• @alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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      -110 months ago

      Terrorism doesn’t have an agreed upon definition, we’ve charged people with terrorism for occupying a forest, we’ve also done it for flying a plane into a building. The only unifying factor is a political action the government doesn’t sanction.

      • @Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        1110 months ago

        Which is ridiculous and should be called out as such. Meanwhile we’re letting grown men with guns threaten kids over religious ideas.

        It’s like we all forgot what terrorism actually is.

      • poVoq
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        710 months ago

        It has a clear definition. Maybe look it up some time?

      • @grue@lemmy.world
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        310 months ago

        In the absence of consensus my opinion prevails (because I said so), and I say the thing OP referenced doesn’t count as terrorism. Anyone who disagrees with me is, to put it simply, wrong.

        (Occupying a forest sure as Hell doesn’t count either, by the way – and that’s one I can speak about with particular authority, being a resident of a nearby neighborhood and personal acquaintances with some of the people involved. Frankly, the Atlanta Police Department and Georgia State Patrol are the terrorists here: their actions have not been legitimate enforcing of laws, but rather the acts of a gang trying to claim turf to build their jackbooted-thuggery theme park.)

          • poVoq
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            610 months ago

            Of course this includes many states. That doesn’t mean the term is useless, you just don’t like the implication of that.

            • @alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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              10 months ago

              Except people don’t use it that way. If you say “I live in Syria and I am afraid of a terrorist attack”, 99/100 people would not understand what you said to possibly mean that you were afraid of the US drone striking you.

              If they did, and anyone can use the term to refer to most any political organization and action that is associated with attacks on non-combatants, it becomes useless.

              • poVoq
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                810 months ago

                You would be surprised how many people outside of the west correctly identify US drone strikes as terrorist attacks. And no, that does not make the term meaningless at all.