General Discussion

Experts say Americans must now become familiar with the concept of “stochastic terrorism,” the idea that the constant demonization of a public figure, party or group can increase the likelihood a lone actor will carry out a horrific crime against a member of that group.

Many of this newsletter’s readers may have heard of the term “stochastic terrorism.” The best concise definition I’ve read comes from an Australian academic and researcher named Todd Morley. Writing in the Small Wars Journal, he defined it as “a quantifiable relationship between seemingly random acts of terrorism and the perpetuation of hateful rhetoric in public discourse, accompanied by catastrophizing and fear generation in media sources.”

In that sense, the request for the gag order was as much about so-called stochastic terrorism — the idea that demonizing someone through mass communication increases the chances that a lone wolf will be inspired to attack the target — as it was about more traditional concern of keeping a jury from being influenced by statements outside of court.

Some extremism researchers see those two explanations as so intertwined that there is even a name for the sort of violence they can jointly provoke: stochastic terrorism. Stochastic terrorism is defined as violence committed by an attacker who, though acting on personal volition, is inspired by language demonizing the target. It has existed for as long as hatemongers have urged their communities to despise some racial or religious minority in their midst.