Can you call it 'terrorism' if no one is scared?

[JOEL_]

By political tool you mean they use the word terrorism for their own propaganda in the states?Pretty sure it's the same all over if it is indeed what you mean.

[hyde]

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By political tool you mean they use the word terrorism for their own propaganda in the states?Pretty sure it's the same all over if it is indeed what you mean.

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I meant that our politicians use the word terrorist as a tool. It has a strong emotional response. It evokes fear. Fear is a political tool. It is an effective tool.
My thought was that it was a less effective tool in Britain because the terror of the Blitz has had a cultural impact and given terror something more of a reality and less of an imagination based fear.
I suspect the American culture is more responsive to the "threat" of terror than other cultures.

[JOEL_]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
By political tool you mean they use the word terrorism for their own propaganda in the states?Pretty sure it's the same all over if it is indeed what you mean.

[/ QUOTE ]


I meant that our politicians use the word terrorist as a tool. It has a strong emotional response. It evokes fear. Fear is a political tool. It is an effective tool.
My thought was that it was a less effective tool in Britain because the terror of the Blitz has had a cultural impact and given terror something more of a reality and less of an imagination based fear.
I suspect the American culture is more responsive to the "threat" of terror than other cultures.

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Protection racket???

[Duke]

Let's call them catalybooms. It also ends up poking fun at the Taliban through a partial rhyme.

It's fitting because the acts themselves are ridiculous and nobody really gives a [censored], but the political reactions they cause bring us closer to '1984.' They're nothing more than catalysts for that process, and "go boom."

[katyseagull]

No one is scared? I am! Hyde is exactly right. They use the word terrorist and we Americans get freaked out. I don't personally believe in some global terrorist organization named "al qaeda". I'd love to know whose bright idea that was. But I do believe in extremists and nut cases and yeah I am scared of them and the havoc they wreak.

Whether you call them "sad lonely men," "brainwashed puppets" or "deluded fantasists" I'm still gonna be freaked out diebitter. A brainwashed puppet with a bomb is still as scary to me as a terrorist. Well perhaps not quite as scary but still a little nerve wracking.

I kind of like TheOnceAndFutureKings "irrationalfearinducingist". That one sort of puts me more at ease.

[diebitter]

I think you're on the money with "no global network". I still laugh when I remember Rumsfeld or Cheney showing diagrams on the news of what he considered to be AL Quaida bases built into the mountains on Afghanistan, and insisting there were lots of them. He's been watching too much James Bond and not reading enough 'practical engineering'. How easy does he think it is to build a secret base into a remote mountain?

Scare, scare, scare serves both sets of idiots IMO, and does the rest of us a big disservice.

lonely nuts who find each other and form little self-encouraging gangs of hate-fuelled killers is mostly what it comes down to, IMHO.

[katyseagull]

If Brits don't care and refuse to allow themselves to become victims of fear then how do you explain your media continuing on this path of frenzy? I can understand why the American media does it (to some degree) because we are a little freaked out about the idea of terrorists over here and we feed the frenzy. We tune in and watch hour after hour of coverage of this stuff and our imaginations take flight. We haven't become accustomed to it the way you guys have. I know that I am scared we will start to see car bombings over here in the states.

[Duke]

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I think you're on the money with "no global network". I still laugh when I remember catalyboomificiaries showing diagrams on the news of what they considered to be catalyboom bases built into the mountains on Afghanistan, and insisting there were lots of them. He's been watching too much James Bond and not reading enough 'practical engineering'. How easy does he think it is for a catalyboomer to build a secret base into a remote mountain?

Scare, scare, scare serves all catalyboomers and their catalyboomificiaries IMO, and does the rest of us a big disservice.

Catalyboomers who find each other and form little catalybooms is mostly what it comes down to, IMHO.

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[Duke]

[ QUOTE ]
If Brits don't care and refuse to allow themselves to become victims of fear then how do you explain your media continuing on this path of frenzy? I can understand why the American media does it (to some degree) because we are a little freaked out about the idea of terrorists over here and we feed the frenzy. We tune in and watch hour after hour of coverage of this stuff and our imaginations take flight. We haven't become accustomed to it the way you guys have. I know that I am scared we will start to see car bombings over here in the states.

[/ QUOTE ]

We're more afraid of [censored] like that because we haven't fought a war here in about 200 years. England has been seeing IRA stuff since the early 80s, and they were a lot closer to Europe than us for WW1 and WW2.

"Fearmongering" only works on people who aren't accustomed to violence. It makes sense that the English would have a different perspective.

[diebitter]

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If Brits don't care and refuse to allow themselves to become victims of fear then how do you explain your media continuing on this path of frenzy?

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That's a very good question. I personally think it's as simple as sensationalism sells newspaper or gets viewers, but I'd be interested in any different persectives on that.