OK, how about instead of "Islamic Terrorism"

[maxrandb]

we just call it "religious terrorism"? Think that would get the right-wingers panties in a wad?

[randys1]

1. I like murderous thugs...period

[Fred Sanders]

4. "Murderous criminals" is what Obama called them, using "ugly lies". 100% correct. Not complex.

Now that this is all cleared up I am sure the war effort will be much better??

What a ridiculous state the trolling American media has descended into.

[randys1]

12. Criminal is better than thug, thug has racist connotations, I stand corrected.

[Fred Sanders]

13. Thank you, I was reluctant to point that out.

[randys1]

16. Never be with me, I love learning and being corrected when I am wrong

it is how I learn

[AngryAmish]

17. ISIS are not criminals.

What they do is 100% legal in their system. In fact they ARE law enforcement.

War criminals? No. They are not signatories to any war crime treaty.

As far as ISIS, there are no legal protections, like pirates. They should be hung on site or capture.

A law is a mutual thing. No rules for them? Fine. No rules for us.

[randys1]

18. What does no rules for us mean?

[AngryAmish]

19. We take them as prisoners.

If they recant, away they go. If no, they get killed. Plata o plomo, as they say.

[randys1]

20. Thank goodness you are not in charge.

[AngryAmish]

22. Then what is the point of having these war crimes, Geneva Convention treaties?

Honestly, what is in it for us? Other than guatanteed good treatment for our soldiers?

[Man from Pickens]

2. discard the word "terrorism"

there's no way to use that word in honest discussion, for two reasons:

1) it has no fixed meaning
2) it's an emotional trigger word designed to suppress rational thought

[on point]

3. Wrong because terrorism is a 'how', not a 'who' and a 'why'.

Understanding the latter two i9n perhaps getting to a change in the how

[Man from Pickens]

5. give me a definition then

What does the word "terrorism" mean, precisely?

[leftynyc]

10. Here ya go:

noun
1.
the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes.
2.
the state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization.
3.
a terroristic method of governing or of resisting a government.

[Man from Pickens]

11. yep that's it

A definition so broad it covers any military and law enforcement action anywhere.

[unblock]

7. "terrorism" is a horrible word, and it is (ab)used horribly.

the main concept behind the word is that the perpetrators are trying to terrorize, i.e., scare, us.

which in turn implies that we can be scared, which in turn encourages them to try.

we're the land of the free and the home of the brave, dammit, this crap can't frighten us.

in fact, it's the idiots running around screaming "terrorism" who are scaring us. a real statesman would say something like "we have nothing to fear but fear itself", but then, goodness, republicans can't go THERE....


more objectively, it should be called asymmetric warfare, which of course was perfectly legitimate when we used comparable tactics taking pot shots against the regimented, rank-and-file formations the british and then fleeing into the woods during the american revolution.

but this, of course, would allow that the perpetrators are not simple and pure evil, and again, goodness, we can't solve complex world problems by allowing for any complexity in our discourse....

[Man from Pickens]

8. aww

I wanted to toy with this a bit before the big reveal but you beat me to it!

When you reason the term out to its logical conclusion, people trying to make you afraid of "terrorism" are practically by definition "terrorists". They are trying to cause fear to achieve political ends, meaning the very (non-sarcastic/ironic) invocation of the term makes the speaker a "terrorist"!

Most people, of course, don't reason it all the way through, since the invocation of a fear stimulus is a primary method of shutting down rational thought. Or, to put it another way, "fear is the mind killer".

[uppityperson]

6. fundamentalist extremism

[annabanana]

9. Now THAT is the best one!

It covers a lot of ground and is completely accurate.

[winter is coming]

14. ^^ This. n/t

[Iggo]

15. Calling it "Islamic terrorism" is calling it "religious terrorism."

So yeah, I'm cool with that.

[Android3.14]

21. I like it

These religious terrorists, with their extremist views. Fricken yes.