I agree with the overall point that Matt Yglesias is making here about how we shouldn't overreact to terrorism because that's the point of terrorism, I just disagree with this sentiment:
But instead of complaining about the hypocrisy involved in not trying to whip people into a fit of terror and madness about this incident, I think it makes more sense to congratulate everyone on handling this in a calm and sensible manner. The key point, that all authorities seem to agree on, is that while this is a serious crime and a genuinely Bad Thing To Have Happen, that you need to put the likelihood of this sort of incident into a broader context. Simply put, the odds of “death by disgruntled anti-tax activist flying an airplane into your office” are extremely small and it’s extremely difficult to think of cost-effective and efficacious methods of ensuring that this never happens again. Off the top of my head, this looks to me like a demonstration of the desirability of better mental health services in the United States, but that’s something that I would think was true one way or the other.
I don't really understand why we should "congratulate" anyone. Andrew Joseph Stack killed more people yesterday than failed underwear bomber Umar Abdulmutallab has in his entire life. The only reason no one was terrorized was because as a white guy, he didn't trigger fits of Islamophobic panic that one of the two major political parties thought they could use to their advantage, not because the authorities were super-efficient or because of Americans' strength of character.
It's one thing to say that we should normally react this calmly to terrorism. That's completely true. But should we congratulate ourselves because we're able to handle things sensibly absent a catalyst for Islamophobia that, otherwise invoked, would provoke the typical Pavlovian response? Seems like a low bar.
-- A. Serwer