It's practically impossible to underreact to terrorism, since its goal is to incense you and provoke a reaction. Mourn the loss, and take reasonable steps to prevent it, but dont put deaths to terrorist attacks on a pedastal as more tragic than other losses or make the perpetrators into some sort of demonic antiheroes.

What impact? They kill a few people. That's terrible, but it's not even enough to dent the murder statistics. Let alone all causes of premature death.

The only impact is people's reaction to it. Blame should be shifted to those who react. It absolutely should be downplayed.

There were less than 100 homicides in Paris in 2012 and 2013 [1]. More than 100 might have been killed today.

[1] http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2015/05/05/01016-201...

And compared to the average for that block it's even worse.

The point being of the people murdered in France this year less than 1/5th of them where killed by terrorists. Yet, the other 4/5th don't make international news.

Yes, this is a tragedy, so are all those other deaths.

PS: Even at over twice the normal rate, the average US city is far worse every year.

There are around 700 people murdered in France each year. But in most cases it's someone from your family killing you, or someone that hates you for some reason, or you're involved in criminal activities.

Maybe there are 100 people killed in France in a typical year by complete strangers. And we're talking about 180 people (maybe more) killed in 2015 by complete strangers and in the name of Allah. I don't think that can be easily ignored.

Most people ignore the 400,000+ people murdered every year.

What's hard, is accepting that things like this happen, but there not reason to alter policy in any meaningful way.

> It absolutely should be downplayed.

Wait till you live in Iraq or Afghanistan where these incidents occur on a daily basis and see if you will still stand by your statement or revisit it very soon.

But we aren't talking about Iraq or Afghanistan. We are talking about Western countries where terrorist attacks are not that common.

The enemy is not irrational. The moment you understand that, you'll understand why fear is not the answer.

Try convincing fear is not rational to the people close to the attacks today. I understand what your point is, but the fact is that fear is exactly what people will feel.

I know. :(

Someone blowing himself up is not irrational?

The ones blowing themselves up are the pawns. They are driven to do this generally by the environment.

The pack leaders are the rational ones. The ones that stand to gain the most from organizing these horrors.

>The real massive danger is constantly trying to downplay it.

No, it's not. The danger is over reacting, as history has proven time and time again. Fear is not the answer.

Well it's true that France doesn't need to pass their own patriot act tomorrow and start restricting freedoms, under reacting is also possible. The fact is they were attacked and a response is necessary. It doesn't need to be reactionary, it can be thoughtful and measured, but something needs to be done.

I don't think anyone is saying that there should be no response, people just think we shouldn't over react. Closing off the borders and refusing to take more Middle Eastern refugees is a sane response, starting more wars is an insane response.