Political Memes

There is no accepted definition of terrorism or terrorist organization. That’s why all the literature talks about “non state actors”.

State violence is there to enforce rules, conquer territory or achieve political goals. Terrorism is there to create fear.

Many terrorist attacks were and are part of a campaign with explicit political goals, often including taking territory.

• The IRA's political goal was to remove northern Ireland from the UK
• The Taliban's political goal was to enforce a strict interpretation of Sharia law
• Hamas wanted to establish a Palestinian state

We just don't call these behaviors terrorist attacks when they're perpetrated by a state.

• Russia's bombings of Ukraine
• Israel's violations of the Geneva convention in the Gaza strip.
• The United States' air strikes on Venezuelan ships

I'm not advocating for violence by anyone, but your argument buys wholesale into every state's argument for why they should get to have a monopoly on it.

When a non-state actor does it, we call it "terrorism". When a state does it, we call it "state violence".

But the killing is the same. The desire to strike fear into opponents is the same. The goals are the same: to get power and control, or to keep it.

"Terrorism" is a word used and abused by state actors against smaller non-state actors, so that they can destroy it without having to negotiate (and possibly give concessions).

Trump is trying this now with Venezuela. If it's a corrupt government, you still have to engage in diplomacy. If it's a cartel, you have carte blanche to air strike Venezuelan ships.

The Taliban succeeded and now control the state of Afghanistan. Now that they're a state actor, violence against civilians has not stopped, we just stopped calling it terrorism and seeing it in the news.

Terrorism is a bad word for describing it, but it sounds scary, and fear drives news ratings, so it stuck.

Terrorism isn't just inciting fear. It's using extreme violence to obtain a platform as a means distribute a message. Importantly, that message must be contrary to the state's interests for it to be considered terrorism. Otherwise it's just a crazy guy with a gun/bomb/jet.

Also importantly, terrorism can be committed by nation-states just the same as it can be individuals (like Ted Kaczynski) or militias (Hamas, American Revolutionaries/Minutemen).