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Newsweek has this article on America's skewed definition of terrorism:
What is terrorism? According to the FBI, animal activists who stole two piglets from a farm were terrorists. As of now, Stephen Paddock, who killed 58 people at a country music concert in Las Vegas two weeks ago, has not been labeled a terrorist by the federal security organization.
In a viral story posted on The Intercept, journalist Glenn Greenwald details an account of federal agents investigating animal activists and scouring farm-animal sanctuaries to find two missing piglets that allegedly had been stolen from a farm. The FBI devoted such resources to finding these two piglets because their alleged theft and the capturing of undercover videos of the farm's conditions count as terrorism.
Why is the piglet theft classified as terrorism, but not the Las Vegas shooting? The distinction is rooted in the definition of the term. In spite of the emotions the word "terrorist" might elicit, the definition is not "mass killer" or "Muslim extremist" or "very bad person." The legal definition of terrorism is "the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property in order to coerce or intimidate a government or the civilian population in furtherance of political or social objectives."
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Thursday October 12 2017, @12:05PM (5 children)
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 12 2017, @01:02PM (4 children)
But just being organized doesn't make it terrorism. The Mafia definitely is organized crime, which even includes killing people, but I've never heard anyone claim they are terrorists.
(Score: 3, Informative) by LoRdTAW on Thursday October 12 2017, @01:11PM (3 children)
The difference is the mafia commits crimes to enrich itself. It has no agenda to push. The so called eco-terrorists commit their crimes to push an agenda.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 12 2017, @08:22PM
Mafia has an agenda: to make money. So if the acts are in pursuit of money, it is not terrorism. If the acts are to prevent someone from pursuing money, it is a candidate for terrorism(?)
The terrorists label is over-abused, and mainly by those that want more power and limit civil liberties.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Thursday October 12 2017, @09:19PM (1 child)
Caring for something besides stuffing money in your pocket regardless of who or what gets hurt or destroyed is a terrorist act if it prevents someone from stuffing money in their pocket? The "eco-terrorists" are so labeled because they oppose the self-enriching agenda of profit driven, environmental consequence ignoring, law in their pocket big industries, not because they harm things on a vast scale.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by c0lo on Friday October 13 2017, @12:46AM
Which, in a culture that puts money ahead of anything else, is an attack that goes against the very core of the society.
It won;t happen in cultures for which money is just another mean for a purpose.
Look at the Scandinavian societies and you'll see them happy to pay high taxes because they get something they value more than the money they spend.
(yeah, sure, that's heresy! No, more than that, it's BLASPHEMY! How could anything else than money be more important. That's socialism or even communism, the incarnation of all evil...
TMB and some others are righteously entitled to shoot-from-there-hip to anyone who thinks otherwise, no extra thinking needed, knee-jerk reaction is so much easier).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford