this post was submitted on 12 Nov 2025
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English idioms

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The word “terrorism” has become so broad and watered down -- maybe we should stop taking the buzz word seriously (like “piracy”) (slrpnk.net)
submitted 4 months ago by activistPnk@slrpnk.net to c/english_idioms@midwest.social
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Trump’s execution of drug dealers in the caribbean is being being justified under the term “narco terrorism”. The terrorist designation previously captured the idea of violance driven by political ideology. Drug dealers are not pushing a political idiology. And not all of them are even necessarily violent. They are filling a market demand for profit -- and that earns them the term terrorism, equating them to those who fly planes full of people into buildings full of people? Yikes.

Consumers tolerate extreme nannying and unwarranted surveillance by banks as they abuse the anti-privacy KYC movement amid the perception that there is an “anti-terror” need for it.

In countless conflicts each side now calls their opposition “terrorists” because the buzz term has been so successful right after 9/11.

Pushback needed. When the term is used as a cover for action or justification for policy, we need to see it for what it is: propaganda.

It’s like the word “piracy”. The copyright lobby has managed to play a game with words to equate those who share data with those who rape, pillage, take hostages, and demand ransom. Is there a term that describes words that are perverted to exploit an agenda? Marketing and propaganda seems close but exactly spot-on because it’s more about manipulating shoppers.

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[–] moody@lemmings.world 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

That's straight from the conservative playbook. Anything they're accused of doing, they turn around and project onto everyone until the word loses all meaning.

Notice how we don't see the word 'grooming' too much in headlines these days? Just two years ago, there were so many credible grooming allegations and accusations against conservatives. Then they started accusing everyone they don't like (LGBT in particular) of grooming for whatever reason. Now, the term has lost all meaning.

[–] activistPnk@slrpnk.net 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Playbook implies that the republicans benefit in some way in pursuit of some grander plan. The “law and order” party would most certainly want the word “terrorism” to retain a strong useable meaning. Using “narco terror” to extrajudicially execute some drug dealers outside US jurisdiction is entirely contrary to a strategy that supports republican iron-fist intolerance.

Trump has endorsed using the death penalty for drug offenses for decades, IIRC. So in his last term he is indulging in his fantasy and has non-strategically compromised the language that was helping with GOP propaganda.

[–] SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social 6 points 4 months ago

I heard Glenn Greenwald point out that "terrorism" had lost all meaning in a speech back during the Bush administration. It's true. Any attempted definition of the word can be met with an example that doesn't fit.