No, they are not terrorists. "Terrorist" does not mean "people who cause harm."
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One could argue that there is value in distinction when it comes to counter-recruitment. But in terms of violence and measured outcomes, it actually doesn't matter whether James Fields wore a swastika or a Vanguard America logo on his shirt.
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1. You are certainly persistent in trying to explain white supremacy to me. It does matter, of course. Different white supremacist segments can be more or less active, or rising or falling, simultaneously. In the 1980s-1990s, for example, Christian Identity
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2. was one of the main sources of white supremacist violence. Today it is far less significant as a source of violence--so someone trying to deter or investigate white supremacist violence would be errant in placing too many resources there.
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3. Or, for another example, racist skinheads are far more likely to attack the homeless (they have committed a number of murders against the homeless) than other types of white supremacists are.
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I am not trying to explain white supremacy to you nor am I trying to invalidate these distinctions. What I am trying to do is--as a survivor--critique your dismissal of the alt-right's terrorism (and that of their allies) as what it is.
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And mind you, I am coming at this from the perspective of the person who wrote the document warning Charlottesville officials of the violence to come, as someone who correctly predicted 2 months before that Vanguard would commit a terrorist attack at UTR...
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as someone who was given their planning chatlogs and as someone who survived attacks at three events in Charlottesville this summer. I have seen intimately their violence.
End of conversation
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Suggesting that it is nitpicking is like telling a physician that the differences between two different types of cancer is nitpicking. The fact that different white supremacist movements exist is quite important, actually, both in terms of their appeal as well as targets.
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As a target of all of them, it doesn't make much difference to me.
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When James Fields attacked, I didn't, for instance, think, "wow he's with Vanguard, so they're probably a bit less misogynist than Spencer's alt right." I thought, "he just ran over a bunch of my friends."
End of conversation
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