Juan Cole on the Top Ten Differences Between White Terrorists and Others
1. White terrorists are called “gunmen.” What does that even mean? A person with a gun? Wouldn’t that be, like, everyone in the US? Other terrorists are called, like, “terrorists.”
2. White terrorists are “troubled loners.” Other terrorists are always suspected of being part of a global plot, even when they are obviously troubled loners.
3. Doing a study on the danger of white terrorists at the Department of Homeland Security will get you sidelined by angry white Congressmen. Doing studies on other kinds of terrorists is a guaranteed promotion.
4. The family of a white terrorist is interviewed, weeping as they wonder where he went wrong. The families of other terrorists are almost never interviewed.
Advertisement
5. White terrorists are part of a “fringe.” Other terrorists are apparently mainstream.
6. White terrorists are random events, like tornadoes. Other terrorists are long-running conspiracies.
7. White terrorists are never called “white.” But other terrorists are given ethnic affiliations.
8. Nobody thinks white terrorists are typical of white people. But other terrorists are considered paragons of their societies.
9. White terrorists are alcoholics, addicts or mentally ill. Other terrorists are apparently clean-living and perfectly sane.
10. There is nothing you can do about white terrorists. Gun control won’t stop them. No policy you could make, no government program, could possibly have an impact on them. But hundreds of billions of dollars must be spent on police and on the Department of Defense, and on TSA, which must virtually strip search 60 million people a year, to deal with other terrorists.
This article is an example of what is becoming all too common. Seeing everything through as set of lenses and not noticing when the view becomes distorted.
First of all, we have to agree on what terrorist means. There is no single definition. In the strict definition I use mass murder alone doesn’t mean terrorism.
Second, I have not seen any references to people like Timothy McVeigh that don’t use the word terrorist. Chechen terrorists, IRA terrorists, etc are all similarly identified as such.
Third, when a known Islamist terrorist has had family in the West those families have usually been interviewed.
Fourth, Daesh counts many white people among its ranks.
I could go on but I think it’s clear that a small amount of objective research shows that the above article has no substance to it. It’s one thing to point out and seek to rectify inequity. It’s another thing to become so fixated that one begins to actually make rifts where there are none.