Spot the difference

Ashley Babbit was a human being! How dare you revel in her death! Just kidding, she was a foaming at the mouth animalistic terrorist attacker. The real crime is how she was tricked so bad! Why aren't people held accountable for that?

I don't think either term is applicable to either of those people, personally.

How would you figure General Miley is not a patriot? How would you figure Babbitt is not a traitor?

Miley didn't stand with his sidearm in hand barring Trump from the launch codes, but everyone is treating him like he did. All he did was observe that there were fears Trump might do something so *unthinkably* drastic that such fears are nothing but hysterical theatrics. That certainly doesn't warrant a -blam!-ing Nobel Peace Prize.

Babbitt was a violent rioter and she should NOT have been doing what she was doing when she met her demise, but I get fed up when people throw around big words because they can. "terrorist", "genocide", "insurrectionist", "traitor", "fascist", "Nazi", "Communist", "socialist", "racist", "xenophobe", "homophobe"...these words used to mean something and actually make people stop and think when they were used. Now they're thrown around like petty insults amongst third graders on the playground. We're watering their impact down for the sake of political feel-good points and it's disgusting.

I disagree on the notion of patriot and his Nobel peace prize. I'll tell you why. There is a hard line to travel when it comes to following your XO and following a duty to country. Miley was not the only one in the government and brass that was concerned about Trump's access to nuclear weaponry. There were many other issues that Miley took which also put him at odds with Trump, especially around police brutality and the armed forces role in that. Miley made it very clear to Trump especially on veteran's day, concerning claims of election fraud that his oath is to the constitution, not Trump. In this, he satisficed the definition of being a patriot; he had chosen country over party/person/loyalty.

The word terrorist is a term loosely thrown around concerning riots. In this case, it fits the bill. Terrorism is the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims. In this, Ashley Babbitt [sic] who was a veteran of the USAF, chose to act against her government, in polar opposition to General Miley and take acts of violence, trying to break down barricades meant to keep rioters from entering the house of representatives. It is no secret that there are a great number of xenophobes, racists, fascists, and neo-nazis who heavily support the MAGA movement. People within the maga movement disregard their association to these extremists and continue to stay within the same movement. There has been some disavowing... loosely, by officials on the right. But no where near the level there should be. Regardless, these extremists still find comradery with MAGA and they coordinate together, such as they did with III%ers, Proud Boys, Boogaloo Boys, etc. as was done at the capitol. I personally limit the labels of Babbitt to traitor, insurrectionist, and fascist. She betrayed her oath to the constitution, and sought to overturn the ruling of our government over claims of election fruad that had been settled in court. Dissatisfied with those rulings, she sought to change the outcome by taking matters into her own hands. Once again, by dismissing her oath to the constitution as a veteran. She fits my labels.

Well argued for Gen. Miley. I'll give you that one...not the medal, but I won't go against Patriot.

But I can't justify the word terrorist for Babbitt. I don't think Babbitt wanted to change government policy. I think she was an angry, frustrated woman who was fed up with life and needed to vent.

Was it the right call? No. Rioting is never the answer. Was it becoming of her role as a sworn servant of the Constitution? No. As you said, she was protesting the mechanism of democracy. But terrorist? Fascist? This implies she fully embraced those terms. I sincerely doubt she would have agreed with either, but more likely simply had gotten her head filled up with lots of bad info and made a bad call as result.

Maybe I'm reading into this too much...or too little...but to label a dead woman in a manner no different than we would a Jihadist suicide bomber is just too tough to reconcile with my desire to see both sides of a given issue.