The "Stochastic Terror" Myth
It's about time we question the premise...
I’m monitoring CNN and their dominant narrative is that Former President Donald Trump "upped the ante" for potential violence with rhetoric. They cite “stochastic terrorism” which is described by leading scholars on the subject as
“'the use of mass media to provoke random acts of ideologically motivated violence.." Source https://csl.mpg.de/en/projects/philosophical-and-public-security-law-implications-of-stochastic-terrorism
I find myself rejecting the premise that just because a person of influence says something incendiary, there is therefore a causal relationship to subsequent events. We may as well go back to blaming rap lyrics for gang violence.
A similar ploy used by the mass media when they play up the fear of “copycat killers,” which comes from the:
“…alleged tendency of sensational publicity about violent murders or suicides to result in more of the same through imitation.[1]”
The term was coined in the early 20th century, following crimes inspired by Jack the Ripper, but like stochastic terror, relies on the truth to the central premise that we can attribute outcomes to the indirect order or command.
We can look to the storming of the US Capitol’ on 6 January 2021 and cite the former President’s use of language prior to the event and make a strong case for indirect incitement, but with a caveat: the event would first have the be proven to have occurred as reported. There are too many conflicting accounts and vested interests to treat the storming of the Capitol as a case study.
Moreover, the explanation of stochastic terror is an indirect way of arguing against free speech and ties in nicely with the Left’s overarching agenda of silencing the right. For this reason, I’m calling into question the relevance of the term to explain today’s events. Should we accept it, we are treating the psychological operations and hoaxes as otherwise real, a significant logical error.
This same goes for the “copycat killer” threat that is brought up after mass shooting events. Assuming those are real, a huge assumption, it suggests that violence is a contagion much like bank failure. It’s a further angle to erode the 2nd Amendment in principle. If we accept these psychological operations and hoaxes as otherwise real, then we give the government-controlled media the power to alter our reality based on their false representation of it.
Tim Ozman,
IPR Host
TimOzman.Blog