"Terrorism" in 2018

I try to not get political online but I'll make an exception today. For those who read my post recently I was deeply affected by the tragedy in Toronto this week as I happened to be at the scene very shortly before the attacked happened. One thing I noticed though was that very few people called this week's events terrorist attack.

If you read what many people were commenting on news stories there itching to find out A) If the person was affiliated with ISIS and B) If the person was Muslim. Only then. If the person fit that criteria could they start labelling yesterdays attack as a terrorist attack, which is a huge problem.

There is popularized view where people wait to find out if the person is a Muslim, and if he/she is than that person is a terrorist and is affiliated with ISIS but if the person is not than he is just some deranged lunatic. Why is that? This double standard is very unjust and really bothered me as I was reading news articles about this week's events.

Terrorism is the act of violence in attempt to push forth a political agenda. Therefore some deranged killer without a clear motive, such as Steven Paddock in Las Vegas might not be considered a terrorist. However, that is not the case here as the Toronto killer did have a clear motive.

Alex Minassian, the Toronto killer belonged to a group called the Incels. The Incels are a group of men who hate women because they have been rejected too many times. Incels is short for involuntary celibates. According to them, they are at war with the "Chads", guys who have sex with lots of girls and Stacys", pretty girls who reject lots of guys. The group was inspired by the actions of Eliott Rodger, a California killer who went on a shooting rampage because he was sick of getting rejected. Online the group has grown to tens of thousands of people, however few are actually radical enough to take action on their misogynistic views.

I do not think I need to write a piece explaining why people who support this group are deranged. After all, myself and most of the male population have had our experiences with being rejected by girls without feeling the need to declare a gender war. And although this Incels group is not a formal structured hate group like some other terrorist networks, that does not mean we should refrain from calling them a terrorist network. As long as members of this group continue to praise and encourage killing sprees, such as Minassian and Rodger's attacks they must be called what they are and that is terrorists, no different than ISIS.