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Comment by jlebrech | Hacker News Reader

when the perp is in the "in group" he's a lone wolf, when he's not he's a terrorist. simple really.

The FBI definition of terrorism doesn't require it to be a group activity.

In-group is a sociology term. He is saying it is bigger/different from whether or not the individual is white, but whether they are a member of the in-group.

I don't think the parent means a group of people committing a crime - they mean 'in group' as in US citizen/not the enemy.

That still doesn't make sense. Domestic terrorism is a thing and has been for decades.

it also have to be politically motivated too, but conducted by someone alienated by the populace (i.e war doesn't count)

and white lunatic doesn't count as a terrorist, but dylan roof or eliot rogers does.

I think you may have misunderstood the comment you are commenting on. I believe they were saying that members of the socially dominate group who perform crimes are seen as outliers while members of minority groups are seen as reflecting the values of the group.

"Lone wolves" often turn out to have been participants in online groups which talk about doing these kinds of things. It's not exactly a system of orders, just that "wouldn't it be great if some of those people got killed" will eventually come true if people repeat it enough.

If he was in an organized group he would have easier access to weapons.

In most countries yes. In the US does it really make any significant difference?

Sorry, I meant for the classification of terrorism.

This is America. You can get a gun as easily as picking up a pack of diapers

Easier still.

Checkout http://www.armslist.com/. The first time I bought a gun it was eye-opening: email a random person, give them cash, drive back with a gun.

So easy it's scary.

There's another, remarkably simple reason why Islamic terrorist attacks are less likely to be referred to as lone wolf attacks: because they're not. See https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/04/world/asia/isis-messaging... They're pretty much all centrally co-ordinated, even the ones that were initially assumed not to be, including the smaller-scale ones that just target a handful of people at a single bar or involve someone going on an axe rampage on a train.

An attack can be lone-wolf at the same time as being an Islamically-motivated attack.

Similarly, an attack can be lone-wolf at the same time as being a politically-motivated attack.

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