NY finally convicts a white supremacist as a Terrorist

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Not really sure what difference it really makes when decidedly private citizens have political aspirations.

Maybe because we dump buckets of money into counter-terrorism efforts and as such the way we label people "terrorists" or just "criminals" affects where those resources go?

[Nealithi]

Why is a Muslim stabber in my home town called a terrorist, but a white guy who goes in to shoot a bunch of black churchgoers who was radicalized by right-wing hate news not called a terrorist either? The intent is the damn same.

Media mislabeling things to sell copy?

General societal misinformation that muslims are all foreign?

The Asari want to confuse you?

Too many options to choose from as to why. Though if it is the same church shooter I heard of. It was less to intimidate civilians as to test pledge to a cause. So the group might be terrible. But the individual's goal was not in the definition of terrorism since he did not care about fear. Just showing he could pull a trigger.
I never heard of a Muslim stabber. But if he was trying to sow fear then the label could apply.
And how school shooters. Not trying for fear, though they are definitely causing it. But that is not the intent. So not terrorists. Sorry if that meandered a bit.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

And... that's why it bothers me, I guess. Because it does shape how free-thinking people tend to subconsciously form their opinions.

Yeah which is partly why I'm asking.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Not really sure what difference it really makes when decidedly private citizens have political aspirations.

Maybe because we dump buckets of money into counter-terrorism efforts and as such the way we label people "terrorists" or just "criminals" affects where those resources go?

That seems reasonable, but when it's just some random guy like in this case, I don't see how it makes a big difference.

edit: and that really does apply to any other "lone wolves" of another culture that tend to get framed as well obviously.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Why is a Muslim stabber in my home town called a terrorist, but a white guy who goes in to shoot a bunch of black churchgoers who was radicalized by right-wing hate news not called a terrorist either? The intent is the damn same.

Media mislabeling things to sell copy?

General societal misinformation that muslims are all foreign?

The Asari want to confuse you?

Too many options to choose from as to why. Though if it is the same church shooter I heard of. It was less to intimidate civilians as to test pledge to a cause. So the group might be terrible. But the individual's goal was not in the definition of terrorism since he did not care about fear. Just showing he could pull a trigger.
I never heard of a Muslim stabber. But if he was trying to sow fear then the label could apply.
And how school shooters. Not trying for fear, though they are definitely causing it. But that is not the intent. So not terrorists. Sorry if that meandered a bit.

He talked about an impending Racial Holy War. How is that not terrorism?

[Darth Wedgius]

Terrorism has never meant "extra special bad" or even "murder because of politics." Terrorism means, "Make these changes or we keep doing bad things to your civilians or their property." If you're knifing SUV tires to try to get people to stop driving SUVs, it's terrorism. If you kill a black man because you hate black men, it's not terrorism, even though it's a lot worse than knifing tires.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Darth can you tell me that if some bearded brown man shot up a church saying he was opening a Jihad he wouldn't be a terrorist in every newspaper and DA office?

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Well I've heard quite a bit the association of terrorism to "politics," but that also correlates significantly to the imperative of "make changes" anyways.

Terrorism at the root of the word is pretty self explanatory, in that fear is the mechanism in which to institute change. It's more a matter of spectacle with not so much an implication that it could happen to you, but instead happen to us. It's a spectacle that's an encapsulated response to a state or nation on a macro level.

Knifing SUVs for such aims sounds more like sabotage, which tends to be for directly dismantling something such as an organization.

[Nealithi]

Why is a Muslim stabber in my home town called a terrorist, but a white guy who goes in to shoot a bunch of black churchgoers who was radicalized by right-wing hate news not called a terrorist either? The intent is the damn same.

Media mislabeling things to sell copy?

General societal misinformation that muslims are all foreign?

The Asari want to confuse you?

Too many options to choose from as to why. Though if it is the same church shooter I heard of. It was less to intimidate civilians as to test pledge to a cause. So the group might be terrible. But the individual's goal was not in the definition of terrorism since he did not care about fear. Just showing he could pull a trigger.
I never heard of a Muslim stabber. But if he was trying to sow fear then the label could apply.
And how school shooters. Not trying for fear, though they are definitely causing it. But that is not the intent. So not terrorists. Sorry if that meandered a bit.

He talked about an impending Racial Holy War. How is that not terrorism?

That does not sound like the one I heard of. Which saddens me. Because how many church shootings are there now a days?

[Darth Wedgius]

Darth can you tell me that if some bearded brown man shot up a church saying he was opening a Jihad he wouldn't be a terrorist in every newspaper and DA office?

It wouldn't surprise me, but that is different from being convicted as a terrorist, and lately jihad has been used to mean terrorism anyway.