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Comment by toomuchtodo | Hacker News Reader

I don't agree. There's a stark difference between a car accident and a fellow human being pumping rounds into people in your local restaurant. The other driver is not trying to kill you typically.

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Then the relevant detail to compare to would be the number of other violent crimes that occur on a far too regular basis.

Why does intention matter?

> Terrorist acts damage the social fabric far beyond the death toll.

Intention is all that matters, and why its attempting to damage social fabric.

But people like you who are over reacting are the people who are allowing the social fabric to be damaged.

So if I intend to kill you horribly, but instead serve you a nice cup of chamomile tea and a comfy pair of slippers, is intention still all that matters?

I'm not trying to be flip. I'm saying that by any viable moral theory, you are catastrophically wrong.

London. Paris. Madrid. New York. Why are these the cities terrorists have targeted? Perhaps because, say, a Londoner who dies in a graphic way will cause more notoriety-- i.e. stir more terror-- than a Bangladeshi. It maximizes their bang for... uhh... their bang. Given the size of the world's suicide problem, starvation problem, poverty problem, rape problem, etcetera etcetera, of course terrorism actually isn't of much relative consequence. It intends to make people like you freak out, viscerally (just as CNN et al does when they cover these so much).

I'm not changing a damn thing in how I live my life, and not even out of courage (i.e. the "we can't let the terrorists win" bromide that took over in America in late 2001). It just shouldn't matter that much to you, and it only prevails insomuch as you let these irrational fears get to you.

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