Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by scrollaway 3872 days ago
> I'm not convinced that people linking immigrants and terrorism are particularly worried about the actual immigrants turning out to be terrorists in disguise.

You'd be really surprised. Your point is a valid one, but one I seldom see brought up - most people are just worried that for every 100 immigrants there's a couple of actual terrorists in the lot... Mostly because nobody's told them how stupid that notion is.

2 comments

> Mostly because nobody's told them how stupid that notion is.

Oh some people try. Hell, I told that to many people myself. People don't care about things like actually being reasonable. Instead, they're afraid and are looking to rationalize it.

Well, it is possible that ISIS would try to infiltrate operators this way (in fact, they caught a convicted terrorist in Italy hiding as a refugee a few days ago).
Possible, yes. Efficient, not really. If they don't get in this way they'll get in another way - closing down borders is about just as efficient as the ban on drugs at stoping drug cartels.
I'm not disputing that, but I'm saying it's not an irrational concern.