Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by Fnord666 on Thursday October 12 2017, @07:23AM   Printer-friendly
from the oink-I-say dept.

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."


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Informative) by unauthorized on Thursday October 12 2017, @02:34PM (3 children)

    by unauthorized (3776) on Thursday October 12 2017, @02:34PM (#581144)

    Terrorism is bad

    The US founders were terrorists.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Informative=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Informative' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 12 2017, @08:24PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 12 2017, @08:24PM (#581327)

    One person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 13 2017, @05:25AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 13 2017, @05:25AM (#581583)

      The democratically-elected Sandinistas had Nicaragua on the mend after years of military dictatorships.
      There was lots of healthcare. education, proper nutrition, housing, and, in general, they didn't treat Jose Average like a peasant.

      The Sandinistas were a Bolivarian/anti-imperialist lot.
      They didn't kow-tow to USA.gov's hegemony as previous governments there had.
      So, of course, they had to be eradicated by USA.gov.

      Ronnie Raygun aligned himself with The Contras (breaking a bunch of USA laws in the process).
      The Contras continued their campaign of murder, terror, torture, rape, burning down entire villages, etc.

      Some of them received training in methods of sadistic violence at The School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia, USA.

      Ronnie called them "freedom fighters", valiant people delivering the people of Nicaragua to a freedom without a humane existence and a caring government, obviously.

      Hurrah, U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A.
      That noble, democracy-loving nation.

      -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

  • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday October 12 2017, @09:44PM

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Thursday October 12 2017, @09:44PM (#581366) Journal

    Also the founders of Israel. See the King David Hotel bombing [wikipedia.org].

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.