Neither Anti-Fascist Militancy, nor Far-Right Genocidal Acts Are Terrorism

           A major theme I have been posting about over the years is how the word terrorism has been diluted to include other violent acts, however evil, which minimizes the evil of terrorism.  Such dilution also can be used by authoritarian regimes to attempt to justify oppression against dissidents and by terrorist-sponsoring States to try to justify opposition to any counterterrorism measures taken against them.

            Terrorism is an illegitimate form of warfare that is the targeting with violence or threat of violence of innocent civilians to intimidate a populace to pressure government to give into the political or religious demands of the terrorists.  Note how terrorism is a strategy defined by its targeting, not by its motivation or tactics.  Therefore, it does not include acts committed against military targets or targeted at specific civilians because of their political or religious views or memberships in certain races, ethnicities, etc.  Those are acts of militancy of various other kinds.  Perhaps the use of the term “innocent civilians” may be what causes the confusion.  It is not meant to imply that civilians who are targeted by violence are not innocent and thus are deserving targets, but that they are not targeted randomly, which is the goal of terrorists who are attempting to make an entire populace feel they could be targeted, and not only some people, in order to terrorize them (hence the root of the word terrorism).  The strategy of terrorists is not simply to seek revenge or to drive away or kill entire peoples, but to intimidate the entire population in order to advance the terrorists’ demands.  Militants sometimes use the same tactics that terrorists do, but although militancy may terrorize to a degree, it is not the same thing as terrorism.

The latest examples of the extension of this definition beyond what it truly means is to label leftist anti-fascist militants and far-right bigots (who are usually xenophobes or “White Nationalists”) as “terrorists,” usually by those on the other side of the political spectrum.  Neither are terrorists, as both are militants.  Anti-fascists target specific individuals whom they oppose politically.  They are thus intimidating those individuals, but not innocent civilians, with whom they may agree or disagree and whom are not necessarily intended to feel intimidated buy anti-fascist militancy.  Such militancy is condemnable in democratic countries.  Far-right bigots target those who are members of racial or religious minorities or, similarly to anti-fascists, which are acts of genocide, not terrorism, as they are not trying to intimidate the general populace, but to drive away or kill specific groups of people they hate.  Similarly to anti-fascists, far-right bigots also sometimes target those whom they oppose politically, not innocent civilians.

Acts of terrorism are a great evil that is never justified, no matter what justification they may be for the motives of the terrorists.  Militancy may or may not be justified, depending on the specific circumstances of the motivation and degree.  Genocide is another great evil, both in its intent (hatred) and its deeds, but it is different from terrorism.  These distinctions are necessary to understand and thereby better to defeat them, without giving any advantage to despots and terrorist-sponsors and diluting the label of terrorism for political advantage.