I'm going to read the essay you pointed to, but it's going to take me some time.
I've decided the categorization is important. If my cousin went off and killed a bunch of people, it'd be important to be able to categorize him as "nuts" because then we could talk about how to handle mental illness. I think being able to point out that the anti-government actions of Timothy McVeigh are categorically different from the anti-government actions of Leonard Peltier. The IRA wasn't just being pissy, they had reasons and that's important - not all terrorists are just looking to terrorize. The Aurora shooter? No reasons. The current batch of radicalized Muslims? I *think* many different reasons and we're collapsing too many of them under "Radicalized Muslim" kind of like the "Extremist Christian" label can fit those focused on abortions, those who use it as part of their anti-government justification, etc. Anyway, brain vomit.
So. I'll read the article. Thanks for the pointer.
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I've decided the categorization is important. If my cousin went off and killed a bunch of people, it'd be important to be able to categorize him as "nuts" because then we could talk about how to handle mental illness. I think being able to point out that the anti-government actions of Timothy McVeigh are categorically different from the anti-government actions of Leonard Peltier. The IRA wasn't just being pissy, they had reasons and that's important - not all terrorists are just looking to terrorize. The Aurora shooter? No reasons. The current batch of radicalized Muslims? I *think* many different reasons and we're collapsing too many of them under "Radicalized Muslim" kind of like the "Extremist Christian" label can fit those focused on abortions, those who use it as part of their anti-government justification, etc. Anyway, brain vomit.
So. I'll read the article. Thanks for the pointer.