Anyone who uses the word terrorist non-ironically is themselves a terrorist by the most literal meaning of the term: trying to create fear in order to further a political goal.
The word “terrorist” needs to be retired from any serious conversation, as introducing hot button emotional terms virtually guarantees no successful and constructive policy can be crafted to address the issue.
If people cut off heads on TV blow up civilians wholesale, then they are terrorists. You are generalizing to stop the use of the word, just as those who overuse it do for their reasons. The answer is to apply the word correctly, not stop using it.
The word "terrorist" has an accepted meaning that almost everyone understands.
Attacks on military targets in combat are not "terrorism," so I would agree that the term was over-used during the Iraq and Afghan wars to describe what was basically guerilla warfare on the part of Iraqi and Taliban militias, for instance.
However, in domestic/peacetime situations, it's reasonable and accurate to describe coordinated attacks on non-military targets in the name of political or religious ideology as "terrorism." By this criterion the recent BLM-inspired attacks were certainly terrorist acts.