April 3rd 2025

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​Everything is terrorism except terrorism

Everything is terrorism except terrorism

This is the boy-cried-wolf statement of our times. Everything is terrorism, except actual terrorism. You know, when a country goes in and deliberately targets aid workers driving clearly marked aid vehicles and then seeks to hide the evidence of their murder by burying it, that kind of terrorism.

But setting a car on fire, joining student protests against genocide, and, unfortunately, having particular tattoos, or writing an op-ed that didn’t fit the political narrative makes you the most threatening type of terrorist.

The parable of the boy who cried wolf is a great one. Because it tells its own story. When everything is dangerous and wolf-like, we don’t even raise our eyebrows when the actual dangerous wolf shows up to eat our children.

I look around the world this morning and I, like most of my colleagues, am so overwhelmed by the horror to be found in so many places, wearing so many different expressions. It is exhausting to keep up with let alone do anything about.

Where do we start?

Do we start with genocide? Earthquakes, civil war in Sudan, the attempt to whitewash history, the disappearing of people on US soil, the incarceration of so many people, the Pharma industry’s successful attempt to addict millions of people to opioids, the unquestionable actions of racism, the removal of women’s rights to body autonomy, the always-on destruction of our planet, the sacking of people without any due process, the laws that benefit the elite, the violation of every and any international law, the rise of the surveillance state, the scraping of personal data and our art to make the rich richer, the deliberate indebting of students and the global south, the bullying, corruption, cruelty and lies…(oh I have only just started the list…)

But protesting Elon’s cars – terrorism! I do not support this action, by the way, just as I do not support the murder of a human being by Luigi Mangione. And I absolutely do not support the death penalty in any case.

If there are terrorists, they are the ones running the government, robbing people of rights, dignity, and safety. To be at the hands of terrorism means we live in fear.

Fear..fear..fear. The second-by-second fear of the Palestinians. The fear of the immigrants. The fear of people in countries hollowed out by the US government over decades so that the once pliant dictators could rule in accordance with the whims of the US.

The fear of making rent. Every day. Every week. Gut griping, relentless fear.

The fear of being able to walk down a street and not be harassed, ridiculed or attacked.

The fear of not being able to get a job because of your colour, age or gender.

The fear of imminent catastrophe from a collapsed climate.

Or nuclear war because of the rogue bro’s with their narcissistic fingers on the red buttons.

But precious Elon. Boohoo. His greatest fear is that people will torch his cars.

There are terrorists occupying the White House. Indeed, occupying many of the institutions of power.

The people are very afraid because of the acts of their elected official terrorists. Torching a car is but one little step towards the explosion forthcoming.

Fear and rage en-mass is an explosive combination.

Photo March 5th 2025, Article written April 3rd 2025

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