Is tourism destroying Barcelona? Why did terrorists target the tourism industry there?
A recent article on the BBC profiles a young man who is part of a leftist effort to destroy tourism in Barcelona. These leftists argue that tourism is destroying the city as it is raising rents and making it harder for locals to find a place to live. Of course, what they fail to consider is that tourism is a huge part of the local economy, and many of them cannot afford to live there at all if there were no jobs and income generated by tourism.
The recent attacks by terrorists on the tourism district underscore that this is not just a cause of the far left, but also the Islamic right. Islamic Terrorists have systematically attacked tourist destinations worldwide, in Islamic leaning countries and elsewhere, where westerners like to vacation.
Many people assume wrongly that their goal is to decrease the influence of decadent foreigners on Islamic societies. But nothing could be further from the truth. Their goal is to destroy the underlying economy, so that people become so desperate they will embrace radical Islam.
Fascists have known this for decades. If people become so desperate they are starving, they will embrace fringe ideologies as a means of solving the economic problems. This is how the Taliban took over Afghanistan and was welcomed as liberating heros at the time. If conditions are not desperate, then what you need to do is make them desperate. This is why many on the far left were happy to see Donald Trump elected, as they knew that Bernie Sanders and his ilk could not be elected to public office outside of Vermont, unless conditions became desperate.
This is why the New York Times and the Washington Post report with glee every the mis-step of the Trump Administration. Every stupid thing that Donald Trump says or does is one more paving brick on the road to an Elizabeth Warren presidency.
Leftists and Catalonian separatists in Barcelona have the same goal. If they can destroy the lucrative tourism industry, people become desperate and vote to secede from Spain and institute more far-leftist policies. When everyone is making money, no one wants to rock the boat. When people are starving, they're willing to try anything.
It seems odd that Islamic radicals and Spanish leftists both have the same goal - to destroy the tourism industry of Barcelona. But when you think about it, they really have the same goal - to disrupt and destroy in order to promote their own radical agendas.
Maybe what Spain needs - what the world needs - is more tourists and fewer terrorists.
