A comedian tells a story about terrorism that no one should laugh at. His audience passed the test.
If only more terrorists just did the right paperwork.
It's not easy to pull off jokes about terrorism, but comedian Sean Devlin knows what he's doing.
We hear the word "terrorism" in bouts of media hysteria — usually about Muslims — a lot more than any of us would prefer these days.
Devlin, who lives in Vancouver, was watching the news one day when he saw a reporter raise a simple but important question. The reporter asked politician Peter McKay, Canada's former defense minister, how the government defined terrorism.
The minister's curt reply: "Look it up."
(That's Madonna, not Peter McKay.)
Devlin took it upon himself to find out.
He felt a little hung up on the words "unauthorized or unofficial."
(Cue laugh track.)
Still unsatisfied, he kept digging for more and found a report released by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (Canada's CIA) that lays out all the groups they see as a threat to national security.
Devlin was shocked to see one group in particular that was dismissed as a threat: white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups.
According to the report (which you can read in full if you like), the explicitly racist groups “do not overly propose serious acts of violence."
Devlin goes on to recount one of several horrifying stories that occurred since that report was written. The short of it is that two white supremacists allegedly set a Filipino man on fire ... just because. To which he makes a great point:
The video closes with with a seemingly contradictory finding from the Canadian spy agency's documents — that "lone wolf" acts of terror are more common among white supremacist and right-wing extremist groups than radical Islamist groups.
So what's up with all the Islamophobic, terror hysteria spread by the government and media?
Devlin's comedy troop, Shit Harper Did, is exploring this topic and a bunch of other important issues in a new documentary called "Pull the Rug." Check out their website for it if it interests you.