General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTurns out people get angry when you say white Americans are terrorists, too
http://www.globalpost.com/article/6594328/2015/06/25/white-supremacy-terrorismThat was the headline of an article we published in late June about a new study that found non-Muslim extremists in the United States had killed nearly twice as many Americans since 9/11 as Muslim “jihadists.” Many of the non-Muslim extremists — whom we’ll just call terrorists from now on — were motivated by right-wing anti-government beliefs or white supremacist ideologies. Nearly all of them were white US citizens.
Some readers saw what we were trying to do and applauded it. We were stating one of the study’s key findings about who was actually committing deadly acts of terrorism on US soil. We chose to describe those terrorists as “white Americans” not just because they were Americans and they were white, but because we were highlighting how the study unraveled a common post-9/11 assumption about terrorism in the United States — that it’s mainly the work of Muslims and foreigners. It’s not....
Some of them objected to our decision to call the terrorists “white Americans” instead of “some white Americans” or “white American extremists.” Without qualifying the term, they argued, we were claiming that ALL white Americans were a terror threat. Other readers worried that the headline, though correct, was unnecessarily divisive. Some thought it was unfair to focus on racial data when the study's summary didn't call attention to it.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
randys1
(16,286 posts)BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)I get tired of hearing how "foreigners" are scaring and terrorizing the masses. Americans better start looking in the mirror.
Response to BlueJazz (Reply #2)
Name removed Message auto-removed
BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)Eleanors38
(18,318 posts)Mental health, mental shmealth.
The immediate and chief problem in our society when dealing with the rising tide of reaction (as it evolves into terrorism) is there is no meaningful opposition, ergo, no resistance.
Sometimes people give me shit in DU because of my defense of the Second Amendment, and I'm sure I'm on a lot of people's ignore list. But I don't buy into a lot of the throat-clearing excuses, the flimsy social policy of bans, the crap about terrorist watch lists. People need to walk into that mirror, bust it, and get some stink comin' outta their respective crotches.
msongs
(67,413 posts)
ismnotwasm
(41,989 posts)Bizarre--or it should be, but, it's more par for the course, sadly.
Initech
(100,080 posts)A white male heavily armed walks into a school and murders 20 kids. Another walks into a movie theater and kills 15. That's not terrorism? 
EX500rider
(10,849 posts)....terrorism has a political motive.
the use of violent acts to frighten the people in an area as a way of trying to achieve a political goal
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/terrorism
Person 2713
(3,263 posts)Lizzie Poppet
(10,164 posts)Roof had a socio-political motive. Most mass shootings, however, lack any political component.
EX500rider
(10,849 posts)LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)An ideology (like racism, or even religion) using terror to further its agenda fits well within the parameters of the definition of terrorism.
Person 2713
(3,263 posts)I personally would include the abortion doctors ' killers too IMO as terrorists
Just me
NutmegYankee
(16,199 posts)The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) defines terrorism as “the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.”
The murder of black church members by Dylan Roof, who was seeking to start a race war, is terrorism. On the other hand, an individual who seeks to take their frustrations out on innocent people in an act of narcissistic rage or similar is just an act of violence, for there is no social or political goal other than personal vengeance at society.
Orsino
(37,428 posts)...seize on a political stance to justify it, thereby getting labeled terrorists?
Not sure that the distinction can always be made, or is always significant.
Eleanors38
(18,318 posts)We have an overwhelming Celebrity culture, and to some this requires increasingly militant actions to rise above the junk T.V. "idol" cliche. Some killers want only the fleeting sense of revenge & power; others want the violent wrenching of society in an effort to both "immortalize" the punk's actions as an historical marker, AND to legitimize some new system whereby the murderous action is necessarily legitimized. Not much in the way of ideology, but then a world war was fought against Nazi-ism, which is not grounded in much ideology, either.
When celebrity and entertainment evolve to include big-scale atrocities, then their may be more after-the-fact identification with some patched together cause. Our culture may be on the cutting edge of a terrorism with little ideology, except that provided by the punk-actor's "world vision."
Shandris
(3,447 posts)I keep hearing about these horrible 'white' people, but I'm still not sure who a 'white' person is. Could someone hand me the classification chart so that I may reliably identify 'white' people?
If you could add in one for all the other 'colors', that'd be handy too.
madville
(7,412 posts)White, Black, Asian, Hispanic, Muslim, etc, etc. Mentally ill White guy shooting up a movie theatre, Black gang member shooting up a corner of school kids in Chicago, Asian gang violence in California, Hispanic gang violence along the border, Muslim Army Officer shooting up soldiers on base, it all sounds like terrorism to me.
Pretty much any group decrying another group could be branded hypocrites depending on the perspective.
cwydro
(51,308 posts)our homegrown Bin Laden.
lonestarnot
(77,097 posts)no bin forgotten there.
cwydro
(51,308 posts)what he would do if dropped into Iraq, or Afghanistan...all alone. Just him and his tin heart.
I'm ashamed for even thinking it, but grrr.
lonestarnot
(77,097 posts)cwydro
(51,308 posts)951-Riverside
(7,234 posts)Watch...
Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are European-Americans.
