On Tuesday, South Dakota state representative Issac Latterell wrote a blog post titled, “Planned Parenthood worse than ISIS and lying about it,” which announced his new legislation, “the Preborn Infant Beheading Ban of 2015.” According to Latterell, the bill “simply states: ‘No licensed physician may knowingly behead a living unborn child with the intent of endangering the life or health of the child.’”
Planned Parenthood took issue with being compared to a terrorist organization in an interview with Talking Points Memo, but they can take comfort in the fact that the bog of hyperbole that is American politics, home to clunkers like “Obama’s Katrina,” and “TK-gate,” has condemned many others to the same fate.
Here are other things that have been called “worse than ISIS” by politicians, news outlets, celebrities, and the internet. Some of the comparisons made little sense; nearly all were controversial and showed that calling things worse than ISIS is a great way to get attention. As with many stories about hyperbolic statements, we must start with Russell Brand.
Fox News
Russell Brand said that Fox News was “more dangerous than ISIS” in June 2014.
Republicans
Last September, Democratic congressional candidate Jesse T. Smith tweeted, “The greatest country on earth is being bullied from within. Actions of Republicans in congress are worse than #ISIL.”
The Israel Defense Forces
Hanin Zoabi, a Palestinian lawmaker in the Knesset, angered many in Israeli politics when she said that the IDF and ISIS were “both murderous armies that lack redlines.”
Vladimir Putin
Chess master Garry Kasparov said that the Russian president was far more dangerous than ISIS. “Because Putin cannot be defeated militarily. The war with ISIS can be won on the ground. It is very clear that if America decides to eliminate ISIS, they will turn it into dust in 24 hours!”
American Cuisine
Etgar Keret, an Israeli writer, wrote to his Israeli expat friend Sayed Kashuain an exchange published at The New Yorker, “When it comes to nutrition, American cuisine is worse than ISIS — and it’s easy for me to understand why you haven’t really found your place there.”
ISIS Panic
Per a headline at Alternet.
Fifty Shades of Grey
According to the news website Today Christian, the hugely popular film “may be more destructive than ISIS. Why? Because at least we are still on our guard fighting against ISIS at some level.”
The lesson here is to ask yourself, “Could I imagine a noted terrorism scholar saying this in public?” before ever comparing something to ISIS (the answer is almost always, “no”).
