Dictionary.com defines terrorism as:

the unlawful use of violence or threats to intimidate or coerce a civilian population or government, with the goal of furthering political, social, or ideological objectives.

And if you don’t think mass shooters have “political, social, or ideological objectives” then you apparently missed the point where we as a people decided that it is better to not read the crazy manifestos of mass shooters.

But also? What do you call groups that use sexual violence against a populace and actively target civilians? Because I call those Russians and Israelis and Hamas and… What do you call groups that actively kidnap people, brutally torture them, and sexually degrade them while taking pictures for the clout? Because I call that “America at Abu Ghraib and countless other black sites”. And so forth.

Because, at the end of the day? One person’s freedom fighter is another person’s terrorist. It is all a matter of how they are reported on and how much plausible deniability any standing government has to the military force they are actively backing and supporting.

And that is where the video this thread is about comes into play. I have very strong feelings about equating Palestinian suffering to the depiction of Arabs in media in large part because of how the predominantly Arab nations have treated Palestinians over the decades (because this has been going on a lot longer than one year…). But, if people can get their thinly veiled racist heads out of their asses for a moment, they will realize that what we have seen in video games over the past few decades is no different than fucking Superman fighting “The Japoteur” back in the day.

It is all about dehumanizing and Other’ing an enemy. Because explaining the human rights and social issues that may or may not warrant intervention (see: Iraq both times the US invaded and Afghanistan the one time we fucked that country to death) is a lot harder than just saying “They are terrorists and they hate God and they are going to rape and kill your family”. And media is how you reinforce that.

Which is very evident when you look at the Call of Dutys of the world. Arab-coded villains are monsters who torture and blow up civillians. White Russians are genius strategists who have super elaborate plots. Arab-coded villains are terrorists who happen to be the government of whatever country you are trying to destroy. Russians are “ultra nationalists” and there is almost always something about how “Moscow is looking the other way on this one but if you are captured we will disavow any knowledge of you”. And so forth.

So decide if you want to think or if you want to just spew propaganda with thinly veiled racism associated with it.