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One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. There are certainly people who believe both or either of those were terrorism.
by bigbubba 6y ago
One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. There are certainly people who believe both or either of those were terrorism.
- vageli 6y agoTerrorism is the use of violence to promote an ideology. Full stop. Nothing precludes a terrorist act from helping people. Even Pablo Escobar set up schools and other institutions in his neighborhood.
- bigbubba 6y agoI agree that's the coherent prescribed definition of terrorism. In practice, whether somebody admits something was terrorism depends largely on which side they agree with. When they agree with the terrorist, euphemisms like 'freedom fighter' are often used instead. There are probably some Columbians who were on the receiving side of Escobar's gifting and called him a humanitarian for it.
- Natales 6y agoTrue. I visited Medellin a couple of times between 97 and 2006 when I was doing business in LATAM, and I recall clearly that many locals had tremendous admiration for Escobar, constantly praising all he did for the city and the community, while de-emphasizing, and sometimes justifying, the true nature and methods of his business.
- whimsicalism 6y agoSure, but "terrorism" explicitly implies a value judgement. Why else would you take issue with the term "political violence", which is equally technically correct? It is violence for political aims. You were clearly trying to make a point beyond the prescriptive definition of the word, so this comment reads like backtracking to me.
- thomquaid 6y agoYou are missing a key component of terrorism which is that the political violence is illegal/not lawful. Political violence which is in line with societal norms is not terrorism. The value judgement isn't implied, it's the main the feature of the word.
- eitland 6y agoWhen I first learned about it terrorism - as opposed to general political violence - included creating fear in the opposing side, which is the reason for the name. I think with your definition everything would be terrorism which usually isn't what one wants.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- tomatotomato37 6y agoIt's interesting you mention Pablo Escobar, because I don't know if you could say his bombing campaign was ideology-based; however it most certainly was intended to cause terror, e.g. (narco)terrorism.
- waterhouse 6y agoBertrand Russell's conjugations. I am a freedom fighter, you are an insurgent, he is a terrorist. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotive_conjugation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotive_conjugation
- kirbysnacks 6y agoA misguided and antisocial attempt at freedom, if that was the intention...