Comment by potato3732842
Comment by potato3732842 a day ago
One of the key components of terrorism is random or at least very loose targeting and some degree of disregard for collateral damage.
The United Healthcare murder was basically a reverse Eric garner. Instead of the government killing someone over something petty to keep the peasants in line a crazy peasant killed a member of the ruling class to send the same message in the other direction.
Politically both of these are more like a good ol' fashioned lynching than terrorism though obviously the line between the two becomes a bit blurry. Most targeted political violence is not terrorism (though of course the statues are so broad that if you crop dust an elevator in a government building you're probably open to prosecution).
> One of the key components of terrorism is random or at least very loose targeting and some degree of disregard for collateral damage.
I don't see how loose targetting is required. Or was the Oklahoma City Bombing not terrorism because it targetted a specific building?
The FBI definition of domestic terrorism is only one of many, but they say:
> Violent, criminal acts committed by individuals and/or groups to further ideological goals stemming from domestic influences, such as those of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature.
In my mind, the key is intent to further ideological goals. Killing a rival gang member to increase your standings in the gang leader boards isn't terrorism because there's no ideology. Killing a gang member to try to wipe out gangs could be, because it's an ideological battle. It wouldn't matter if you specifically targetted the leader of a gang, or the first gang member you saw, or someone you thought was a gang member without any investigation; it's the intent to further your ideology with violent crime.