The word “radicalized” is used in the media as if it’s a fact that can be verified by scanning their brains with MRI. Someone joining ISIS or Al-Qaeda is a fact, but apparently, that isn’t enough for them. They somehow feel the need to alert the audience to the danger of someone’s inner transformation.
The use of the word “radicalized” seems to imply that anyone having radically different ideas about our society should be weeded out. The people who use that term must have some degree of unconscious (or even conscious) preference for normalized people. So, when they see a terrorist, what draws their attention is the fact that he is radically different from them. It’s a xenophobic expression. The media and our government are subliminally injecting a normative ideology by associating the idea of being radical with terrorists. We can be radical and be peaceful. Gandhi was radical. The media should just stick to facts.
