3 ms·

I interpret "works" to mean that it accomplishes its goal. For instance, if somebody threatens to break your storefront windows unless you pay protection money,

I interpret "works" to mean that it accomplishes its goal. For instance, if somebody threatens to break your storefront windows unless you pay protection money, so you pay the money, then the threat worked. We used to use a different word than "terrorism" for that, but you get the idea. But you rarely hear that grafitti works. Or that road rage works. They might accomplish some goal, but that goal may be difficult to discern. So we tend to qualify the success. "If the goal is..." If the goal of running a marathon is to improve personal performance... When the point is unclear to say the least, it is pointless to say it works without saying what it works to accomplish. It's like saying, "dying your hair works."

thwayunion 4y ago
Real life isn't a Tom Clancy novel. The point of most terrorism is the terror.
- throwawaylinux 4y ago
  No it isn't, by definition. For example this modern misuse of the word terrorism is designed to strike fear into a population, but the point of that terrorism is not just to scare people, it is to coerce them into agreeing to give more power and money to the ruling class. Hurting and scaring people just to hurt and scare people isn't terrorism, it's probably driven some kind of mental defect like psychopathy though.
  - luckylion 4y ago
    > the point of that terrorism is not just to scare people, it is to coerce them into agreeing to give more power and money to the ruling class Are you saying that all terrorism is for (and thus probably also by, at least allowed by) the ruling class? That sounds pretty conspiratorial.
    - throwawaylinux 4y ago
      No.