The use of violence =/= terrorism.

The natural response to witnessing violence and murder is fear. Death is scary. But I thought after invading several foreign countries, Americans would come to grips with what terrorism truly means.

I’ll try to spare everyone the rant, but in a nutshell — the use of violence is a force multiplier; it is one of several force multipliers within terrorism. However, terrorism is a strategy. Not an ideology. It is a means to an end... that end being: social or political change.

Terrorism is essentially the anti-thesis of (peaceful) protest. In fact, think of it as an unpeaceful protest. But keep in mind the social and political context.

tldr If a serial killer went around specifically targeting/killing atheists, would he be a terrorist? No. He’d be a serial killer.