It seems like France stands out among terrorist attacks in the news. Is it because they are more likely to be critical of Muslim culture than other European nations? Is it because there is a security failure allowing terrorist to come in and organize better?
But it does allow for a statement to be quantified and compared. So now on to the most dehumanising post I’ve ever written…
Current French population is 65 million, and USA is 340 million. So USA is 5.23x larger.
Since 2000, 292 people in France have been killed due to terrorist acts, according to this handy Wikipedia page. 90 of which were at the Bataclan, with 131 people being killed that weekend in the most deadly terrorist attack in French history.
That gives the equivalent of 1,527 people, over nearly 24 years, or about 64 people a year.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, in the USA 2,006 people - excluding perpetrators - have been killed…since 1st January, 2021, giving a staggering 668 people per year.
(I would go back further, but unfortunately their data export appears to max out at 2000 incidents.)
So, regardless of your thoughts or feelings about gun violence in America, France’s “terrorist problem” - including the worst attack they have ever faced - is less than a tenth of that.
Does this excuse or justify any of the cowardly fucks who killed innocent people? No, of course not. Fuck them all.
But it does highlight the size, and I hope gives people a reason to pause and think about just who is peddling the line, and just who seeks to benefit from demonising overwhelmingly peaceful minority groups.
It’s almost like white nationalism is the bigger threat. Funny that.