Today, due to the contemporary political atmosphere as well as many examples of breaking news since September 11th, 2011, people in America perceive terrorism as an act of public violence committed by a radical Islamic jihadists. While that is definitely terrorism, it is worth noting that those types of terror cases are on the decline in the US, with general Jihadist terrorism cases in the US declining from a high of 80 in 2015, to just eight so far in 2018. However, especially in recent days, another form of more domestic terrorism, conducted by what seem to be alt-right conspiracy theorists, has been grabbing headlines and reasserting the fact that terrorism does not have to have to abide by the stereotypes of being foreign or Islamic.
On October 26th, 2018, a middle aged Floridian was taken into custody as the man believed to be responsible for least 14 attempted pipe bombings, with targets including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. The actions of Cesar Sayoc, an ardent Trump supporter who mainly targeted prominent political figures who criticized the Trump administration, have an eerily similarity to the mail bomb "terror"attacks conducted by the "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski over two decades ago, although, fortunately, Sayoc was unable to claim any fatalities. Given the political nature of his targets, as well as some of his less-than accurate conspiracy theories (Sayoc once tweeted, without factual evidence that gun control activist David Hogg was secretly working with billionaire George Soros to remove Republicans from the US government), it is reasonable to conclude that Sayoc likely held violent, far right-political ideals and those were the impetus for his acts of terrorism.
Even more recently, police in Pennsylvania have arrested a 46 year old man named Robert Bowers in connection to a deadly shooting that occurred at a Pittsburgh Synagogue on October 27th, 2018, killing at least 10 people. Although Bowers's precise political views are currently unclear, the fact that he called Jews "the children of Satan" on social media and derided Trump as being to moderate and not anti-Semitic enough shows that it would not be unreasonable to label him as another alt-right radical like Sayoc. His decision to scream that "All Jews must die" as he attacked the synagogue provides further evidence for the aforementioned label. Killing innocent people to make a public statement of your views on society is one of the defining factors of terrorism, and it is quite clear the Bowers had no qualms about doing just that.
Especially during these politically trying times, it is important to remember that terrorism can come in many forms. A jihadist is no longer the archetypal terrorist; a terrorist is any individual willing to commit violence against society in order to achieve his/her extreme political or social goals.
