It’s not lost on me how similar Trump & Q followers are to what Americans traditionally believe of terrorist groups. Ideologies based in hate & misogyny, claims to religious motives, cult-like devotion, willingness to murder others & leaders, social media platforms 1)

2) to spread disinformation, etc. We’ve dealt with foreign terrorism by bombing the shit out of countries they lived in and countries we claimed had ties to terrorists. We’ve killed innocent people bc we said they were harboring terrorists. What if those innocents

3) were just trying to survive those terrorists like we are today? Should we bomb the shit out of ourselves? Should we assume our domestic terrorists are a lost cause like we do with foreign terrorists? I don’t know yet what the answers t this are. I think it’s like most

4) things in that it’s complicated. I do know that we could miss an opportunity to learn from this. Having terrorists in your own country, living down the street from you, in your churches and schools is a whole different experience than when they are in another country.

5) I am developing a different view of those countries now, a different understanding of what their innocent citizens go through. I can see why many do not stand against them, cannot do so. Tossing bombs into their countries has not worked of course.

6) Look what our war on terrorism has done to us. We’re now at war with ourselves. Scratch that...we’ve always been at war with ourselves. Which means we’ve always had white terrorism in our country, which means I did not see it as terrorism because our terrorists are white and

7) American. Which means that my white privilege was dictating my opinions of terrorism in general. This is an example of how I work on my privilege and understanding it. Our terrorists are pretty much the same, which makes me see my own prejudices & racist opinions.

8) Seeing & understanding my own privilege and prejudices is difficult. Any time I think I’m “woke” or ready to graduate, I find another piece that I was not cognizant of. It can be shameful and embarrassing, but I think saying it out loud and letting others know

9) and see it, see that you can learn and change is worth it. Don’t be afraid to face your prejudices and challenge them.