Could Terrorists be the new Pirates

[fix-the-spade]

I just saw some children dressed up and pretending to be romanticised Pirates. The real men who terrorised the high seas a few hundred years back were violent dangerous and not at all fun. I can see so many parallels between modern day terrorists and olden-day pirates I wonder if kids will be dressing up like terrorists in a few hundred years.

The thing is, Pirates had a specific objective to steal for profit. More often than not they would let their victims go, it wasn't in their interest to kill them and have the Royal Navy out looking for missing crews.
Their romanticism comes from the aspect of freedom and kinship pirates were supposed to have.

Terrorists don't have such a romantic side, I think they'll end up in the future as being seen similarly to the Crusaders. As a bunch of needlessly violent hypocrits. Of course opinions change, just go and Watch The Living Daylights to see what we used to think of the Mujahadeen (what would become the Taleban).

 

[Doug]

I just saw some children dressed up and pretending to be romanticised Pirates. The real men who terrorised the high seas a few hundred years back were violent dangerous and not at all fun. I can see so many parallels between modern day terrorists and olden-day pirates I wonder if kids will be dressing up like terrorists in a few hundred years.

Well, pirates where after gold and silver and riches. Killing people was more a byproduct. Terrorists, on the other hand, are typically after either complex political ends, or just to kill people to cause choas. Oh, in some cases they get this whole 'Freedom Fighter' myth around them, and they'll get romantised (see the American revolution, ho-ho).

 

[Panzer_God]

Pirates are cooler because they are only in it for the money, instead of a misplaced sense of self-righteousness.

 

[fix-the-spade]

The pirate bay died about a week ago. Its back up but now you have to pay for it.

I'd suggest checking your urls more carefully...org...

 

[Wargamer]

Anyway,

as others have said, our culture will never romanticise the Towel-Headed Terrorist. We do ALREADY have Terrorist Heroes, however; Robin Hood and Guy Fawkes being just two.

What makes Robin Hood awesome, and Mohammad Ishagapig evil, is that Robin Hood is on our side. "Our" side being that of the common man, who has been pissed off at being robbed by the government since birth and wants a refund.

Consider the truth behind Robin Hood, if there is any - did he really give to the poor? I doubt that. Unless you count him and his lads as poor. However, who did he rob? The Sheriff of Nottingham. In other words, a government official-cum-tax collector. Boo, bloody, hoo. Hands up who here would phone the police if a man walked up to you in the street and said "I've just stolen tax money back from the government!". Yeah, nobody. Thought so.

Criminal-heroes only work if they fight for a cause the common man believes in. What most likely cemented Pirates into this role were the Privateers; heroes of England who sent many a Spanish bastard to a watery grave. Sure they were thieves and murderers, but they were robbing and killing "bad people who deserved it", so that's okay.

 

[Brett Alex]

SNIPPED
All this Pirate Lore is based on truth. However, not all of it is UNIVERSAL truth. Again, I cite Blackbeard as a great source of this stuff; he was a famous (and infamous) pirate captain, and as such all pirates become Blackbeard.

Oh sure, there are grains of truth in all of it, but pirates were not a singular group. A pirate code would be like a muggers code, a highway-mans code, specific to the individual. There was no council of pirates who met annually to discuss the finer points of etiquette and disbar any member who had not been following the code, and was instead acting on his own terms.

As with pretty much everything else you mentioned, like you said, it may have occurred in a few highly popular instances. That does not mean all pirates, or even any other pirates were anything like that.

Sure they were thieves and murderers, but they were robbing and killing "bad people who deserved it", so that's okay.

Sure they were bloodthirsty jihadists and murderers, but they sent many an American Infidel to a sandy grave, and they were "bad people who deserved it", so that's okay.

 

[Woem]

Spoiler

Do they go "Arrr"?

/Thread

They go "ALALALALALALALA JIIIIIIIIHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!" Or at least the American media portrays them as doing that.

PIRATES are the new pirates.

Or possibly

PIRATES are the new pirates.

That was actually exactly what I was thinking: pirates are the new pirates. [sup][1][/sup]

 

[Torque669]

Terrorists vs Ninjas doesnt have a great ring to it.

 

[RetiarySword]

There is one very important parallel.

Pirates divided by ninja's = safe area.
Terrorists divided by ninja's = safe area.

We just need more ninja's.

 

[Aardvark Soup]

Terrorists see themselves as freedom fighters that think they can achieve their ideological goals by attacking the population of a country they feel has wronged them. Pirates just want money. Of course this is a huge simplification but you really can't compare the two.

