gozo · HackerTrans

11 yıl öncediscuss

Sweden hasn't been as affected as other countries. Instability will always spill over from conflicts, there's nothing special about this era. RAF occupied the West German embassy in Stockholm in 1975 and planned to kidnap a Swedish politician. To some extent it's the same for France, they didn't invade Iraq, created Guantanamo or other things to escalate the conflict yet they are targeted. Maybe because they have a lot of dealings in the Middle East or to please IS supporters or it's just convenient. I'm sure people will speculate a lot about this in the coming months.

gozo

11 yıl öncediscuss

People who have historically done these kinds of act don't care about IS nor are they devote Muslims. They care about support for Israel because it is seen as a further proof of the west mistreating Muslims. It's not about blaming Israel, it's about western governments doing things like the french did and first celebrating free speech after Charlie Hebdo, just to ban anti-Israeli demonstrations. That's a great recruiting tool to use on young person in a suburb already feeling mistreated by the government.

gozo

11 yıl öncediscuss

The problem with declaring the police as terrorist is that they also have legitimate use and the aren't necessarily directly politically motivated. That said, I could see how someone could claim that the crackdown of the civil rights movement in the US in the 60s could be considered a form of state terrorism. A more obvious example would be something like South Africa under apartheid.

This is of course a slightly academic use of the word. Many people have a hard time seeing even traditional domestic terrorism (like the unabomber) as terrorism.

gozo

11 yıl öncediscuss

I don't think it's "pure scapegoating". It's very much a relevant part to understand the mechanics behind thing like this. The French ban on anti-Isreali demonstrations might very well have helped radicalization and recruitment of young people with non-french backgrounds. So might the last years worsening conflict in Palestine. It shouldn't be a particularly controversial statement to say that there are things that Isreal do, like settlements, that is not good for the security of EU/US.

gozo

11 yıl öncediscuss

Yes, the murder of Litvinenko is considered state terrorism by those who can afford to say so. Its not considered random at all. They very publicly killed someone who was an outspoken opponent of theirs. KGB has a long history of both state terrorism and state-sponsored terrorism.

> THE senior British official was unequivocal. The murder of the former KGB man Alexander Litvinenko was "undeniably state-sponsored terrorism on Moscow's part. That is the view at the highest levels of the British government".

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/world_news/article6...

You might think that some forms of terrorism are worse than others, but that doesn't mean that those are the only forms of terrorism.

gozo

11 yıl öncediscuss

That is only because up until recently you could buy blank fire guns in Slovakia that were easily converted to real guns. Otherwise most of the weapons are from the Balkans as a consequence of the war.

gozo

11 yıl öncediscuss

That has nothing to do with the definition of terrorism. Groups who do targeted attacks of sabotage that rarely kill people are also considered terrorists. For example the Earth Liberation Front is regarded as terrorists by the US.

https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/dt https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2009/september/domterror_09...

gozo

11 yıl öncediscuss

I've tried to take that analysis seriously when people have linked it before, but to me it just doesn't seem very relevant to the real world. I'm curious what you mean when you say that it's not about political goals and how that is supported?

Terrorists are by definition extremists. They want to upset the status quo to force people to take sides and create a situation where they feel they, who are righteous, have a better chance of being successful or at least relevant. Whether that is a race war, holy war or revolution. The killing itself isn't particularly relevant until your fighting over land and then normally in form of ethnic cleansing.

The analysis you linked misses a the point of e.g. the terrorist plot in Norway. It's wasn't just about killing people, he deliberately tried to effect politics by killing a generation of people he disagreed with. He also believed that it was part of and going to lead to a larger conflict.

gozo

11 yıl öncediscuss

He said that he would fix typos and add some stuff, not anything that will make the text itself necessarily better. His writing just isn't that good for something that will be handed out to a lot of people and were there a very real purpose of them understanding it. But as most thing coming out of YC I guess it's more marketing material for the people who buy into a lot of the SV stuff. Maybe he should talk less about "things" and more about ethics, seems like that is something YC companies have become known to fail at recently.

gozo

11 yıl öncediscuss

If this is something that is expected to be around for awhile I recommend talking to an editor. Friends are good to check for overall content and typos, but they are too familiar with the subject to check how well you convey something and too nice to really tear through the text objectively.

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