Terror in Europe, are we a target like we make out?

Recently I was at a friends house when he asked me "What's happened in Barcelona?".

I of course was pretty clueless at the time, until I found out what had gone on....

The news brought with it the usual level of shock and sympathy for all those caught up in the terrible incident which should never have taken place.

Today though, I read something which kind of put it into perspective for me. Countless times I read that the west is the target, how Europe is the innocent victim in a world gone mad, yet one persons comment of "It happens daily in the east, yet once in a blue moon here" really made me think... are we the target that we claim to be?

In the run up to the recent general elections here in the UK, the UK suffered 3 major attacks in which people died, most famous attack is the one which took place at the Manchester Arena. We were targeted... but still not as much as the east.

Not a day goes by where in some places like Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan etc, there isn't a terror attack taking place and taking innocent peoples lives. It literally is a regular event. ISIS and all other terrorist organisations we are told target people from the west, yet, looking at the actual bodies of people, they are mostly from the east, they are mostly muslim and they are mostly not from or have anything to do with the west.

So I put the question to you dearest reader... are we a target in the west like we make out?

The uprising of the far right...

Recently a lot of my social media has been focused on a march of the white far right in America and how they can operate these days etc.

The above picture depicts a moment of dark history for modern day America and the bottom part of the picture is an image from August 2017, marching for the same cause.

I find it amazing that I can sit here in 2017 and be wondering how a persons skin colour can still be an issue for anybody, I really do wonder sometimes when humanity will kind of, mature, and get over the small stuff, for the greater good of humanity... but that's for another post.

Of course, the poster child and basically the definition of racism within America is the KKK. The political party which saw murders and awful things done to people who basically weren't a straight white male. Although the KKK is still very active these days I don't believe they had too much to do with the most recent march, however, they would have had some sort of involvement i'm sure, even if it was supporting the march itself.

The far right however is a force which nobody really seems to be able to cope with or deal with. I myself have had many battles with the far right and I am still to this day blocked on many of their social media accounts because I will call out their hatred when I see it. The focus of most of the far right has shifted as we have all seen, into being against the followers of Islam and immigration which they will use as an excuse to blame every single thing on. Economy failing? Immigration. Health service under funded? Immigration... you name it, innocent people will be blamed.

This particular event which happened in Virginia however is to do with skin colour, and it's a scary sight to see, because racial tension is still sky high and events like this will only put salt into peoples wounds who have endured a whole life of being judge by their skin colour and it will teach younger children to be divided and judge others on skin colour.

It has still got to stop.

What needs to be looked at though is how the liberal and far left deal with the far right. I like to think of myself as being in the middle of left and right, I like to be able to see issues from all views, but when it comes to skin colour, I myself will always look down on those who use skin colour as a reason to hate somebody in any way.

The far left however, and much of the middle, will always refuse to engage with the far right, because they're just seen as racist idiots, which ok, might be true in many cases, but to end this kind of thing we need to engage people in talks and education. This really is the only way forward. We cannot allow racism to continue, it has gone on for long enough now and I as a white person am saying this from the bottom of my heart... but we need to TALK to the far right. We need to understand WHY they feel the way that they do and what their goals are, then, and ONLY then can we begin to talk to them about changing their point of view. If we listen to them, they will listen to us more and it is difficult, sure, but it is the only way for things like this to end.

From the bottom of my heart, to all those who were affected by what they saw at the protest please keep in mind that these people represent themselves, they do not speak for the majority of white people.

Now, i'm willing to talk to the far right... let's see who is willing to talk to me, from the far right.