It's only terrorism if you have brown skin or a towel on your head

[fuji]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...es-plane-into-office-building/article1472788/

If your name is Joe Stack from Texas and you flly planes into government buildings because you are pissed off about your taxes you are not considered a terrorist.

 

[papasmerf]

well he did hit the IRS

 

[toguy5252]

Terrorism is intended to strike terror. It is not just the destruction caused by the act but the effect the act and resulting destruction and terror will have in achieving a political end. Destruction simply for the sake of destruction and as payback for some perceived wrong is not terror per se regardless of the color of one's skin.

 

[fuji]

He even has a rambling manifesto that he posted on a jihadist, sorry I mean, a tax evader website:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,586627,00.html?mep

 

[Aardvark154]

If your name is Joe Stack from Texas and you flly planes into government buildings because you are pissed off about your taxes you are not considered a terrorist.

Says whom? I've already heard the words "Domestic Terorist" used, however, thus far only two people besides the nut job tax protester terrorist, have been reported injured, further although there was a regional office of the IRS in the building, I believe it was rented space.

 

[fuji]

Says the Austin police, per the article I linked in post #1.

Not an act of terrorism: Austin police

Officials say the crash of a small plane into a building that houses the IRS is an isolated incident

There's video of the statement here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpA2OECDbDg

Edit: Listening carefully it's the media that is interpreting that statement as meaning "not an act of terrorism", the police concentrate on calling it an "isolated incident" and don't directly state that it was not terrorism, however that is the headline that has run by CBS and other news outlets.

 

[toguy5252]

ter·ror·ism
   /ˈtɛrəˌrɪzəm/ Show Spelled[ter-uh-riz-uhm] Show IPA
–noun
1.
the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, esp. for political purposes.


Given what we know and admittedly it may change over time, how could this be considered an act of terrorism?

 

[papasmerf]

anyone else offended by Fuji's use of towel on your head?

 

[fuji]

anyone else offended by Fuji's use of towel head?

I find the term offensive as well, I am using the term sarcastically as a way of mocking people who think terrorists can't be white guys from texas, in case that wasn't clear: I disagree with the headline, it's sarcasm. I think this is plainly an act of terrorism by a somewhat deranged individual.

Specifically I am mocking racist people who I imagine can't distinguish between a turban or head scarf and a towel, I am most definitely not mocking the people who wear a turban or a head scarf. I am pointing out discrimination against those people inherent in assertions that this was not terrorism. Had he been Muslim it would unquestionably be called an act of terrorism. There is a double standard at work here.

Apologies to anyone who didn't catch the sarcasm and thinks I view it as an acceptable way to describe a muslim person in ordinary conversation, rather than my actual intent which was to mock such statements and such views.

 

[fuji]

ter·ror·ism
   /ˈtɛrəˌrɪzəm/ Show Spelled[ter-uh-riz-uhm] Show IPA
–noun
1.
the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, esp. for political purposes.


Given what we know and admittedly it may change over time, how could this be considered an act of terrorism?

Did you read his manifesto? He has a pretty clear political purpose. The justification for it sounds sketchy and absurd, but then I feel that way about Islamist justifications for terrorism as well.

 

[red]

its the first strike of the tea partiers

 

[danmand]

Your focus on individual acts of terrorism, although evil, is misplaced. State terrorism is the
overwhelming amount of terrorism.

 

[TGirl Nikki]

By publicly posting his manifesto online, he has made a clear political statement, coupled with a destructive act of violence; that certainly fits both the dictionary and common-use definitions of terrorism. Even though he hasn't explicitly called for others to support him, and doesn't appear to have any ideological agenda beyond what he stated in his letter, he still wanted people to know exactly why he did what he did.

This is not the work of a terrorist organization, which uses violence towards an ideological goal; it was an isolated incident committed by an unbalanced individual. This was also true of McVeigh & The Unabomber (among many others) but the term still fits the intention of the action itself. Nonetheless, to say "this was not an act of terrorism" obscures the difference between the two, and reinforces the inherently-racist connotation of the word itself.

 

[toguy5252]

Did you read his manifesto? He has a pretty clear political purpose. The justification for it sounds sketchy and absurd, but then I feel that way about Islamist justifications for terrorism as well.

Looked more like a suicide note to me.

 

[chiller_boy]

I find the term offensive as well, I am using the term sarcastically as a way of mocking people who think terrorists can't be white guys from texas, in case that wasn't clear: I disagree with the headline, it's sarcasm. I think this is plainly an act of terrorism by a somewhat deranged individual.

Specifically I am mocking racist people who I imagine can't distinguish between a turban or head scarf and a towel, I am most definitely not mocking the people who wear a turban or a head scarf. I am pointing out discrimination against those people inherent in assertions that this was not terrorism. Had he been Muslim it would unquestionably be called an act of terrorism.

Apologies to anyone who didn't catch the sarcasm and thinks I view it as an acceptable way to describe a muslim person in ordinary conversation.

Weren't the IRA considered terrorists (by the british - not so much the Americans since they funded them).

 

[fuji]

Looked more like a suicide note to me.

Sure, he's essentially a suicide bomber.

The intent of this exercise and our efforts was to bring about a much-needed re-evaluation of the laws that allow the monsters of organized religion to make such a mockery of people who earn an honest living.

He goes on to write that he is dying "for their freedom in this country" and "by not adding my body to the count, I insure nothing will change".

Sounds pretty clearly politically motivated to me.

 

[papasmerf]

Weren't the IRA considered terrorists (by the british - not so much the Americans since they funded them).

Not true

While I have always supported a united Ireland I never had seen their tactics as anything but terrorism.

 

[toguy5252]

Sure, he's essentially a suicide bomber.



Sounds pretty clearly politically motivated to me. He goes on to write that he is dying "for their freedom in this country" and "by not adding my body to the count, I insure nothing will change".

1. Not everyone who commits suicide is a suicide bomber or terrorist notwithstanding that he/she may cause damage and destruction in doing so.

2. The exercise he is speaking of is not the suicide or the plane crash.

 

[Aardvark154]

Edit: Listening carefully it's the media that is interpreting that statement as meaning "not an act of terrorism", the police concentrate on calling it an "isolated incident" and don't directly state that it was not terrorism, however that is the headline that has run by CBS and other news outlets.

Gee and then we have the constant bashing of FOX and support of CBS, NBC etc. . . here on TERB.

Regretably, I'm not particularly surprised that CBS (the Katie Couric network) would spin it this way - don't you know Fuji, only the Bush Administration had terrorists the Obama Administration has misunderstood criminals.

 

[basketcase]

its the first strike of the tea partiers

I hope many of those guys are on watch lists now. Some of them scare me more than jihadists.