CJackson wrote:Capn'O wrote:CharlesOakley wrote:Would they ever call this guy a terrorist even if he had gotten to go through with his plans? The discussion around white, male terrorists always seems to revolve around mental illness. They just don't get the same labels. "Terrorist" is reserved for brown people.
Which "they?" It seems like law enforcement/government reps are restraining from calling the Orlando killer a terrorist as his ties to terrorist groups (Daesh/ISIS) were not formal i.e. there is no evidence yet that he was in direct contact with them. This is the correct approach, imo.
There is common discussion that because uninformed people use the word "terrorist" wrong that it should be more generally applied. That is a dangerous approach. It ought to be applied in the more narrow scope of coordinated, political attacks.
The problem is that the more loosely this word is thrown around, the more people get thrown under the blanket that don't deserve it. You can then apply the word "terrorist" to just about anyone you want. Protesters, Prius drivers (I've gotten "terrorist" for this), and yeah, lone wolves. The Western World is at war with Daesh and to a lesser extent now Al Qaida. Not Islam. And I think both sides of the debate need to better understand this. Muslims that don't align themselves with Daesh, and this is the vast, vast majority of those in the Middle East and world, are a target of Daesh. They are considered traitors and have frequently been among those murdered in the recent attacks in the US and abroad. "Mainstream" Muslims have been indiscriminately killed in these attacks. In the US, in particular, mainstream Muslims have been a great ally in identifying who among them is sympathetic with these fringe groups.
By and large, it needs to be better understood that A) there is a discrete enemy that aims to inspire terrorist acts and that B) most Muslims have nothing to do with it and are in fact very threatened by Daesh.
Obama is being very careful with the languaging. Calling them ISIL and not the Islamic State. The ones who are playing the hate speech game also are the ones who loathe Obama.
I prefer Daesh (which John Kerry has taken on). Mostly, because apparently they particularly hate it.
http://www.voanews.com/content/why-kerry-calls-islamic-state-daesh/3148557.html














