Sunday, January 8, 2012

Cheapening a term — "terrorism" is getting out of hand


Such cyber-attacks are "a breach of sovereignty comparable to a terrorist operation, and must be treated as such", Danny Ayalon, the country's deputy foreign minister, said in a speech on Saturday.
Read it at Al Jazeera
Israel says credit card hack is 'terrorism'

Is "terrorism" the new "Hitler?" Time for an expansion of Godwin's law?

The conception of terrorism and use of "terrorism" are getting out of hand, sometime dangerously so.
The word "terrorism" is politically and emotionally charged,[3] and this greatly compounds the difficulty of providing a precise definition. Studies have found over 100 definitions of “terrorism”.[4][5] The concept of terrorism may itself be controversial as it is often used by state authorities (and individuals with access to state support) to delegitimize political or other opponents,[6] and potentially legitimize the state's own use of armed force against opponents (such use of force may itself be described as "terror" by opponents of the state).[6][7] source

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Such austerity measures are a breach of sovereignty comparable to a terrorist operation, and must be treated as such."

Tom Hickey said...

"comparable to a terrorist operation"

Yeah, hacking into computers is now the same as planting bombs?

Easy to see where this is going.