MeghanIsMe

What does terrorism mean to you?

To me, it means the furtherance of an agenda related to political power via violence, but one that is not embarked upon by a nation-state. (There is some wiggle-room for state-sponsored terrorism. Nothing is black and white.)

If the meaning of terrorism is something other than that, what exactly is it? And, if that is the case, what do we call violence by non-state actors planned or committed in furtherance of a political agenda? Maybe we need to define subtypes of terrorism? For instance, political terrorism vs.... what? Disaffected terrorism? Racial terrorism? (Racist agendas, though, are often political agendas, though perhaps not always consciously so.)

Are serial killers terrorists? I'm inclined to say no, but maybe there needs to be a subtype of terrorism that includes them? Sexual terrorism (for sexually-motivated serial murderers)? It seems like we're going far afield here.

Lots of people are talking about terrorism, and many of them are disagreeing about what that means. Without shared language, communication is difficult or impossible. When two people disagree about whether something is terrorism or not, let's talk about *why* that disagreement exists and what it means, rather than trying to convince other people based on who can shout more loudly and pervasively.

In a way, this reminds me of discussions I've had about what constitutes murder vs. assassination. It's the same act in a different context.