I spotted this on Fark.com:
After years of referring to Osama bin Laden with the less-than-cuddly term “militant,” Agence France-Presse sees the error of its ways and downgrades him to “dissident“
So he’s Noam Chomsky now? I reckon ‘the responsibility of intellectuals’ has changed some since 1966 …
Comments
3 responses to “Terrorist > Militant > Dissident > Devil’s Advocate …”
I have plenty of names for terrorist murdering scum Osama bin Laden, but most of them would probably not be printable. I also have such names for his apologists such as the Agence France-Presse.
That’s our Osama, always stirring up trouble by dissenting….
DISSIDENT? What a bloody joke! Many years ago, I heard the term “dissident” defined, at least in terms of Soviet dissidents, as someone who demanded, and exercised, his/her rights under his/her nation’s laws (Soviet law granted far more political rights than their security forces respected). In contrast, a person who actually wanted to overthrow the Soviet system, peacefully or not, was called an “oppositionist.”
So the cuddliest term I could use for Osama would be “oppositionist” – but that’s too vague, so I’ll just stick to “terrorist,” “murderer,” and “intolerant anti-democratic Muslim extremist.”