No links between Ritalin and school shootings, as NRA's Oliver North claimed - Politifact

Politifact "found no evidence to back up the idea that ADHD medication was behind school shootings or that "many" shooters had been on Ritalin."

The National Rifle Association’s new president, Oliver North, deflected attention off guns and onto medication in the wake of the latest school shooting.

North said, "They have been drugged in many cases … many of these young boys have been on Ritalin since they were in kindergarten."

The overprescription of ADHD medication has been the subject of heavy debate. For the record, we found no evidence that the suspected Texas shooter was diagnosed with ADHD, or prescribed Ritalin.

More broadly and to North’s point, we found no evidence to back up the idea that ADHD medication was behind school shootings or that "many" shooters had been on Ritalin.

A minor percentage of school shooters studied had been medicated, not "many." The notion that many have specifically been on the drug Ritalin since kindergarten has no factual basis. More broadly, causation has never been established between the medication and violence.

The full article is available here

The Irrational Fear of Islamic Terrorism in U.S. - Jeremy Henzell-Thomas in Tikkun Magazine

The actual threat to the US ‘homeland’ of terrorist groups like Islamic State has been consistently magnified wildly out of proportion by US media.  Anti-Islamic prejudice about terrorism has become a narrative fallacy - a flawed story that shapes our views of the world and expectations of the future.

The inflated, irrational fear of Islamic Terrorism has reached a stage in our national consciousness where it has become an identifiable pathology, whose main symptoms are irrational prejudice, a constant feeling of threat, and an incapacitating sense of isolation.

Adam Johnson, a contributing analyst for FAIR.org (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting), has contended that the actual threat to the US ‘homeland’ of terrorist groups like Islamic State has been ‘consistently magnified wildly out of proportion by US media.

Johnson cites many examples brought to light by FAIR over the years of how the media unfairly reserve the word ‘terrorism’ overwhelmingly for political violence leveled by Muslims.

A couple of pieces of data illustrate how people in the U.S. aren't interested in anything other than having their existing biases about Muslims confirmed.

* When you look at the majority of terrorist attacks in the United States, according to the FBI, the majority of domestic U.S. terror attacks are actually committed by white, male Christians. When those things occur, we don’t suspect other people who are from the same faith tradition and ethnicity of condoning them. We assume that these things outrage them just as much as they do anyone else. And we have to afford this same assumption of innocence to Muslims.’ 

* Ever since 9/11, the vast majority of Muslims have been continually repeating that they oppose violent extremism. Despite this, anti-Muslim prejudice has only increased to the point where it is now mainstream in U.S. society.

Anti-Islamic prejudice about terrorism has become a narrative fallacy - a flawed story that shapes our views of the world and expectations of the future.  Reiterated in political discourse and the media, it has become embedded and cemented to the point of being impervious to modification.  It has become the conditioned mindset and bigoted attitude of foreclosed minds.

The full article is available here