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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIf anyone EVER uses the word "terrorist" in any kind of communication with you
... distrust them and their motives.
The term is a movable feast.
It is used by whichever agency employs it to mean whatever said agency wants it to mean so long as the appropriate emotional charge is applied to the subject of the sentence in which it is used. It isn't a descriptor, it's tone device.
It is not an invitation to discuss or consider, it is not a term that explains or clarifies, it is an invitation (when not a covert instruction) to react emotionally to the individual/s to whom the term is applied.
Some years ago on DU, the vast majority of posters here seemed to know this. ("TERRA, TERRA, TERRA!!!" . There are now a large number of extremely confused people here who seem genuinely to believe that the term has some value beyond simple propaganda.
It is disheartening.
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If anyone EVER uses the word "terrorist" in any kind of communication with you (Original Post)
sibelian
Jun 2013
OP
These days I just assume most people who use it define it as "anything I happen to dislike."
Posteritatis
Jun 2013
#1
Posteritatis
(18,807 posts)1. These days I just assume most people who use it define it as "anything I happen to dislike."
Ditto with the word "treason."
sibelian
(7,804 posts)2. and "illegal combatant" - (LAWL!!) and "enhanced interrogation"...
and basically the entire "combat" lexicon. The whole basis of communication about warfare - the subset of the English language used to describe it - is totally corrupted.
I can't help but suspect that this was part of the plan all along.
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)3. If anyone ever used that word in any form of communication to me
I'd think they were daft in the head.
Wounded Bear
(58,440 posts)4. Good point...and it's badly overused....
Just saying the term is equivalent to asking if you've stopped beating your wife.
The response is preloaded in the initial comment. After all, noone would support terrorism, right?
gulliver
(13,142 posts)5. A useless rule of thumb.
It's really kind of dumb to base trust on message content. Makes no sense whatsoever. Always consider the source.
sibelian
(7,804 posts)7. Well, naturally.
My point is more that a heightened sense of "hmmmm, what's in it fer you using THAT word, buddy" is a good idea.
Quantess
(27,630 posts)6. Distrust anyone, who ever uses the word?
This is a paranoid sounding OP.