# Dylann Roof is a Terrorist

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-is-a-terrorist/723074>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [June 21, 2015, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-is-a-terrorist/723074 "2015-06-21T14:50:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-is-a-terrorist/723074/1 "2015-06-21T14:50:52Z")

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If Dylann Roof was anything other than a white Christian his actions in shooting up a Charleston, SC church and his own manifesto would have branded him a terrorist. His actions were intended to frighten people and trigger a race war. He’s a frickin’ terrorist. So why isn’t the media and the politicians calling a spade a spade?

Could it be _\>gasp\<_ continuing bias?

Yes, a “hate crime” is much like terrorism, and there’s no denying Mr. Roof was full of hate (apparently he was pretty clear on that in the manifesto), but the Boston Marathon bombing wasn’t called a hate crime, it was called terrorism. There’s no reason Roof’s actions can’t be a hate crime AND terrorism at the same time.

I think it’s the notion that terrorists are those “other people”, not white people or Christians. Sorry, nope is a terrorist who happens to be a white guy.

Google reveals a lot of people questioning why he’s not labeled as such. Let me put an end to this. He’s a terrorist. There. Not a question, a statement.

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**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-is-a-terrorist/723074/2 "2015-06-21T14:58:12Z")

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Several people on NPR use the T word. TV news has become so insipid as to be useless, especially ABC. It’s all feel-good, “returning GI surprises her kid at school event” (I think they have one a day) glurge. It’s the Reader’s Digest of news. If Fox News is for Grandpa, ABC News is for Grandma.

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**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-is-a-terrorist/723074/3 "2015-06-21T15:06:12Z")

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I don’t think it’s so much about him being white. I think it’s more about him not being muslim. The Boston Marathon bombers were white, but muslim. Of course, many Americans associate being muslim with being “not white”, so it is hard to separate the two cleanly.

Still, his actions fit the classic traits of terrorism, and who knows-- terrorism charges may yet be filled against him.

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**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-is-a-terrorist/723074/4 "2015-06-21T15:07:05Z")

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I don’t really feel comfortable with it. It’s like he doesn’t ‘deserve’ the standing (organised political thought, or whatever)

He was just a hate-filled, mixed up youngster acting alone, with a present his dad got him.

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**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-is-a-terrorist/723074/5 "2015-06-21T15:13:20Z")

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Dylann isn’t a terrorist. He’s just a malcontented, half witted, bigoted prick. He’s probably headed for a mental defense and a life in a mental institution.

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**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-is-a-terrorist/723074/6 "2015-06-21T15:14:05Z")

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> [@up\_the\_junction](#):
>
> I don’t really feel comfortable with it. It’s like he doesn’t ‘deserve’ the standing (organised political thought, or whatever)
> 
> He was just a hate-filled, mixed up youngster acting alone, with a present his dad got him.

Which distinguishes him from Dzhokhar Tzarnaev, how?

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**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-is-a-terrorist/723074/7 "2015-06-21T15:20:10Z")

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> [@John\_Mace](#):
>
> Which distinguishes him from Dzhokhar Tzarnaev, how?

If guns weren’t so prevalent in the US - and this was a gift from a family member - then maybe. Plenty of of people seem to go on shooting sprees in the US without it being deemed terrorism. Was that guy last week shooting up a Dallas police station a terrorist?

Of course Boston was a bomb and organised. I guess that makes people more inclined to lean towards terrorism.

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**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-is-a-terrorist/723074/8 "2015-06-21T15:21:47Z")

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Make that not just the younger brother, but the two Tzarnaev brothers together. Obviously neither “acted alone”, but they two of them together were acting separately from any organized group. Roof and those two brothers were influenced by hate sites on the internet, and identified with larger groups who espoused terrorism even if they weren’t card carrying members.

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**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-is-a-terrorist/723074/9 "2015-06-21T15:36:51Z")

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> [@Broomstick](#):
>
> His actions were intended to frighten people and trigger a race war.

