American exceptionalism - even for terrorists

I don't know why we never call these people Christian fundamentalists/terrorists/fascists/radicals etc. the same was we attach the word Muslim or Islamic to "brown" terrorists. What does Wiki [2] have to say about it?

In recent Western culture [3], terrorism more specifically refers to a strategy [4] of using political violence [5], social threats, or coordinated attacks, in order to generate fear [6], cause disruption, and ultimately, bring about compliance with specified demands.

So this ~~asshole~~ psychopath [7] tries to blow up an abortion clinic, killing innocent people for political gain. And in 115 google hits, not a single use [8] of the word terrorist.

Of course, the same people who have so many problems with abortion have no problem whatsoever in killing when it comes to innocent [9] Iraqi civilians. And now Oklahoma has decided to extend capital punishment [10] to execute pedophiliacs and other sexual predators.

Jesus would be so proud.Ã‚Â

[11]

Comments

AnonymousMon, 2006-06-12 05:20

Well, it's Us and the Other

This linguistic discrimination is very deliberate on the part of the higher-ups. In America in particular, word association seems to have become their favorite game - well, at least the power of language to shape schemata and ideology hasn't been underestimated. By using certain words only for certain groups of people, these groups become more and more separate in people's minds, until we have what we have now: a concept of terrorism which proposes human beings who are not human beings, to whom our own concepts of humanity need not apply. (Because they're evil Islamic terrorists.) On the other hand, people don't WANT to divorce their identity so entirely from the psycopath you mention. On some level, he's one of our own.

The concept of terrorism has become the concept of an external threat to dominant society.