Terminology

[sabotabby]

Remember, kids: When a Muslim kills a bunch of innocent people, it's terrorism. When a white, right-wing Christian does it, it's the act of a lone crazed madman.

Comments

[lokilokust.livejournal.com]

ayup.

[corwin77.livejournal.com]

Did...did either of those happen on your vacation? If so you may be staying in the wrong places...

[jamie-miller.livejournal.com]

I quoted you. Hope that's OK.

[sabotabby]

Of course!

[franklanguage.livejournal.com]

Good, because I tweeted you.

[ayoub.livejournal.com]

Indeed...

Every newscaster I heard yesterday was assuming some sort of muslim terrorist.

[smhwpf.livejournal.com]

I think they've been calling it terrorism over here. (What do I mean over here? My UK/Al-Jaz centred corner of the internet). Though in Norway they're officially being cautious and saying one shouldn't prejudge motives. But the T word has certainly been used a fair bit.

I'm waiting to see the condemnations from Christian fundamentalist leaders. (They might for all I know, but I haven't seen it, so it hasn't really happened).

[night--watch.livejournal.com]

I happen to think carpet-bombing is a tad bit worse than car-bombing. Killer robot planes flown by teenage boys? Who thought this was a good idea?

This is not a good idea!

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I can entirely agree with that.

When the IRA was doing it, it was terrorism -- and they're white. And, definitely Christian.

When the FLQ was doing it, it was called terrorism. Again, white.

When the Basques are doing it, it is terrorism. Again, white.

I'm not saying the labelling is always clear and correct -- but there are a goodly number of white groups that have their activities labelled as terrorism.

[misslynx.livejournal.com]

There have been some, yes, although generally of some cultural minority group that makes people think of them as that first, and "white" second.

But in a lot of the discussion I've seen around this, I have seen a number of instances of people reacting to finding out who the perpetrator was by saying something like "Really? I thought it was terrorists..." - as if clearly the fact that he's Norwegian, white, Christian and right-wing makes him something other than a terrorist.

[sabotabby]

That's all pre-9/11 (and, as misslynx points out, linked to cultural minority groups).

Post 9/11, terrorism is brown people, and, for the most part, Muslims. The media rhetoric following killings by white supremacists seems to frequently emphasize the shooter's unhinged mental state (as if Muslim suicide bombers don't also frequently have some form of mental illness!) over any sort of political motive.

In this case, the political link is obvious. I'm still not seeing a lot of news outlets referring to this guy as a terrorist.

[pofflewomp.livejournal.com]

Here we still have IRA stuff to worry about. When I was a wee lass, in fact pre 9/11, "terrorist" was (equally unfairly, with horrible side effects of lots of awful anti-Irish discrimination and attacks) connected with "Irish." We have also had right wing nutter bombs, like the horrific nail bomb in the gay pub in Soho. Very close to home (I mean, literally - I live not far from there and it was by my brother's school).

I admit I assumed it was an Islamic fundamentalist thing when I saw the headlines, but the headlines here did all say "TERROR" and "TERRORISTS STRIKE" at least.

Isn't there a Wallander episode where everyone (except Wallander) assumes the bomber is Islamic and it turns out to be something right wing or something instead? I am very into Wallander (Swedish detective series).

[ironed_orchid]

According to at least one Freeper, Obama is too blame. But they say that about everything.