The UK has successfully watered down terrorism to mean "petty crime"
this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2026
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i remember the days when terrorism included fatalities
They also called paint £200k in damage. And broken windows £500k. Just utterly insane figures to inflate the seriousness of what's just basic vandalism of a building.
Oh nooo... PAINT!!! What utter terror...
B...but it's difficult to remove! :(
Think of the people that would need to be paid for such an effort. By a poor little bank, no less! :(
Kill thousands of Palestinian children, including by picking infants up by the ankle and swinging them hard as you can into brick walls, and impaling pregnant women through the stomach and leaving them to die in the dirt?
You're a "settler."
Throw paint at something to protest that?
You're a "terrorist."
The British government paved the way for those settlers, don't forget. They assumed control of the land, kicked out the natives and beckoned for all the Israelites to enter, who, obviously, started murdering anyone still in Palestine. This chapter of their cruelty started in 1948 and Britain's government, who has always been a piece of shit, made it so.
That's crazy. Fortunately the world is full of countries like China, the US, Germany, Russia... you know, big places where everything has run on compassion for others and doing the right thing for the last hundred plus years.
My friends in America wonder why I don't move back to the UK, and I always tell them, same shit different weather.
We really live in a country where terrorism means anything that the government wants, Huh.
If by "we" you mean people in the UK, yes.
US too, descending into fascism hand in hand
And USA
This article is about the UK. That's why it's talking about "Barclays bank," "Preston Crown Court," listed damages in £, etc.
I'm saying folks over there have the same issue, that or "socialist" as if the word is equivalent
If throwing a can of paint is the same as throwing a bomb then why not throw bombs? Seems like a dumb thing for a government to promote...
Thats actually what they want. They are engineering a reason.
Both outcomes benefit them. Either it scares and subdues everyone or does the exact opposite which gives them even more 'justification' for crackdowns.
This is their way of subduing the populace even more. If politicians and corporations were actually scared to fuck people over, we'd live in a much better world.
Of course it's a terrorist, it's literally creating hundreds of explosions per second!
Ah yes, nothing screams terrorism like... paint.
It’s vandalism. It’s property damage. It’s rude as fuck. But it’s not terrorism. Trying Americans for protests calling it terrorism is a form of terrorism.
Trying Americans for protests calling it terrorism is a form of terrorism.
There are no Americans involved in this story...
It is. I'd consider it a form of stochastic terrorism. Stochastic terrorism is the public demonization of a person or group through mass media that incites a violent act which is statistically predictable but whose specific perpetrator and timing cannot be predicted.
So the government labeling anti-fascists as terrorists, or people that support an end to the Palestinian genocide as terrorists could fall under the definition of stochastic terrorism. We have the public demonization of anti-facists via policy and yellow journalism, which leads to those people speaking out against fascism to be targeted by the police/government for exercising their right to free speech and assembly. The anti genocide protesters spreading red paint and breaking windows are vandals for sure, but I wouldn't go so far as to label them as terrorists. Labeling them as terrorists creates an opening for the government to deny them freedom via criminal charges worse than any crime they are actually guilty of.
Labour has paved the way for Reform to go full fascist.
Yeah, I always have to remind myself that these repressive stories from the UK are being done under the government elected in to stop the conservatives. Where do the more conservative parties have to go when this is the baseline of the center left?
"Sentenced as terrorists" is not what is really happening here. As I said before, when a crime carries over 2 years of prison (and property damage of 200k does) the judge can consider "terrorist connection" as an aggravating factor. They belong to Palestine Action which is considered terrorist organization in UK. This proscription was recently upheld by Court of Appeals.
They are not being sentenced for being members of Palestine Action. The court is considering "terrorist connection" aggravating factor in property damage conviction. If the aggravating factor is added it will have an impact on the conditions of their parole, not the sentence itself.
I don't think anyone's been terrorised by this creative painting social exhibition. Hell, I'm sure some employees of the bank enjoyed it as well.
Like, I understand wanting to advocate for something you're passionate about and passing out flyers or even holding signa or something. But when you throw paint at art, block roads, generally be an asshole to people just going about life you're
A. Not going to even remotely convince me to support your cause, in fact it will probably more likely make me be against it.
B. Piss me off because you're destroying amazing artwork (or whatever) and I'll hate your cause.
Or C. Even if I supported your cause I'll probably flip and be against it.
There is literally no outcome where I'm going "oh i didn't support xyz, but now I do because you've destroyed something or caused an hour traffic jam". Personally I think if you are that fucking stupid to lay on a highway/interstate knowing full well what's going to happen you deserve to get hit. It's not some kid or animal that wandered into the road that obviously doesn't know better, or even someone legitimately trying to cross a busy highway. That's literally attempting suicide to actively walk into it and lay down, and a car that hits them shouldn't get charged with anything.
I think you're confusing Palestine Action with Extinction Rebellion.
This is a very old topic, such that IMO, it's not worth putting in the effort to discuss it online. Fortunately, it's also a very well-researched topic.
For the question of whether disruptive protests help or hurt, the answer seems to be slightly more on the "help" side (mostly in terms of drawing attention, as I understand it). Here is a recent article that looks into the question in depth: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13064859/