund their operations, they have no air force, no navy, no advanced weapons systems, and no tech that can threaten the US. Unlike the stalwart citizens of Europe who face terrorism with brave determination, Americans have meekly surrendered and let the terrorists win the psychological war. How did that happen?

Which nations or groups do Americans consider to be a major threat to the security of the United States?

Seven in ten, 70%, believe ISIS is a major threat. When asked about North Korea, 61% believe that nation poses grave danger to the United States. Fewer than half of residents nationally, 47%, perceive Russia to be a major threat to America’s security, and only 38% say Syria is a great danger. 30% consider China to be a major threat to the national security of the United States.


http://maristpoll.marist.edu/414-international-tensions-heightened-say-many-americans-trump-approval-rating-at-39/

How does this happen? How did the majority of Americans, living under the protections of the mightiest military force that the world has ever known, come to imagine that a tiny handful of third world barbarians, living on the other side of the planet, armed with primitive blades and homemade bombs, are somehow a threat to us? Even considering the scattered attacks of home grown terrorists (which in no way equals gun violence), what is is that turns so many Americans into whimpering idiots, scared of their own shadows?

[dalton99a]

1. ISIS is not capable of killing 24 million Americans, unlike the GOP.

[FiveGoodMen]

9. That's right!

The R party and their eternal supporters, the "Conservative Christians", are the main threat to the US.

Has been so since WWII ended, but getting worse all the time.

[luvMIdog]

2. religion nt

[procon]

4. Ours or theirs? Both?

I agree, fundamentalism of any flavor is fraught with evil and perpetrated by greedy con men who prey upon the weak and ignorant. Yet, I am somewhat skeptical that religion, by itself, could have reduced so many Americans into mindless scaredy cats frightened by larger than life, cartoonish villains.

[Lanius]

3. LOL. Well it was never promised we'd be getting valid info in the Information Age.

Fake news and white people's fear of black and brown folks contributes to this over-inflated fear of ISIS. It's a threat, no doubt about it, but not on the level many Americans believe.

[Turbineguy]

5. The poll forgot to add

the republican party as a choice.

So clearly, it's flawed.

[Freethinker65]

6. Proud to be in the critical thinking minority

[procon]

12. Yeah, there's the whole crux of the matter.

And that's what is really terrifying, to think that something as crucial as critical thinking, has been reduced to an obscure skill set practiced by an oddball minority that values facts and truth.

[VigilantG]

7. No profitting from a nuclear war, but

When the enemy is or could be anyone around us, there is money to be made and fear to suppress. A never-ending cycle to line the pockets of war profiteers.

[guillaumeb]

8. The myth of the educated voter.

It endures.

[DemocraticSocialist8]

13. Yea. This shows that even a sizeable portion of the "left"

Is not really as smart as people believe....or is just as open to MIC propaganda as those on the Right. I'm not worried about ISIS. I'm more worried about the militarized police force and right-wing extremists than a group thousands of miles away.

[guillaumeb]

14. Right wing US extremists are far more of a threat

than any foreign entities.

[DemocraticSocialist8]

15. But because politicians and the corporate media doesn't fearmonger

about them, most people don't realize they have more to fear from right-wing extremists than Islamic extremists. It's pure propaganda and it works.

[world wide wally]

10. We've heard it suggested before, but I'll say it again,

Americans are fucking stupid

[TreasonousBastard]

11. The US, for all its preaching and love of Emma Lazarus...

is an amazingly bigoted and isolationist place, even if it weren't a nation of immigrants.

Native Americans, slaves and their descendants, Mexicans, Arabs and other Middle Easterners, women, Japanese... A lot of people we've discriminated against we still talk about, and still often discriminate against.

But what was done to the Germans during WWI included at least one lynching of a German-American citizen and other violence. The Chinese brought over to help build railroads were discarded when the railroads were built. The Irish immigrants, Poles... FDR refused to allow Jews to come here escaping the SS.

Just about every immigrant group we've ever had has been hated on arrival, and some long after. Mexico owned the Southwest, but after we took over, Mexicans whose families lived there for centuries were often booted out and their lands stolen.

Every one of them was called a "threat". Somehow going to destroy the US. But then, every one of them contributed greatly to the country, and helped build what it is today. today.

How come we don't learn?