 

[Erja_Perttu]

Have you ever seen terrorists with wenches?

But they get 40 virgins?

How funny will it be if they get to heaven and all the virgins are virgins because they are fugly fat people?

Exactly. Take Susan Boyle for example. Now tell me 40 people looking like that is anyone#s idea of heaven. Wenches all the way!

 

[Tiny116]

if terrorists dressed in cooler ways then yes but unfortunately that's not the case here.

or maybe if Disney made a movie about terrorists kids would dress up as em

I'd watch that movie, and then dress up like it at Halloween.

If people started dressing up like terrorists at halloween theres gunna be a sharp rise in people being shot by police lol.

 

[The_ModeRazor]

Do they go "Arrr"?

/Thread

They go "ALALALALALALALA JIIIIIIIIHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!" Or at least the American media portrays them as doing that.

PIRATES are the new pirates.

Or possibly

PIRATES are the new pirates.

The pirate bay died about a week ago. Its back up but now you have to pay for it.

.>
No, you don't.
OT: Not, western civilization doesn't find any likeable qualities about them. And neither do I. You cannot idolize them like pirates, because they suck, and are wrong on a whole new level.

 

[MajoraPersona]

People kept talking about "pirates in children's books".

My children's books had massacres, women who fell in love with each other thinking the other was a man, and olden-time vampires. One of those three was not found in the stories about pirates. I'll give you a hint: It's obviously the vampire thing.

I live a fairly sheltered life, so maybe it's just me who thinks that the constant murder, rape, pillaging, destruction of property, etc. isn't new or exciting.

 

[Barciad]

Nope - and hopefully never will be.
I vote Vikings, anytime, any day, anywhere.

 

[Wargamer]

Sure they were bloodthirsty jihadists and murderers, but they sent many an American Infidel to a sandy grave, and they were "bad people who deserved it", so that's okay.

And there you've missed the point entirely.

Terrorists (specifically, Muslim ones) are not the good guys. The reason Pirates became romanticised is that, eventually, they were. Privateers are just another kind of spy, and James Bond is most definitely a Hero.

We are focusing on the Western World here, not the world all over. If you want to find some religious fanatic who thinks mass-murder is something to be praised, go to the middle east and throw a rock.

There are no TRUE terrorists who are made heroes in the western world. We've got underhanded bastards, we've got criminals, we've got partisans that also hold the title of being the only Frenchmen nobody would ever want to say a bad word about... but actual mass-murderers? None.

 

[Brett Alex]

Sure they were bloodthirsty jihadists and murderers, but they sent many an American Infidel to a sandy grave, and they were "bad people who deserved it", so that's okay.

And there you've missed the point entirely.

Terrorists (specifically, Muslim ones) are not the good guys. The reason Pirates became romanticised is that, eventually, they were. Privateers are just another kind of spy, and James Bond is most definitely a Hero.

We are focusing on the Western World here, not the world all over. If you want to find some religious fanatic who thinks mass-murder is something to be praised, go to the middle east and throw a rock.

There are no TRUE terrorists who are made heroes in the western world. We've got underhanded bastards, we've got criminals, we've got partisans that also hold the title of being the only Frenchmen nobody would ever want to say a bad word about... but actual mass-murderers? None.

Wait, what? I'm sure you don't mean this, but what I'm inferring from the first half of your post there is "Middle Eastern culture is more likely to idolize mass murders", and that violence committed by muslims is somehow, uniquely more violent than that committed by non-muslims.

That aside, what is the difference between a TRUE terrorist and one that is okay to worship?

How about Boudicca (sp?) the famous Warrior Queen? The symbol of early celtic resistance against Romans? Revived and glorified in statues during the reigns of Queens Elizabeth and Victoria?

Boudicca, who's "freedom fighters" slaughtered entire townships filled with unarmed colonists and in some cases Roman allied celts, who tortured prisoners and displayed mutilated bodies, who desecrated any signs of non-celtic religion, who burnt and pillaged their way through Roman Briton until being apprehended by the provincial governor. All this done in an attempt to spread fear among the Romans and to dissuade other tribes from joining the Romans.

Terrorist? Or example of a woman brave enough to stand up to the oppressors wrongs?


EDIT: As Gormourn mentioned above: The IRA. Ireland, part of the Wester World, yes? IRA, terrorists, yes? Idolized by westerners for their acts of violence? Undoubtedly.