I would like for @Alessan’s definition to be the universal one. But sadly, it is not. Which leaves us with state-sponsored terrorism, non-state actor terrorism, domestic terrorism, secret police terrorism, etc. And even our good ol’ home-grown stochastic terrorism.
If the intent is to harm or scare the general public, it’s terrorism. Whether I / we like that definition or not.
Yep. I don’t understand why he can’t just come out and say, “Piker is an extremely radical and I fully condemn him and his views; I didn’t know that these were his views when I made the decision to campaign with him; I made a mistake, I apologize for that, and I won’t do it again”. Instead he just deflects every single time with “When I talk to Michiganders, they don’t ask me about a streamer from California, they ask me about cost of living”. That’s a very weak deflection considering that Abdul El Sayed was the one who decided to invite a streamer from California to Michigan to campaign with him in the first place.
Thankfully, many other Democrats have been forcefully condemning Piker and his statements, which is great. Every right wing outlet has been calling Piker a “Democratic Spokesperson”, which is utter bullshit - the fucker shits on Democrats more than he shits on Republicans, even now with Trump in office. He’s not a Democrat and never had been. He refused to endorse Kamala over Trump and may not have even voted for her himself. There’s absolutely no reason for Democrats to be in any way conciliatory or friendly to someone who is just as much our enemy as MAGA is. Politically, being associated with his ilk is disastrous. We need to go scorched earth against them.
In case you don’t quite remember the name: Pamela Smart, 59, was a 22-year-old high school media coordinator when she began an affair with the 15-year-old boy who she later pressured to fatally shoot her husband, Gregory Smart, in Derry in 1990 with help from three of his teenage friends.
I do remember her, primarily because of being struck by the incredible stupidity of hiring four teenagers to commit a murder and expecting that to go well.
Not disagreeing, but I think the “scare” part is more the goal than the actual harm done, and that you should add “for political purposes” to that. Maybe “to achieve increased political power” might be even better.
I agree w both your amendments. Much better with those points included.
Isn’t that, like, exactly the plot of To Die For?
ETA, nevermind, says so right in the article.
The case inspired Joyce Maynard’s 1992 book “To Die For” and the 1995 film of the same name, starring Nicole Kidman and Joaquin Phoenix.
Yeah, the actual sentence probably was “this would have been the perfect sandwich”.
In case anyone still doesn’t understand “pound for pound”: The US is, what, a hundred times bigger than al Qaeda? A thousand? So for us to be worse than them pound for pound, we’d have to kill a hundred or a thousand times more people than them.
That said, the underlying point that the US does a lot of evil is correct. If Piker just screwed up the math in his comparison, that makes him a stupid MFer, not an evil MFer.
Getting the directional sense of a comparative idiom backwards is hardly rare. Like leaving an intended “not” out of a sentence, it’s a common human failing in both speech and writing.
Doesn’t mean it’s not stupid to make stupid statements when you’re somebody with a substantial following to amplify your words.
Unfortunately, not surprising.
I don’t know why we would make the assumption that he didn’t mean exactly what he said there. This is the same man who cheers and claps when watching videos of the Houthis boarding cargo ships and taking their mostly Filipino crew hostage, and who has said of Hezbollah, and this is a direct quote, “I don’t have an issue with them, let’s just say” - despite the fact that Hezbollah contributed to five times more Arab deaths since 2011 alone than the entire Arab-Israeli conflict did in a war that had absolutely nothing to do with Israel.
I find it entirely plausible that Hasan meant exactly what he said. And even if he didn’t in this case, his prior statements on Hezbollah and the Houthis are more than sufficient to put him in the Evil Motherfucker category.
You want to talk about stupid, talk about the politicians who thought it was a good idea to campaign with this evil fuck. Thankfully, they’re distancing themselves from him now.
The hooker who caused his death has been found guilty of negligent homicide.
I’d proposed amending “political power” to “ideological ends”, as I think that captures the full scope of terrorism drivers.
Football players assault younger football player, football coaches think it is no big deal.
OK, those other things he said might be evil. I’m not familiar with him beyond what I’ve learned about him here. But the “pound for pound” statement was just stupid.
The old expression was “Boys will be boys.” It was bullshit then and it’s bullshit now. This sounds like assault.
My high school said “Boys are boys. But they will be young men, and we expect them to act like it”.
I like my high school.
Here’s what the lawyer for one of them said:
Stevens’ attorneys said in a statement Friday that this type of behavior has gone on for years at Boyd, and the incident should have been handled by the coaching staff.
“Our client experienced similar locker room hijinks when he began playing football there,” the statement reads. “Context and culture matter. Before the public convicts a high school student, people should consider the facts, not just the claims.”
The attorneys describe Stevens as “a good kid” who had just celebrated his 17th birthday.
“The people who know him best stand behind him, and so do we,” the legal team from Varghese Summersett said in the statement.
Also classic:
When the victim later reported the incident, members of the coaching staff told him the situation needed to be handled in the locker room and not reported further up.
Wouldn’t want to put any future football careers in jeopardy.