skews13
Diamond Member
- Mar 18, 2017
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A terrorist attacked Club Q in Colorado Springs Saturday night. Another terrorist attacked WalMart workers in Virginia yesterday. It’s happened over 600 times this year. But nobody’s calling them terrorists, and that’s a problem for America.
We didn’t call the jihadis who blew up the Twin Towers “mentally ill,” “disgruntled,” or discuss their “troubled past.” We correctly called them terrorists because they used mass murder to try to “right a wrong” or achieve a political goal, which is the literal definition of terrorism.
Osama bin Laden was nowhere in the vicinity of 9/11 — we later learned he didn’t even know the details of the operation that he had inspired with his words and those who amplified his rhetoric until it happened — yet President Barack Obama tracked him down and killed him. Bin Laden wasn’t mentally ill, either: he was a terrorist.
Bin Laden was radicalized by mullahs in Saudi Arabia, and went off to Afghanistan to use terror to (successfully) drive out the occupying Russian “blasphemers.”
Here in America, media figures, politicians, and preachers — seeking fame, fortune, and power for themselves just like the Saudi mullahs — similarly radicalize angry or self-righteous men to commit acts of mass murder.
But when the men they’ve triggered practice their terrorism to frighten Black people, Jews, abortion providers, queer people, or even former employers into submission or invisibility — or to keep politicians in offices they lost — we call them “sick” or “troubled” or “mentally ill.”
The man who shot up Club Q in Colorado Springs has been called “deranged” in media headlines featuring his “troubled past.” He wasn’t deranged: he was a terrorist. So were the men who murdered Jews at the Tree of Life Synagogue and Black people at a Buffalo supermarket.
All had the mental competence to identify their victims, acquire their weapons, and execute their crimes. They may not live or think exactly like you and me, they may have had tough childhoods, but they’re not mentally ill: they’re terrorists.
The Arizona citizens who so threatened the life of the Maricopa County Supervisor, Republican Bill Gates, that he and his family went into hiding aren’t mentally ill. They’re malinformed — lied to — largely by a hierarchy of Republicans from former President Trump down to county officials, and worked into a rage by those lies broadcast across social media, podcasts, and the radio, but they’re not mentally ill: they’re terrorists.
— Members of the Klan, who murdered thousands of Americans over the decades and continue to advocate white supremacy today aren’t mentally ill: they’re terrorists.
— So-called militia members who go looking for street brawls and tried to murder Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi aren’t mentally ill: they’re terrorists.
— Politicians who engage in dog-whistle politics using antisemitic innuendo and darkening the faces of their Black opponents in TV ads aren’t mentally ill: they’re trying to inspire terrorists.
There are a few mass shooters who are clinically delusional, genuinely mentally ill, but they’re few and far between. And even they are similarly vulnerable to radicalization by preachers, politicians, and media figures who are hustling hate for their own selfish purposes.
A 2018 FBI study, looking in detail at the lives and backgrounds of 63 mass shooters from 2000 to 2013, found that, at most, about a quarter had a mental illness “of any kind” — which included things like depression and anxiety disorders — but only three out of the 63 had an actual psychotic disorder, what we usually think of when we attribute mental illness to a horrific act.
Mentally ill people, in fact, are more likely to be the victims of crimes than the perpetrators. By calling terrorists “mentally ill” or “troubled” we’re doing a terrible disservice to those tortured souls who actually suffer from mental illness.
That homeless guy with the wild hair who screamed incoherent obscenities at Louise as he chased her down a Portland street was genuinely mentally ill. Sixty out of 63 mass shooters the FBI looked at were not: they’re simply terrorists.
They hate Jews and Muslims, they hate Blacks, they hate queer people, they hate teachers, librarians, and election workers. But hate is not a mental illness: it’s a normal part of the spectrum of human emotion that we are all capable of experiencing.
And, in America today, that hate is all too often triggered by politicians and media figures who then sanctimoniously offer “thoughts and prayers” when random (or stochastic) terrorists to do their evil work for them.
Terrorism: An act of violence to achieve a result associated with political or religious ends.
