MovieChat Forums > Damned (2016) Discussion > Is "Radical Islamic Terrorism" As Divisi...

Is "Radical Islamic Terrorism" As Divisive An Issue In The UK?


Just curious as a Yankee watching the show. The fifth episode made it clear that we were supposed to take the idea of kids being radicalized as a joke (in fairness we should) but it was clear we shouldn't take the characters that pitched it seriously.

That was probably the best episode of the show, but it got me wondering how the typical public views this. In the US this is an issue where there is massive disagreement between the Republicans who feel it is a major issue and the Democrats who feel terrorism is a small contained issue and not possessed by the majority of Islam.

Is it as big an issue with UKIP, the torries and the Labours?

reply

Hi Bobcobb301,

Radical Islamic terrorism is a somewhat divisive topic, I think, everywhere. Also in the UK. Having said that, in Europe broadly, there isn't the same division politically as that which you'll normally see in the US. I'd suggest that it is growing in Europe, but there's less of the idea that you 'belong' to one team or the other. You may well vote one way, but the media you follow isn't going to be tied in with political parties in the same way as tends to be the case in the US.

The same then also goes for other programming. With British and other European TV and films, the fact that a topic is volatile, doesn't make it something to avoid in comedy; instead it makes it EXACTLY what you want to poke with comedy. The more potentially divisive something is, the more it's likely to be used to comical effect. The effect tends to be that even if you may be the 'target' of the satire, it still works. I suppose in a way, it also means that there's further questioning of ones own political positions by the very fact that most of your views, whatever they are, are likely to be satirised in one way or another in shows that you probably watch regularly.

Just to note, I'm not saying this doesn't take place in the US, just that it's my impression that it occurs more broadly in Europe. South Park f.ex. has obviously done a lot of this for many years now.

As for the political parties, I think there are generally more people who seek 'the middle' in Europe than is the case in the US. To me, the point is that either extreme in politics is as exclusionist and intolerant as the other, as well as being as unworkable as the other.

The fringe is generally considered as BEING the fringe; not as being the ideological core of the major parties.

I don't know if that answers your question? :)


reply