Stochastic Terrorism is also a truly clever piece of rhetoric because it creates the illusion of sophistication and rigor. “Stochastic” is not a common word except in the world of probability and statistics (and fields that heavily rely on them). Nobody goes to their grocery store, bumps into an old friend from middle-school they haven’t seen in decades, and says “it’s quite stochastic that I bumped into you today!”
The phrase sounds to the average person as being very academic. Only very intelligent and erudite individuals must discuss complex subject matter such as Stochastic Terrorism. Taking control of this idea is the first part of the game.
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Now that the term has been established into peoples minds as an academic and well-studied concept, the experts can help navigate and “call out” the Stochastic Terrorists. Notorious Stochastic Terrorists such as the author of the Harry Potter series.
The ‘Stochastic’ part of Stochastic Terrorism is a benefit to the experts. Because, as is essential to the idea, violence can be expected “stochastically,” they can rest assured something will occur eventually . The more they assert certain people are Stochastic Terrorists, the more those people are immediately to blame the moment any incident occurs, no matter if the violence was related to them in any way or not.
The term has completely corrected for the the original flaw in accusing Sarah Palin of being responsible for the shooting of Gabby Giffords. No details are necessary.
In order to prevent that from reducing the asymmetry, a rhetorical tactic is employed that is to declare whataboutism . This brilliant little nugget of rhetoric has been instilled in the populace as a perfect countermeasure to maintain dominance in the asymmetric game.
Describing riots as “mostly peaceful” allows for the rhetorical negation of any accusations of Stochastic Terrorism, and allows for the continued excited elevation of every police encounter as being corrupted by racism.
Dismissal maintains asymmetry and might have an added bonus of pushing the other side on tilt.
The concept of Stochastic Terrorism has only recently had a very small handful of people making an attempt at an academic review. Despite that, its rhetorical utility will ensure that it will be treated as a long existing and well-understood phenomenon with a chosen supply of “experts” at the ready to bludgeon political opposition.
So the term is here to say. Just try to be aware of the game that’s being played.