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What does "Terrorism" even mean? Was columbine a terrorist attack? The media is completely messed up beyond belief though. In the UK there was a little girl w

by axod 16y ago

What does "Terrorism" even mean? Was columbine a terrorist attack? The media is completely messed up beyond belief though. In the UK there was a little girl went missing whilst on holiday, and whilst sad, she's had a massively disproportionate amount of reporting. Still stories in the papers about it now years later.

hugh3 16y ago
No. Terrorism is the deliberate murder of civilians (or threats thereto), in order to advance a political objective. It's not actually all that hard to define, some people just try to deliberately muddy the waters. - The Columbine shootings were not terrorism since they had no political motive. - The assassination of JFK was not terrorism since the President is not, for the purposes of this discussion, a "civilian" (I might need to work on the definition of "civillian") - If a warplane drops a bomb aimed at a tank and it hits an orphanage by accident, that's not terrorism since the civilians weren't the actual target. (Note: that doesn't necessarily mean it was excusable). - The Fort Hood massacre and the many attacks by Al Qaeda against US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are not, strictly speaking, terrorism, since the targets are military rather than civilian (again this just a semantic distinction I'm making here, not a moral one). Any other border cases we'd like to discuss? Note that by this definition terrorist attacks were commonly used by both sides in World War 2.
- axod 16y ago
  But why does the motive matter? I don't think it's useful. Especially when reporting in the media. Perhaps we should call them "random unprovoked killings of civilians".
  - branden 16y ago
    A crime's motive determines in part how you understand it and how you prevent it. Terrorism isn't random; it is focused on a particular goal and planned in advance. Unhinged mall shooters won't be stopped by coordinated intelligence gathering, and they can't be investigated for links to other such shooters. Any similarity between such acts and terrorism is superficial at best and requires that you ignore the crime's context. A media that doesn't distinguish the two will either trivialize terrorism or needlessly sensationalize random violent acts.

by axod 16y ago

hugh3 16y ago

No. Terrorism is the deliberate murder of civilians (or threats thereto), in order to advance a political objective. It's not actually all that hard to define, some people just try to deliberately muddy the waters. - The Columbine shootings were not terrorism since they had no political motive. - The assassination of JFK was not terrorism since the President is not, for the purposes of this discussion, a "civilian" (I might need to work on the definition of "civillian") - If a warplane drops a bomb aimed at a tank and it hits an orphanage by accident, that's not terrorism since the civilians weren't the actual target. (Note: that doesn't necessarily mean it was excusable). - The Fort Hood massacre and the many attacks by Al Qaeda against US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are not, strictly speaking, terrorism, since the targets are military rather than civilian (again this just a semantic distinction I'm making here, not a moral one). Any other border cases we'd like to discuss? Note that by this definition terrorist attacks were commonly used by both sides in World War 2.

axod 16y ago
But why does the motive matter? I don't think it's useful. Especially when reporting in the media. Perhaps we should call them "random unprovoked killings of civilians".
- branden 16y ago
  A crime's motive determines in part how you understand it and how you prevent it. Terrorism isn't random; it is focused on a particular goal and planned in advance. Unhinged mall shooters won't be stopped by coordinated intelligence gathering, and they can't be investigated for links to other such shooters. Any similarity between such acts and terrorism is superficial at best and requires that you ignore the crime's context. A media that doesn't distinguish the two will either trivialize terrorism or needlessly sensationalize random violent acts.