Sun 1 Oct 2006
The word “terrorism” no longer means anything at all. Perhaps it used to mean something, at least I thought it did… but no longer. Leftists attribute it to governments like the US and Israel. Right-wingers attribute it to anyone who opposes them. And now it seems that Putin has taken the bizarre step of attributing it to a neighbouring country simply because they apprehended his spies.
It’s been on this road for a while now, but it’s finally official: terrorism now joins the rank of fascism and simply means “we don’t like them”. RIP, “terrorism”.
October 1st, 2006 at 5:40pm
It’s our generation’s “communism”.
October 2nd, 2006 at 11:19pm
shadownode: I’m not fully sure that communist was ever the all-purpose bogeyman that terrorist or fascist seem to be for our generation. Communism after all was something real and tangible that you could point to — this is to say that there were people (entire countries, even) who actually admitted they _were_ communist. Whereas we apply the labels “terorists” and “fascists” to people who call us “terorists” and “fascists”. Kind of a special oddity this time around.
This is not to say that “communist” was not over-applied in the days of yore — this is most certainly true. It’s just that the commie-pinko-leftists weren’t calling out Nixon as a communist. Or were they?
October 3rd, 2006 at 11:05pm
My point is that, unless you’re blowing yourself up in a Tel Aviv bus or setting up a dictatorship of the proleteriat, it’s a meaningless term. Case in point.
October 3rd, 2006 at 11:14pm
ShadowNode: you win. Honestly, I would rather it be that our generation was more stupid. At least that way it would mean that we have room to improve…
October 4th, 2006 at 7:52am
ShadowNode: that’s disturbing.