Visiting Column #65 -- The Weaponization of "Domestic Terrorism"

It has become fashionable these days, or at least "fashionable" as defined by network news and its slavish adherents, to use the term "domestic terrorism" in a peculiar way. 

Now, you and I would not apply any additional strictures to its meaning, I would assume. Terrorism is the intimidation of innocent civilians to advance a political position or narrative, and the domestic version of it is simply its location -- i.e., here, the once good-old U.S. of A. But it appears that the mainstream media seem to think that it applies solely to the events of this past January 6th. 

To remind ourselves, the night before that, actual terrorists had left a couple bombs outside the offices of the two political parties in Washington, DC; then as President Trump was speaking to a large crowd on the 6th, some people went over to the Capitol building even before the president got to the part of the speech where he asked them to go over peacefully (the word he used), and some of them -- despite the exhortations of others of the protestors to avoid violence -- started breaking into the building. 

Since then, there has been plenty of terrorism going on in our country; however, it is being ignored, whether in Portland, where federal buildings were burned, or Minneapolis or elsewhere, ignored by the media, who seem to use the term "domestic terrorism" to apply to the events of January 5-6, exclusively. It is obvious to the casual observer that Portland doesn't count. 

The narrative that the big bad orange man is evil and responsible for all that is wrong in the world, well, that is not supported by the fact that the domestic terrorism in our cities, before and since January 6th, the riots and burning of federal property, has been the work of Antifa and BLM terrorists (what else can you call them?), and since former President Trump is the enemy of the media, and "the enemy of your enemy is your friend", well, the media are inclined to do what they do best, and ignore the terrorism of the left. 

Of course, although the media are really good at ignoring stories that don't fit their leftist narrative, just ignoring the leftist terrorism is not enough. No, they need to co-opt the narrative entirely by using the term "domestic terrorism" to refer to January 6th, solely -- and then ignore everything else that happens that is actual terrorism (not that the 6th wasn't, of course, although it's still not clear all of whom were involved) is ignored. 

The media are really good at weaponizing words when it suits them, and why not? Their job is to sell clicks, to get eyeballs on their screens, TV and otherwise. It is clearly not accuracy, reliability nor, particularly, comprehensive reporting. And here they have weaponized the term, "domestic terrorism", by simply applying it here but not there. 

We know what they're doing, but we can do little other than starting our own media. We know that the 2020 election was corrupt as a 1925 speakeasy, or pretty much anything in Chicago, because we saw a procession of election workers testify to what happened in at least five states. But the media narrative is that "no court found anything wrong", even though no court actually got to the point of hearing evidence or testimony ... yet. 

It's not just the terrorism that is being weaponized. It is the reporting on it that has. I can assure you that the actual domestic terrorism that is going on here in the USA is not what is being described on air. 

Gotta fit the narrative, you know.  

Copyright 2021 by Robert Sutton Like what you read here? There are over 1,000 posts from Bob at www.uberthoughtsUSA.com, and after four years of writing a new one daily, he still posts thoughts once in a while as "visiting columns", no longer the "prolific essayist" he was through 2018, but still around. Appearance, advertising, sponsorship and interview inquiries cheerfully welcomed at bsutton@alum.mit.edu or on Twitter at @rmosutton