Again, this is being presented as a “look at how daft are the youths” story.
And sure…any youngster finding favor with this letter is foolish, at best.
But again, there are going to be maaaany older folks who’ll find favor with Bin Laden’s “conservative values.” The big difference, is the older folks will keep their views to themselves.
However, using the distributive property of mathematics, these older folks’ love of Putin’s faux conservatism puts them in the queue to join the same bucket of malleable matter as the pod-eating brethren.
The reason why kids and elders are equally duped, is because both camps have traded in a consistent, fully-unified system of morality for something more buffet-style. I’ll have a smattering of anti-gay stuff, anti-trans stuff, and yeah a big pile of “we never shoulda legalized pot.” But that Allah stuff, no thanks.
PGalt is right. Marxism and Bin Laden’s letter both are built as traps, to entice the simple with the shining, blinking lights of collectivism. Solve for that problem, and a lot of this goes away.
By the way, where the heck are the parents of the mush heads?
When's the last time in living memory any American institution or government official promoted, much less embodied, a "consistent, fully-unified system of morality"?
The aside about "individualism vs. collectivism" is honestly a red herring by comparison to the greater need for a shared cultural vision and a shared moral foundation.