Stochastic Terrorism :: “Terrorism by Proxy”

What is stochastic terrorism?
The idea is that someone who is a leader or who has a voice in the media puts out messages that there’s a reasonable certainty someone will act on. You have no idea who that person is, but someone, somewhere, will act on those ideas.

When did stochastic terrorism become a thing?
It’s safe to say that leaders of violent movements or extremist movements probably have understood this for a long time — that they know they can get away with saying things that will incite others and not do it directly, and that others will take action. I don’t think it’s new.

Is stochastic terrorism a crime?
No, it’s not a crime. It’s a precursor to crime, and it’s becoming hard to pinpoint who is going to take action. I don’t think you can say it’s criminal. I think it’s something we need to call out, and make sure we talk about the way people’s violent rhetoric incites other people.

“Historically,” Moore pointed out, that “some of the most disgusting terrorists never killed a single person. Osama bin Laden never killed anybody himself. Manson didn’t kill anybody.” Olbermann said that “I don’t believe there’s any record of Hitler personally killing anybody, and … millions of people died because of Hitler.”

Among national security experts, Kayyem is not alone in this view. “It really matters that the president of the United States is an arsonist of radicalization,”

“Terrorism experts, security analysts, and political observers have been increasingly using the term stochastic terrorism in the late 2010s, especially in terms of how rhetoric from political and religious leaders inspires random extremists, typically young men considered to be radicalized by ISIS or white supremacist groups.”

Trump’s dog whistles, and now bullhorn exhortations, providing cover for racism and right-wing extremism, and barely disguised encouragement for armed militia attacks including plots to kidnap elected officials, need to be called out for what they are. Stochastic terrorism may be even more dangerous than overt calls for violence as it provides a thin veneer of deniability to the leader while civil society is being upended.

“The first way to resolve this, is to say the word,” Olbermann said. “He’s criminally negligent in the deaths of at least 200,000 Americans, with more to come. You can describe him accurately as negligently or intentionally a mass murderer. He is a terrorist. He is a stochastic terrorist, and in the language of standard issue terrorists, he sits in the back and supervises while other people go out and plan to kidnap governors and all the rest of that.”