_Another_ race war, or was he just trying to re-invigorate an on-going race war? With the media full of stories about whitie police officers capping innocent unarmed black men, why wouldn’t we expect some back-lash?

He seemed to have acted alone, so this is simply cold-blooded murder, a thing he planned out. I see no reason to add the lesser charge of terrorism unless there’s a problem with convicting a whitie for killing darkies in South Carolina (if you get my drift).

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**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-is-a-terrorist/723074/10 "2015-06-21T15:38:13Z")

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> [@up\_the\_junction](#):
>
> Of course Boston was a bomb and organised. I guess that makes people more inclined to lean towards terrorism.

The Oklahoma City bombing was a bomb and a conspiracy, but it seemed like it took forever for some news and government people to call it terrorism, and only after they ran out of euphemisms.

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**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-is-a-terrorist/723074/11 "2015-06-21T15:47:56Z")

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“You silly Americans don’t know what terrorism is” – Facebook friend from Israel

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**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-is-a-terrorist/723074/12 "2015-06-21T15:48:18Z")

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I lean toward the terms ‘criminal’ and ‘lunatic’ myself.

‘Terrorist’ seems to seems to have become politicized to the extent that it’s no longer that useful a term, so, just speaking for myself here, I don’t really care whether it happens to be used or not. As the OP notes, in the US the perception is that terrorism is somehow purely the province of foreigners who are most likely muslim.

I’m put in mind as well of my experiences in Zimbabwe, where whenever the subject of the Rhodesian civil war came up, the white folk I met uniformly referred to the opposition as ‘terrorists’.

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**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-is-a-terrorist/723074/13 "2015-06-21T15:53:55Z")

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> [@watchwolf49](#):
>
> “You silly Americans don’t know what terrorism is” – Facebook friend from Israel

What a stupid thing to say. As if terrorism isn’t terrorism unless it rises to some arbitrary level.

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**Author:** ![Stringbean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Stringbean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stringbean)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-is-a-terrorist/723074/14 "2015-06-21T15:55:54Z")

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I think the crime fits the standard for terrorism, although that’s just become a blanket word that is largely meaningless now.

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**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-is-a-terrorist/723074/15 "2015-06-21T15:59:37Z")

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“Terrorist” has become so politicized that it’s just a buzzword with no inherent meaning. Does the language we use to describe the crime he committed make it any more or less heinous? I don’t think so.

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**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-is-a-terrorist/723074/16 "2015-06-21T15:59:56Z")

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> [@Stringbean](#):
>
> I think the crime fits the standard for terrorism, although that’s just become a blanket word that is largely meaningless now.

True, but I think the point is that not many people make that argument when the accused is a muslim.

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**Author:** ![JVDaly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/edb3f5/32.png) [@JVDaly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JVDaly)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-is-a-terrorist/723074/17 "2015-06-21T16:02:35Z")

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Who are all these millions of politicians and pundits who _aren’t_ calling this terrorism?

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**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-is-a-terrorist/723074/18 "2015-06-21T16:14:00Z")

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> [@Broomstick](#):
>
> Let me put an end to this. He’s a terrorist. There. Not a question, a statement.

What is the debate, then?

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**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-is-a-terrorist/723074/19 "2015-06-21T16:19:18Z")

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> [@John\_Mace](#):
>
> What a stupid thing to say. As if terrorism isn’t terrorism unless it rises to some arbitrary level.

If Tsarnaev could be convicted for using weapons of mass destruction, this guy can be convicted of terrorism.

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**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-is-a-terrorist/723074/20 "2015-06-21T16:26:50Z")

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I think of him primarily as a racist nutcase, I must admit. I associate “terrorism” with more overt and theoretically attainable political goals.

More specifically, anytime I hear that Roof “wanted to start a race war”, I’m reminded of Charles Manson, who wanted to do the same. Since I think of Manson primarily as a nutcase, so goes Roof.

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