No. Antifa is a descriptive term that means "People who take action against fascists". Mossad is antifa when it is killing and kidnapping fascists. It is not being antifa when it is killing non-fascists. Does that make it clear?
His politics
Hodgkinson's online presence was largely defined by his politics. For example, his public Facebook posts date back to 2012 and are nearly all about his support for liberal politics. He was passionate about tax hikes on the rich and universal health care.
In the past year, most of his Facebook posts consisted of signed petitions on Change.org with titles such as: "Bernie -- please run no matter what;" "Hillary Rodham Clinton should concede the nomination to Bernie Sanders;" and "Healthcare for all Americans."
In one public post on May 24, he signed a petition to "Stop the NEXUS Pipeline" in Michigan and Ohio. After Hodgkinson's Facebook profiles were discovered by news reporters, they were updated to prevent public access.
On Wednesday, Senator Sanders publicly acknowledged that Hodgkinson had volunteered for his presidential campaign last year, but he denounced the violence as "despicable."
Hodgkinson's own descriptions on social media portray him as an avid consumer of political shows. His favorite television shows were listed as "Real Time with Bill Maher;" "The Rachel Maddow Show;" "Democracy Now!" and other left-leaning programs.
His favorite movie? The documentary "Inequality for All," featuring progressive economist Robert Reich.
He had also joined several anti-GOP Facebook groups, including "Terminate The Republican Party;" "The Road to Hell Is Paved With Republicans;" and "Join The Resistance Worldwide!!"
Public records that align with the alleged shooter's name and personal details also match the descriptions on Hodgkinson's Facebook profile: his business, location, wife, and wife's employer.
Federal Election Commission records show Hodgkinson donated $18 to Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign through the fundraising platform ACT Blue in 2015 and 2016.
Hodgkinson appears to have written more than a dozen letters to the Belleville News-Democrat, a local paper, from 2010 to 2012. One of the final letters from Hodgkinson, in July of 2012, called for President Obama's re-election and to "vote all Republicans out of Congress."
In the letters, he wrote extensively about income inequality and called repeatedly for higher taxes on the rich.
Hodgkinson also engaged with his own representative. Congressman Mike Bost said in a statement that Hodgkinson contacted his office 10 times in recent months with complaints about the Republican's stance on health care and his voting record.
That's the amazing thing though. "leftists", "antifa", "Bernie Sanders" and even "US Democrats" are all interchangeable when it suits the narrative. It's incredible, really. Dangerous too, of course.
Attacking civilians is a key component of terrorism. In a terror attack, the target isn't really the people who are hurt or killed in the specific act of violence; the real target is everybody else. For example, the goal of the 9/11 attacks wasn't to kill whoever was inside the World Trade Center at the time, that was just the means to the end. The goal was to influence the behavior of everybody else afterwards. Dylann Roof wasn't attacking only the people inside Emmanuel Church, he was attacking all African-Americans.
That's partly a feature of conservative thought, being loyal to the group. Loyalty; obedience; conformity. That's why patriotism is less of a rallying cry for the Left than it is for the Right. Lefties can be just as patriotic, but simple flag-waving isn't something we value very much. Once in a while, someone will describe the difference between Right and Left politics as an emphasis on collectivism on the Left and individualism on the Right, but that's not really true. Conservatives value collectivism and Progressives/Liberals value individuality, just in different ways. So when a conservative presumes a Lefty is a supporter of whomever seems to be the Left's leader at the time, it's because that's how they think everybody is or should be. Conversely, their support for whomever is the current leader on the Right might have nothing to do with support for that person, but is just because falling in line behind the leader is itself a common good, in their eyes. That's why the fracturing of the Republican Party is a bigger crisis than the fracturing of the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party is always fractured; that's just SOP for the Left.
If you mean that an act will not be classed as terrorism if it is not targeting non-politicians then this is demonstrably false. The Brighton bombing is considered terrorism, and was clearly targeting politicians. I am not sure there is a really consistent definition, other than something a government does not like. It does not even need to include violence these days, cf. the umbrella movement.
Yes, you're absolutely right, there's no consistent definition. On the contrary, defining something as terrorism is usually itself a political act. An authoritarian government declaring a nonviolent movement "terrorism" is a great example. I'm trying to remember if the US government formally declared The Black Panthers to be terrorists; I'm not sure that word was quite as "in vogue" then as it is today - a quick Google search unearths FBI documents that used the terms "extremists" and "guerrillas", which surprised me. Right before you mentioned the Brighton Hotel, I was thinking about the Oklahoma City bombing, which targeted a government building.
Right, good point.
This is the exchange I was responding to:
My point is that attacking politicians is considered terrorism (at least as long as the are western politicians).
Man it is broad:
So if I write to my MP advocating a change in UN rules to do more for human rights I:The Crown Prosecution Service said:
I don't have links at my fingertips, but iirc, the US government distinguishes between domestic and international terrorism. Among other things, it allows the US government to ignore criminal justice requirements such as habeus corpus and the right to representation when detaining suspects. During the Bush Administration, the term "enemy combatants" was used a lot, to paint foreign terrorists as being close enough to members of a foreign army that they could be treated that way... except not quite, so they could skirt the Geneva Conventions as well as US law. I haven't heard that term - enemy combatants - lately, but that's probably only because foreign terrorism just isn't a big concern right now.
Obviously that would make you the worst kind of terrorist!
Silly Lexicus, only leftists and non-westerners can be terrorists.
