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Originally Posted by donquixote99
Going 'na na they did it too' doesn't actually refute anything dave said, does it?
You are the poster boy for 'we can't even change positions on an internet forum one iota.' I don't recall you ever even slightly acknowledging that an 'opponent' has anything of a point. You never drop the keyboard warrior persona in the topics--though you are of course capable of doing so, as you did in the recent discussion of moderation here.
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It certainly makes a point that you're apparently incapable of grasping or chose not to acknowledge. Let me try it one more time.
Inflammatory rhetoric is, in my opinion, cut from the same cloth as the emotional overdrive that turns peaceful protests into violent ones. It also undercuts reasonable debate because it blurs the meaning of certain words or phrases due to their misuse (the "dog whistle effect", if you will).
The Politico article I posted that referred to the Tea Party as terrorists - and there are plenty more articles like that - redefines terrorism as the legitimate use of protest and activism to produce an outcome that opponents don't support. Frankly, that reaction - and the use of the term "terrorism in this case - by the left is surprising because the left has a tradition of using protests and activism to achieve political goals. So when the term "terrorism" rebounds and is used in the context of some of the violence that has occurred during BLM events, its prior misuse becomes self defeating by those who used it.
You may disagree, but the Tea Party activists never resorted to "terrorism". If anything, they used non-violent protests and activism that has typically been a tradition on the left. The BLM events have turned violent, however. Protesters have been calling for violence against police. While there is no proof of terrorism in these activities, the violence and calls for violence do invite criticism and questions. When the definition of the word "terrorism" gets blurred, however, its may get easier to make the case for opponents of the movement that BLM members are behaving like terrorists.