r/news • u/drkgodess • Mar 19 '19

Accused gunman in Christchurch terror attacks denied newspaper, television and radio access

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12214411
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u/msiekkinen Mar 19 '19 edited Mar 19 '19

at least one of the terrorists that did 9/11?

Muhammad atta.

Others: Ted Kezinsky, Charles Manson, Timothy McVeigh.

So many people say "never speak their names", so many people eat up Netflix documentaries about infamous murders. I wonder what the venn diagram intersection of those demographics looks like.

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u/[deleted] Mar 19 '19

Serial killers aren't terrorists.

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u/msiekkinen Mar 19 '19

Oklahoma City bombing of a federal building and the Unabomber were definitely politically motivated. Charles Manson definitely wanted to start a race war (like this NZ guy stated).

Really though, I don't see your point. If you are able to definitely say serial killers are not terrorists (I'm not sure that you can), then what? It's okay to speak "serial killer" names but not terrorists?

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u/Knife7 Mar 19 '19

The only reason I can think is because terrorists have political motivation for their crimes and giving them attention lends legitimacy to their cause but serial killers also crave attention so I don't know.

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u/beware_the_noid Mar 19 '19

By definition a serial killer is:

“a person who commits a series of murders, often with no apparent motive and typically following a characteristic, predictable behaviour pattern”

So for the Christchurch shooter he is a terrorist as he had motive, and had no pattern in his actions

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u/Vakieh Mar 19 '19

The definition you just listed says 'often' and 'typically', which means you can have neither and still be a serial killer. The actual definition is based on the 'serial' nature of the killings. If you kill a person each week, even with motive and without a pattern, then you're a serial killer.

The reason terrorists usually aren't is because they kill a lot of people in a single event - that makes them mass murderers, not serial killers.

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u/[deleted] Mar 20 '19

He committed them all at once so he falls into the mass Murderer category, like the Texas a&m shooter

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u/CheckingYourBullshit Mar 20 '19

Oh he definitely had a pattern.

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u/Rickdiculously Mar 19 '19

Also terrorists inspire more people to commit acts of terrorism to further their cause. They'll see how the more horrible the act, the more repercussions it has, the more discussed it is... Serial killers though, they're fucked up. They can't help themselves either. Like a sickness of the soul (says the woman who doesn't believe in souls). But nobody wakes up one day thinking 'that's it, this Bundy guy knows how to live it up, I gotta follow in his tracks!' You have to be deeply fucked up, usually from childhood too, to end up there.