Oh, Allen West, you adorable lunkhead! Here’s the deal, folks: people like Allen West got to be famous by stampeding the amygdalas, and they continue to rake in the old grift money by continuing to stampede the amygdalas.

What am I babbling about?  Here, from today’s FaceTubes: Illinois May Be The First To Do This For Muslims

Here’s the scary photo:

The writer wants you to connect that photo with Illinois.¹

I think I’ve dissected a piece like this before, where the writer (in this case not actually the lunkhead Allen West himself) clickbaits with a horrific headline/cutline, then copy/pastes a straight news item without a trace of the panic that informs the headline.  You get a couple of breathless introductory paragraphs, the copy/paste stuff (boring!), and then you get a pivot to something completely irrelevant — in this case the Muslim Brotherhood, which is framed as a significant threat to the U.S.  Which it is not.

Then you get to the last paragraph:

Are councils like this part of the Muslim Brotherhood’s grand plan? Not difficult to see it that way. And once this starts happening in Illinois, how long before it spreads across the country?

Definitely something to think about, isn’t it?

Ooga — and, dare I say it? — Booga!

Allow me to summarize:

• Here’s a thing we’re all scared of.²
• It could be coming true!³
• [copy/paste of completely un-scary news item]
• Here’s another thing we’re even more scared of and which we’ve endowed with super powers of evil!
• Are they related?  MAYBE!!⁴
• You should now assimilate this into your brain-thoughts as proven fact! RELEASE THE AMYGDALAS!

If this were turned into me in a journalism class, the writer would fail.

—————

¹ Spoiler alert: the photo is not from Illinois.  It is from Egypt, the super secret lair of the Muslim Brotherhood.  I forget whether they’re Marvel or DC.

² For differing values of all.  And scared.

³ It is not coming true.

⁴ They are not related.