5 Feet of Fury

David Cole conducts an ingenious experiment re: the ‘Trump is the top recruiter for ISIS’ meme

David Cole writes:

Apparently, all it takes to get Muslims to sign up for a life of terrorism is one speech by a wealthy reality-show star who holds no office.

The notion that average Muslims teeter so precariously on the brink of “going jihad” that one speech by a businessman-politician could cause them to chuck their normal lives and throw in with a bunch of murderous sadists reflects, at its core, a truth—one that the apologists have for years been trying to avoid: “Ordinary” Muslims become radicalized far more readily and with greater frequency than the rest of us. Again and again we hear of Muslim terrorists who “only recently” embraced jihad, often with such speed that friends and family members barely had time to notice. In a previous piece, I likened the ease with which Muslims can become radicalized to the ease with which the elderly can get pneumonia. It doesn’t mean that only the elderly get pneumonia, or that all elderly people get pneumonia; it just means that they are more likely to get it.

You have to read what he did next though.