We didn’t call the jihadis who blew up the Twin Towers “mentally ill,” “disgruntled,” or discuss their “troubled past.” We correctly called them terrorists because they used mass murder to try to “right a wrong” or achieve a political goal, which is the literal definition of terrorism.
Osama bin Laden was nowhere in the vicinity of 9/11 — we later learned he didn’t even know the details of the operation that he had inspired with his words and those who amplified his rhetoric until it happened — yet President Barack Obama tracked him down and killed him. Bin Laden wasn’t mentally ill, either: he was a terrorist.
Bin Laden was radicalized by mullahs in Saudi Arabia, and went off to Afghanistan to use terror to (successfully) drive out the occupying Russian “blasphemers.”
Here in America, media figures, politicians, and preachers — seeking fame, fortune, and power for themselves just like the Saudi mullahs — similarly radicalize angry or self-righteous men to commit acts of mass murder.
But when the men they’ve triggered practice their terrorism to frighten Black people, Jews, abortion providers, queer people, or even former employers into submission or invisibility — or to keep politicians in offices they lost — we call them “sick” or “troubled” or “mentally ill.”
The man who shot up Club Q in Colorado Springs has been called “deranged” in media headlines featuring his “troubled past.” He wasn’t deranged: he was a terrorist. So were the men who murdered Jews at the Tree of Life Synagogue and Black people at a Buffalo supermarket.
All had the mental competence to identify their victims, acquire their weapons, and execute their crimes. They may not live or think exactly like you and me, they may have had tough childhoods, but they’re not mentally ill: they’re terrorists.
The Arizona citizens who so threatened the life of the Maricopa County Supervisor, Republican Bill Gates, that he and his family went into hiding aren’t mentally ill. They’re malinformed — lied to — largely by a hierarchy of Republicans from former President Trump down to county officials, and worked into a rage by those lies broadcast across social media, podcasts, and the radio, but they’re not mentally ill: they’re terrorists.
— Members of the Klan, who murdered thousands of Americans over the decades and continue to advocate white supremacy today aren’t mentally ill: they’re terrorists.
— So-called militia members who go looking for street brawls and tried to murder Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi aren’t mentally ill: they’re terrorists.
— Politicians who engage in dog-whistle politics using antisemitic innuendo and darkening the faces of their Black opponents in TV ads aren’t mentally ill: they’re trying to inspire terrorists.
There are a few mass shooters who are clinically delusional, genuinely mentally ill, but they’re few and far between. And even they are similarly vulnerable to radicalization by preachers, politicians, and media figures who are hustling hate for their own selfish purposes.
A 2018 FBI study, looking in detail at the lives and backgrounds of 63 mass shooters from 2000 to 2013, found that, at most, about a quarter had a mental illness “of any kind” — which included things like depression and anxiety disorders — but only three out of the 63 had an actual psychotic disorder, what we usually think of when we attribute mental illness to a horrific act.
Mentally ill people, in fact, are more likely to be the victims of crimes than the perpetrators. By calling terrorists “mentally ill” or “troubled” we’re doing a terrible disservice to those tortured souls who actually suffer from mental illness.
That homeless guy with the wild hair who screamed incoherent obscenities at Louise as he chased her down a Portland street was genuinely mentally ill. Sixty out of 63 mass shooters the FBI looked at were not: they’re simply terrorists.
They hate Jews and Muslims, they hate Blacks, they hate queer people, they hate teachers, librarians, and election workers. But hate is not a mental illness: it’s a normal part of the spectrum of human emotion that we are all capable of experiencing.
And, in America today, that hate is all too often triggered by politicians and media figures who then sanctimoniously offer “thoughts and prayers” when random (or stochastic) terrorists to do their evil work for them.
Time to Call Mass Shooters - and Those Who Inspire Them - Terrorists
A terrorist attacked Club Q in Colorado Springs Saturday night. Another terrorist attacked WalMart workers in Virginia yesterday. It’s happened over 600 times this year. But nobody’s calling them terrorists, and that’s a problem for America. We didn’t...
www.dailykos.com
Terrorism: An act of violence to achieve a result associated with political or religious ends.
