August 1962. Nelson Mandela is arrested and charged with inciting workers’ strikes in South Africa (trade union action was illegal for black South Africans).
The Mandela example cuts through all the rethoric. When someone can go from terrorist list to democratically elected president while the designation stays intact for two more decades, it exposes how arbitrary these labels can be. The expansion from violent extremists to peaceful protesters and even children is genuinely alarming. Once we normalize dehumanizing language as a shortcut to bypass due proces and critical thinking, there's no natural stopping point. History keeps showing us that today's terrorist is tomorrow's freedom fighter, but we never seem to learn fast enough.
This, this, this. It's so frustrating watching people repeat the same mistakes over and over and failing to learn or even develop basic pattern recognition.
Steve, for several months you've put nothing here that is not on Medium and now you have something on Medium that you haven't even posted here. Your stories are becoming rare. What's up, are you ok? This subscription is turning into a waste of money.
The white Apartheid regime was a Terrorist government that was weakened and destroyed, never to rise again. A straightforward and clear example of winning over Terrorism. However, they just replaced a Terrorist organisation with another in South Africa. It doesn't matter what colour they are, the Terrorists must be weakened and destroyed like the white Terrorists. The ANC did not want freedom for their people; they wanted power. West keeps rewarding Terrorism coming from brown people because of white guilt. You can't make peace with Terrorists. The brown people know this best. Saudi Arabia outlawed all extremists. The West is the one that doesn't understand the Middle East and creates more Terrorists by trying to make peace with them rather than winning a war against them, proving that Terrorism doesn't work. But how do you fight people who value death more than life? Not even Mandela was that kind of Terrorist. Terrorists are shithole making machines.
Have you seen the state of South Africa in 2025 run by a terrorist government for 30 years, because no one can vote them out as they destroy their opposition by way of violence, intimidation and a corrupt system?
"Freedom fighters" that go on to rule, democratically or not are shithole makers. War on terroristism does not make more terrorists. Not winning the war on terrorism and just making peace deals with terrorists rewards terrorism and then creates more terrorism.
Wait, what was the lie? That the apartheid regime was brutal and unjust? That it need to end? That he and many others were unjustly imprisoned for fighting against an evil system?
He isn't responsible for the problems in South Africa today. Unravelling a decades-long system of violence and oppression is difficult, and often leads to more violence and oppression. That's why it's a really good idea to prevent violence and oppression as much as possible up front and end it as quickly as possible when it arises.
And yes, waging war on terrorism, by which we're talking about travelling to the Middle East and blowing up millions of people, creates more terrorism. Pretty much everyone involved in that enterprise, as well as the numbers themselves, of course, bear this out.
Killing people instead of dealing with the roots of terrorism (whether they be oppression, poverty or some other problem that's been twisted into an ideology) will never end terrorism. In fact, as I mentioned, turning people into martyrs for an ideology, especially innocent people, only strengthens it. Because how do you explain to someone whose family has just been blown to pieces that when YOUR side kills innocents, it's not terrorism, but when people who look like HIM kill innocents, now it's terrorism?
So no, terrorism is pretty obviously not a problem you can bomb out of existence. This is especially obvious if you're willing to think a little more seriously about what terrorism is.
What do you plan to do, for example, about right-wing/white nationalist terrorism? This, according to the FBI (https://www.csis.org/analysis/escalating-terrorism-problem-united-states), is the most significant terrorist threat in the United States. Bomb them? "Win the war" against them? Round up white people into camps just to be safe?
Too many people think of terrorism as something that only brown people in the Middle East do. Because we're conditioned to think of it as heroic or a brave battle for freedom when a bunch of patriots fight back and overthrow the oppressive rule of King George, say.
The Mandela example cuts through all the rethoric. When someone can go from terrorist list to democratically elected president while the designation stays intact for two more decades, it exposes how arbitrary these labels can be. The expansion from violent extremists to peaceful protesters and even children is genuinely alarming. Once we normalize dehumanizing language as a shortcut to bypass due proces and critical thinking, there's no natural stopping point. History keeps showing us that today's terrorist is tomorrow's freedom fighter, but we never seem to learn fast enough.
"we never seem to learn fast enough."
This, this, this. It's so frustrating watching people repeat the same mistakes over and over and failing to learn or even develop basic pattern recognition.
Steve, for several months you've put nothing here that is not on Medium and now you have something on Medium that you haven't even posted here. Your stories are becoming rare. What's up, are you ok? This subscription is turning into a waste of money.
At this point I am concerned about you being OK since this trend is unlike you.
Indeed, that word lost all meaning for me in 2003 when I was called a terrorist for protesting the invasion of Iraq in a Jesus costume.
The white Apartheid regime was a Terrorist government that was weakened and destroyed, never to rise again. A straightforward and clear example of winning over Terrorism. However, they just replaced a Terrorist organisation with another in South Africa. It doesn't matter what colour they are, the Terrorists must be weakened and destroyed like the white Terrorists. The ANC did not want freedom for their people; they wanted power. West keeps rewarding Terrorism coming from brown people because of white guilt. You can't make peace with Terrorists. The brown people know this best. Saudi Arabia outlawed all extremists. The West is the one that doesn't understand the Middle East and creates more Terrorists by trying to make peace with them rather than winning a war against them, proving that Terrorism doesn't work. But how do you fight people who value death more than life? Not even Mandela was that kind of Terrorist. Terrorists are shithole making machines.
https://youtu.be/OtCWxaku5to?si=_mrU9dS1WZETC5P_ favour.
https://youtu.be/OtCWxaku5to?si=_mrU9dS1WZETC5P_
Have you seen the state of South Africa in 2025 run by a terrorist government for 30 years, because no one can vote them out as they destroy their opposition by way of violence, intimidation and a corrupt system?
"Freedom fighters" that go on to rule, democratically or not are shithole makers. War on terroristism does not make more terrorists. Not winning the war on terrorism and just making peace deals with terrorists rewards terrorism and then creates more terrorism.
Mandela was a lie.
"Mandela was a lie"
Wait, what was the lie? That the apartheid regime was brutal and unjust? That it need to end? That he and many others were unjustly imprisoned for fighting against an evil system?
He isn't responsible for the problems in South Africa today. Unravelling a decades-long system of violence and oppression is difficult, and often leads to more violence and oppression. That's why it's a really good idea to prevent violence and oppression as much as possible up front and end it as quickly as possible when it arises.
And yes, waging war on terrorism, by which we're talking about travelling to the Middle East and blowing up millions of people, creates more terrorism. Pretty much everyone involved in that enterprise, as well as the numbers themselves, of course, bear this out.
Killing people instead of dealing with the roots of terrorism (whether they be oppression, poverty or some other problem that's been twisted into an ideology) will never end terrorism. In fact, as I mentioned, turning people into martyrs for an ideology, especially innocent people, only strengthens it. Because how do you explain to someone whose family has just been blown to pieces that when YOUR side kills innocents, it's not terrorism, but when people who look like HIM kill innocents, now it's terrorism?
So no, terrorism is pretty obviously not a problem you can bomb out of existence. This is especially obvious if you're willing to think a little more seriously about what terrorism is.
What do you plan to do, for example, about right-wing/white nationalist terrorism? This, according to the FBI (https://www.csis.org/analysis/escalating-terrorism-problem-united-states), is the most significant terrorist threat in the United States. Bomb them? "Win the war" against them? Round up white people into camps just to be safe?
Too many people think of terrorism as something that only brown people in the Middle East do. Because we're conditioned to think of it as heroic or a brave battle for freedom when a bunch of patriots fight back and overthrow the oppressive rule of King George, say.