It seems that these days that those whom we might have formally referred to as "stupid, evil, idiot, twats" are now being labelled terrorists.

Omar Mateen, the man responsible for this month's mass shooting in Florida has had the label quickly applied to him, done in part because he rang a local news outlet and swore allegiance to ISIS as he went about his bloody work. Disclosures since made about his background now suggest his crime may have had very different motivations.

Closer to home similar parallels have been drawn in the case of Imran Patel, the man sentenced to three years and nine months in prison for distributing material that displayed ISIS committed atrocities,

These individuals are being associated with there being terrorists in our midst. Our own Defence Minister alluded to this just two weeks ago when an extra 20 billion was announced for Defence spending. Gerry Brownlee told a press conference that New Zealand's "not insulated from the sort of thing we saw in Orlando".

In one way he's right. No country is immune to outbursts of rage and violence committed by the mentally unstable and the truly evil. But to automatically conflate them with organised terrorist groups just because they claim ties to them probably gives them a level of notoriety they don't deserve, and confers upon ISIS a degree of publicity it shouldn't be getting.

While ISIS is adept at using social media to prey on the vulnerable and twist the minds of the confused, proper organised terrorism (the type that develops cells and insurrections) is a very different thing.

In a different time, pre-nine eleven, those that were mentally unstable and murdered en masse, sometimes claimed that God told them to do it. Those lone wolves that are doing the same now in ISIS's name are the same. They're sick, deluded, fools - and to label them terrorists gives them a status and credibility they, quite frankly, don't deserve.

They're stupid, evil, idiot, twats - no more, no less. Let us not, nor our politicians either, confer upon them any undeserved degree of notoriety.

ISIS thrives on its infamy and tries to use that to force changes in our society. Lets' deny them such opportunities because; when we give up our freedoms the terrorists win.

Felix Marwick is Newstalk ZB's chief political reporter