None dare call it terrorism

James Comey - the former Bush regime official who now serves as FBI director - should resign or be fired.

The recent terrorist attack at a church in South Carolina sets a new low in hate crimes. But Comey says that the mass shooting that killed 9 people is not actually terrorism.

What is terrorism then? Why do we even have a word for terrorism when it doesn't even apply to a racist mass murder? I guess it's so it can be applied to everything except this action, as right-wing gasbags seem to call everything else "terrorism." They think Occupy is "terrorism." They think tearing up a golf course after it expands into your yard is "terrorism." But killing 9 people in a racially motivated massacre? Comey says that's not terrorism.

Who's surprised? The government used to have an office specifically dedicated to investigating domestic terrorism such as this mass killing - but the office was closed amid right-wing pressure.

Anyone should have been able to see that Dylann Roof was on a collision course with trouble - because militant racists usually are - but I guess people were conditioned to overlook it until it was too late. When we have a system that denies right-wing domestic terrorism even exists, I guess many folks internalize this denial.

It's also factual to say that conservative media outlets and organizations have some responsibility for the massacre. Dylann Roof adopted racist views after reading the website of the Council of Conservative Citizens - a group that itself has had its leaders appear at Tea Party events. Right-wing pundit Megyn Kelly has tried to make excuses for police misconduct that took place recently in McKinney, Texas. Statements by Kelly and other right-wing talking heads fuel viewers' racism.

In the eyes of many Americans, right-wing elitism and propertarianism are increasingly untenable. But conservative elites - who falsely claim to represent the public - have doubled down more and more lately. It is a recipe for guaranteed disaster.

Some won't call it terrorism. But I will.