On the morning of Sept 11, 2001, a group of 11 or so terrorists hijacked 4 passenger jets and used them as missiles against prime targets in the U.S. The results were horrific (probably much more so than they had hoped), with 3000 people dead, two of the World Trade Center towers completely destroyed, and the Pentagon with a gaping hole in it.

The other end result was that America went nuts for a few years.

There was initially a sudden resolute patriotism that was necessary and expected. But then - things got ugly. Anyone looking remotely Middle Eastern was looked upon with suspicion, masques were targeted, we invaded an unrelated sovereign country based on nothing but ginned up evidence and fear. When France decided the "evidence" was too weak to commit their soldiers, suddenly anything French was persona non grata. The Congressional cafeteria started serving "Freedom" Fries, people poured out their french wines, presidential candidate John Kerry was derided for "looking" French.

It was all so ugly, so stupid, so lizard-brain. It was an embarrassment upon our nation.

We'd only just begun to get back to some semblance of normal these past few years. Instead of focusing on external threats, we became focused on America's own internal murder problem. 9/11 is small potatoes compared to what we do to ourselves. Several terrible shootings at schools, churches, and movie theatres made us wonder who the real enemy was.

And then the attacks in France happened - and America got stupid again...

At this point I am just sick and tired of all the hateful, fearful, absurd, paranoid and xenophobic bullshit from my fellow citizens, all of them of the right-winged variety.

If you think the solution to the problem of people getting shot is more guns - shut up.

If you think that ANY discussion of reducing gun violence means you are going to lose your misguided interpretation of Constitutional rights - shut up.

If you think that any Muslim is suspect - shut the fuck up.

If you think that war refugees are coming to America to become terrorists - shut up.

If you think President Obama is the cause of terrorism in France and the U.S. - shut your stupid ass up.

If you think it's okay for a presidential candidate to endorse labeling and excluding an entire group of people based on religion - shut up take your anti-American ass out of my country and move to where this sort of thing is normal... hmmm... I can't actually think of any country where a particular religion is forbidden (except Daesh). Wow - you are worse than the leaders of Iran, Syria, and China.

I am so sick of the balkanization of our political system where the political parties behave more like sports teams and their supporters rally around them regardless of how heinous their words and actions are. And FOX "News"? You just had one of your people call President Obama a "pussy". That is a new low in political discourse.

You - above all - should shut the fuck up and shut yourself down. You are the enablers and misinformers of all the stupid people I previously mentioned. You have aided and abetted the dumbing down and fearing up of a large swath of the American public, turning some of them into mass murders. How is that any different than Daesh?

We are constantly told by the gun-lovers that those who kill others with guns (to a tune of 11,000/yr) are the "aberrations", and that all gun owners shouldn't be judged by their actions, please apply that same mindset to Muslims, Syrian refugees, and - hey, while we're at it - Mexicans.

Or - just shut the fuck up.