BS: Time to drop the word 'terrorism' & why.

Subject: BS: Time to drop the word 'terrorism' & why.
From: Little Hawk
Date: 06 Oct 12 - 12:59 PM

There are certain words that get used not to help people think and understand a situation, but to make sure they stop thinking...and give their consent to thoughtless actions.

In our time one of the foremost words of that sort, if not THE foremost is: "terrorism" and "terrorist"

These are words that are being used to manipulate people into supporting undeclared, pre-emptive wars of choice (illegal aggression, in other words)...and radical reductions in civil liberties at home. It's a scare tactic.

The reason I'm posting about it is because of this excellent passage posted by Stringsinger in answer to the question posed by the thread "Is Fox News a terrorist organization?"

No, there are real terrorists in the US, the offshoots of white supremacist groups
skinheads, the Nazi Party and certain fundamentalist religious organizations
that rival any Al Quaeda group in the Mid East. You only have to recall
Timothy McVeigh and the hazing of Matthew Shepherd to establish that point.
"Terrorism" is the new buzz word that has replaced "communism" to incite
violence. You heard it a lot under George W. Bush's administration.

What's needed is a response to Fox News and it's affiliates by:
1. Organizing a counter station that reflects Progressive values
2. Picketing Fox News and holding them to account for lies
3. Articles and broadcasts about their intransigence and falsehoods
4. Complain when health clubs or other institutions have it on
5. Drop the use of "terrorism" from your vocabulary. It's a catch-all
phrase that has lost its meaning through generalizations and overuse.
It is a propaganda term that is intended to manipulate a fear response,
a return to McCarthyism.

And that is right! It's just silly to refer to a rightwing news show as a "terrorist" organization, but it reflects the general misuse and overuse of the word "terrorist" lately....a word whose use became a verbal epidemic during the Bush administration. It's gone way out of context ever since. "Terrorism" and "terrorist" are post-911 propaganda terms being used by politicians and the media (the same way "communism" used to be) in an inappropriate and indiscriminate manner for no other reason than to generate a fear response, as Stringsinger says, and thus to get public support for unjustified wars, extreme militarism, and unjustified legal assaults upon domestic civil rights.