The Illustrated Guide to Terrorism
Chapter 1: What Is Terrorism?
Page 4: Extortion
NARRATOR
…but WHY.
Terrorism is not a crime of passion. Neither is it simply an expression of hatred.
NOT TERRORISM => Reenactment of scene from The Blues Brothers with the Illinois Nazis marching on the bridge.
PASSENGER
What’s the hold-up?
BYSTANDER
Looks like a protest on the bridge.
DRIVER
Ugh, who?
BYSTANDER
Our local Nazis.
DRIVER (pulling around traffic)
Fuckin’ Nazis.
DRIVER (plowing through Nazis)
I HATE fuckin’ Nazis!
TERRORISM = Van plowing through tourists
LEADER
Ready? Remember… Just like we planned.
Now! Floor it!
DRIVER (plowing through tourists)
For the cause!
Group of studious-looking people with laptops and a large tabletop map.
PLOTTER #1
Terrorists plan.
PLOTTER #2
Our violence is calculated.
PLOTTER #3
We don’t kill out of passion… we do it on PURPOSE.
NARRATOR
And that purpose is not revenge, and not to express hatred.
The ultimate purpose is always EXTORTION
Man pointing handgun at reader
NARRATOR
Extortion is terrorism’s essential defining trait.
Its purpose is to literally TERRIFY you, to INTIMIDATE you into making concessions.
With violence, the terrorist is saying:
GUNMAN
Do it my way, or ELSE!
SOLDIER (unimpressed)
Or else what… you’ll hurt me?
TERRORIST (holding gun to hostage child)
No. Do it my way or I’ll hurt HER.
Bomb demolishing ancient giant sculpture in jungle
NARRATOR
For their threat to be effective, terrorists must be careful to choose the right victim.
The idea is to select targets that are important — NOT to the terrorists’ cause, but to their intended AUDIENCE.
TERRORIST IN JUNGLE
Oh, that statue was culturally important to your people? GOOD! Now that I have your attention…
Man blowing up a strip mall supermarket by remote control
NARRATOR
That doesn’t mean a target can’t be purposely chosen to APPEAR random.
BOMBER
Maybe I’m going for maximum shock value, to attract as much attention as I can!
Or maybe I want your citizens to fear they’re not safe from me anywhere, so they’ll give in to you to just give in, already!
Or both
NARRATOR
Just as not all violence is terrorism, not all EXTORTION is terrorism, either.
The difference is in the KIND of change the terrorist demands:
This was an unfortunate page, given that the illustration on the right happened in Spain, where the OPPOSITE of the illustration on the left happened in Charlottesville.
It wasn’t Nazis who were hit by that car, but anti-Nazi protesters. Given how hard the hard-right is trying to pin that premediated hate crime on the left, I would edit this page to identify both the victims and the perpetrator correctly.
…You REALLY need to watch The Blues brothers. The left half is taken almost directly from it.
“OPPOSITE of the illustration on the left happened in Charlottesville”
Maybe? I haven’t noticed any news articles with the Charlottesville suspect claiming it was a crime of passion, not premeditated. Not that I’ve seen any that indicated it was premeditated either; I’m not American, and I admit to only having followed the broader strokes of that news coverage, and even then focusing on the larger societal aspects rather than the individual act of terror. If Charlottesville *was* premeditated, as even you yourself say in your comment, then it becomes an act of terrorism by this definition.
So even though it was the opposite in terms of the targets, it was probably exactly like the scene on the right in terms of whether or not it was premeditated.
Who said the Charlottesville attack was pre-meditated? Or that it was a hate crime? It was a white guy running over a white girl wasn’t it?