It's relevant in this case even as a political cudgel; Anders is pretty explicitly set up to "match" Meredith in the weight of her actions (basically what Shorts says about the terrorism/police state dichotomy). Without the ability to assess the severity of his actions objectively the choice becomes whitewashed and easy. What he did was ****ty, even if you ultimately agree with it or feel the ends justify the means, and whitewashing it just feels like a disservice to the narrative to me.CulturalGeekGirl wrote...
At this point, I think the word terrorist is functionally useless.
Indeed, the entire Wikipedia article on the Definition of Terrorism is basically scholars throwing up their hands and saying "it's become nothing more than a political cudgel; at this point there's no hope of having it mean anything coherent ever again."
I'm not going to argue whether or not Anders is a terrorist, because the word's definition is so vague that it can be applied to practically anyone who has ever done anything that results in people being afraid. I just wish it would stop coming up, and every time it does I get a dark pit in my chest. It's almost a Godwin, at this point... heck, I'd say it's worse than a Godwin, because that word actually MEANS something specific and has a very specific historical relevance.
I don't feel the word itself is really the issue, more so the flanderization of terrorists themselves by the west. It becomes difficult to look at it objectively when it's associated with such groups as al-Qaeda, whom have effectively been painted as evil boogeymen with no goals beyond hatred and bloodlust; with the acknowledgment that even they are human beings with motivations and philosophies behind their actions, unsympathetic to us as they may be, the subject as a whole is less muddled.
Anders does not have to be evil or maliciously aiming to create chaos for no reason to be a terrorist. In fact, that the evil devils some immediately associate with that label do not exist as we know them, either.
Retour en haut
