And They Manage Not To Use The Word "Terrorist" At All!

[Regina]

It's funny how both sides of the politically ally both complain that not enough people are labeled as terrorists. Right wing people started this crap and now the left wing decided that it's also good to label every mass killer as a terrorist. I'm old enough to remember when nobody considered any mass shooter to be a terrorist. Considering that you get special prosecutorial powers and special detaining powers against terrorists, I can see the appeal for those in charge. Why everyday citizens what more people to be labeled as terrorists is beyond me. I think we'd be better off using the label, and the additional powers that go with it in as limited a manner as possible or getting rid of it and the 'war on terror' altogether. Once that was a popular idea, now even good well meaning left wing people want to expand the war on terror.

Its a frightening world.

I think the issue is that the label "terrorist" is slung about in an inequitable manner, with it being far more likely to be hung on Muslim murderers rather than non-Muslims here. It's not that people "want more people to be labeled as terrorists", it's that people want the term to be applied fairly.

This.

Personally I don't think every mass shooting is "terrorism", because for it to be "terrorism" there has to be a political motivation behind it. You can call The KKK and the likes of Dylann Roof terrorists because their violence against blacks is in pursuit of white supremacist ideology, that's not the same as someone shooting up a school because they're just psycho (although it's equally as horrible).

The problem is though, "terror" has become synonymous with Islamic terror. Because of that I think some people honestly do forget there are other motivations for terror, and other people who might commit acts of it. My parents would remember a time when "terrorism" meant IRA members blowing up pubs in our city, it was the same problem then, one kind of terror just dominated the discourse.