Originally posted by timb64 .So was he a terrorist or just a random evil nutter?
Is there a difference? A 'true' terrorist is only an evil nutter with some idea that their actions further some cause or ideology. Just thinking that it will do so is somewhat deranged, thinking that taking innocent lives for your own political aims is acceptable is another level of psychopathy.
All it takes now, is for someone to read a website with material that disagrees with the political status quo, and then to commit murder, to be defined as a terrorist. No formal affiliation, organisation, or direction is necessary. Of course, if their cause were to be aligned with the current political status-quo, they would be called 'resistance fighters' or 'freedom fighters'. To a non-partisan they would be known as 'dissidents'. It's only the side you are on that decides the term used.