# Calling someone a ‘Terrorist’
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-someone-a-terrorist/1005578
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [August 11, 2024, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-someone-a-terrorist/1005578 "2024-08-11T21:08:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2024, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-someone-a-terrorist/1005578/21 "2024-08-11T22:29:26Z")
Ethnicity absolutely matters. An average white kid hasn’t heard comment about not being a real american and being a terrorist sympathizer their whole life.
Sure, it’s an insult if you call a random kid that. One they’ll probably be confused about and, I imagine, not all that hurt. If you call an arab kid that it’s a racial slur and they’ll take it as such.
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### Author:  [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2024, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-someone-a-terrorist/1005578/22 "2024-08-11T23:29:10Z")
> [@Telemark](#):
>
> If the rule is “Don’t insult other players” then using “terrorist” or “monkey” is very context dependent. It’s not just a list of words, and never can be. The ethnicity of the players is very important to establish context
It’s true that it’s a worse insult if/when it’s also a bigoted insult; but calling someone a terrorist seems to me to be insulting no matter who they are. Even those who are actually terrorists generally are called by their supporters freedom fighters or the legitimate resistance or whatever.
So if the organization has rules against insulting other players, then it’s legitimate for them to enforce those rules whatever the ethnicity of the players is. If the rules are stricter for, or only apply to, bigoted insults, then it makes a difference for the purpose of their enforcement. But the OP has still not supplied us with any set of rules for the organization that suspended the child, or with any reason given by the organization for doing so, or even with the name of the organization. @SpicyDuckBillyHunt, are you sure this even happened?
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2024, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-someone-a-terrorist/1005578/23 "2024-08-11T23:34:44Z")
You just can’t have 20 sets of rules for 20 sets of people.
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### Author:  [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2024, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-someone-a-terrorist/1005578/24 "2024-08-11T23:41:06Z")
“Don’t racially abuse people.”
Wow, how did I figure that out.
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### Author:  [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2024, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-someone-a-terrorist/1005578/25 "2024-08-11T23:43:50Z")
Trash talk seems an age-old part of most sports. I am not sure you can draw one set of rules that covers everything without getting weird and draconian. Sports seems to cover the worst of it and make that language against the rules but does not seem to block everything. Imagine trying to make a list of banned words/phrases in sports and then enforcing that list. It’d not go well I do not think.
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### Author:  [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2024, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-someone-a-terrorist/1005578/26 "2024-08-11T23:48:59Z")
I’d bet my bottom dollar it’s happened.
Kids can be nasty and cruel.
They call other kids bad names. Back bite. Kick, hit and spit on each other.
By the time you’re 17yo you should’ve been taught better. It seems to me by that time you may have inherited or adopted your parents views or are hanging with a crowd that has ugly name calling as their way of acting.
They can turn it around. Anyone can.
Grown adults calling other adults nasty names is worse than childish. It shows an ignorance and poor vocabulary.
If you can’t debate without cursing your opponent it’s a _you_ problem.
I realize I’m alone in thinking so.
I realize I’ve done it.
It’s still not a way to behave.
Children have to be taught this.
We’ve had a problem with the word _butt_ as in butthead, buttbreath, butt face with the very young boys in this house. My daughter says it’s a tame insult. Don’t worry. It’ll pass.
Yeah it passed to _“shithead”_ on one particular afternoon.
I asked her, now do you see. Next week it will be _fuckhead_. These words are everywhere.
Even if we were perfect(we’re far from it) the kids would hear these words and copy them. It’s what kids do.
You can still teach them the error in doing it. Repeatedly. You have to say it over and over. It gets old. Just like any home-teaching for kids.
I feel some young adults now, never received this training.
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### Author:  [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2024, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-someone-a-terrorist/1005578/27 "2024-08-11T23:53:23Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#):
>
> We’ve had a problem with the word _butt_ as in butthead, buttbreath, butt face with the very young boys in this house. My daughter says it’s a tame insult. Don’t worry. It’ll pass.
> Yeah it passed to _“shithead”_ on one particular afternoon.
>
> I asked her, now do you see. Next week it will be _fuckhead_. These words are everywhere.
That’s the thing though. If you make a list of banned words people will just find another way to express their contempt or dislike for someone that is not on the list. Then that goes on the list and the cycle repeats. My parents banned bad language. All their kids just learned not to say it in their presence.
