Keep calm and carry on

Submitted by Jeff (United States), Feb 6, 2018 at 12:09

Hi Dr. Pipes,

I'd be interested of your impression of what the average Brit thinks about all this, and if anything else lies below their seemingly optimistic outlook. My own impression generally is as follows:

1. The problem is way too big for me to solve, so why talk about it? (So I won't think too much about why all these security measures we need now weren't necessary not very long ago.)
2. Better to keep your mouth shut than to be labeled a racist. (So same as above.)
3. Our government leaders couldn't really be that wrong, could they? Maybe everything will be OK.
4. I'll be dead by the time the you-know-what really hits the fan.

We're not immune to this kind of thinking here (think of the Farook family's neighbors in Riverside, CA) but my impression is that thinking like this is now pretty baked in in the UK.

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