The goal is to teach kids to not choose that contemptuous language and hope they act better. It’s not easy and anyone may fall back on such language in a fit of pique but we (all of us) can try to be better.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2024, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-someone-a-terrorist/1005578/28 "2024-08-11T23:53:28Z")
The OP seems unwilling to answer questions on context, including (a) where this allegedly occurred, (b) if the league had any written rules about the word (or general hate speech) prior to the alleged incident, and (c) if there was any racial or ethnic component between the players.
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### Author:  [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2024, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-someone-a-terrorist/1005578/29 "2024-08-11T23:54:58Z")
Racially charged name calling is right out.
Should never be tolerated.
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### Author:  [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2024, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-someone-a-terrorist/1005578/30 "2024-08-11T23:56:23Z")
No argument from me. I agree.
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### Author:  [@SpicyDuckBillyHunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpicyDuckBillyHunt)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2024, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-someone-a-terrorist/1005578/31 "2024-08-12T02:11:01Z")
I don’t want to give many specifics. I was at the game. It’s boys soccer in Australia. Oonly thing I can find is there are general rule against racism in the rule book I found.
Lots of words get used as insults in sports - trash talk- people get called cunts, idiots pussies etc. Don’t think any of these would get dealt with by the referees.
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### Author:  [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2024, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-someone-a-terrorist/1005578/32 "2024-08-12T02:15:43Z")
That’s horrible. They need to put a stop to it.
One wrong name to the wrong person…
Oh, seems it’s happened already.
Yeah. No. Kids that age should know better.
“Terrorist” is racist.
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### Author:  [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2024, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-someone-a-terrorist/1005578/33 "2024-08-12T02:24:04Z")
I don’t think the answer to “is the kid Arab, or some other ethnicity currently associated with terrorism” is going to let the SDMB dox the kid.
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### Author:  [@SpicyDuckBillyHunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpicyDuckBillyHunt)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2024, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-someone-a-terrorist/1005578/34 "2024-08-12T02:46:43Z")
I don’t know the religion nor ethnicity of the boy who got called the name. Neither does anyone in the other team. Not something that would be known in 99.99% of soccer games in Australia
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### Author:  [@SpicyDuckBillyHunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpicyDuckBillyHunt)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2024, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-someone-a-terrorist/1005578/35 "2024-08-12T02:52:07Z")
I would say that saying that certain ethnicities are associated with terrorism is a racist statement.
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### Author:  [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2024, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-someone-a-terrorist/1005578/36 "2024-08-12T02:55:25Z")
Was he brown skinned? Named Mohammed or Ahmed? How do you know what every member of the team knows about the kid’s affiliations? Is “know” a way out of “suspect” which would carry the same intentions?
I have a very hard time believing that terrorist was the go-to insult against the median religion and ethnicity Australian child.
> [@SpicyDuckBillyHunt](#):
>
> I would say that saying that certain ethnicities are associated with terrorism is a racist statement.
Are you saying that if the insulter was attempting to reference the victim’s religion or ethnicity that they were being racist or are you referencing posters’ speculation in this thread?
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### Author:  [@SpicyDuckBillyHunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpicyDuckBillyHunt)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2024, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-someone-a-terrorist/1005578/37 "2024-08-12T03:03:55Z")
Wow- you’re saying that every brown kid in Australia is what? You should watch how you write.
Since I said the soccer teams don’t know opponents ethnicity and religion, you should know I was referring to a poster on this thread
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### Author:  [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2024, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-someone-a-terrorist/1005578/38 "2024-08-12T03:05:24Z")
> [@SpicyDuckBillyHunt](#):
>
> Wow- you’re saying that every brown kid in Australia is what?
I said no such thing. Retract your accusation.
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### Author:  [@SpicyDuckBillyHunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpicyDuckBillyHunt)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2024, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-someone-a-terrorist/1005578/39 "2024-08-12T03:07:11Z")
Why are you asking about skin colour? Ask yourself the question.
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### Author:  [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2024, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-someone-a-terrorist/1005578/40 "2024-08-12T03:07:12Z")
> [@SpicyDuckBillyHunt](#):
>
> that every brown kid in Australia is what?
Every brown kid in Australia is subject to being misidentified and having a slur, that is particular to certain ethnicities, used to attack them by racists that use slurs when referring to those ethnicities.
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