Everything is Stochastic Terrorism

Accusing people of stochastic terrorism is stochastic terrorism

This past Saturday, a man shot and killed five people and injured twenty-five others at a LGBT club in Colorado Springs, Colorado. In response, progressives have attempted to pin responsibility for the incident on conservatives using their new favorite term - “stochastic terrorism.” Stochastic terrorism is defined as “the public demonization of a person or group resulting in the incitement of a violent act, which is statistically probable but whose specifics cannot be predicted.” How convenient. If you publicly criticize a certain individual or a group and some random person later commits violence against that individual or group, then you are guilty of stochastic terrorism - therefore, the only solution is to prevent people from publicly criticizing said individual or group in the name of safety. Brilliant. It isn’t difficult to see where this is going.

What happened in Colorado was clearly a horrific incident involving senseless violence and a tragic loss of life. My prayers go out to all involved. However, blaming conservatives and criticism of LGBT activism and transgender madness for what happened is ridiculous. The idea that people should refrain from (or be forced to refrain from) expressing their opinions and being critical of a particular person or group out of fear that someone might commit violence against them is utter nonsense. It would essentially mean that no one can be criticized ever or else the person criticizing them is guilty of inciting violence against them. The idea that words should be equated with violence is outrageous and should be utterly rejected by any rational thinking person.

Yesterday, Dr. Caroline Orr, a research associate at the University of Maryland, accused the Libs of TikTok Twitter account (run by Chaya Raichik) of engaging in stochastic terrorism, that she and others who criticize LGBT activists are responsible for what happened in Colorado, and that they “want to get people killed.”

Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D @RVAwonk

Hours after a mass shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, LibsOfTikTok is targeting another LGBTQ organization in Colorado Springs. They want to get people killed. That’s really the only explanation here. This is textbook stochastic terrorism.

Consider the implications of this. If you disagree with an organization targeting children for sexual entertainment and you publicly criticize that organization, then, according to Orr, you are guilty of inciting violence against them. If this is treated as factual, then reasonably, the government could (and should) punish you for inciting violence when you merely criticize someone else. It is a point I have made before but it bears repeating. If we completely dismiss the concept of freedom of speech and words are truly treated like violence then it follows that words can reasonably be met with violence and words can reasonably be punished like violence. And in this case, it goes even beyond mere violence and into accusations of actual terrorism. We have already seen conservatives treated like terrorists because of a riot at the Capitol and we have seen parents treated like terrorists for opposing CRT at school board meetings. Like racism and white supremacy, it seems that the word “terrorism” is no longer reserved for the actual heinous acts that fit its narrow definition but its meaning has been vastly expanded so as to capture one’s political opponents and punish them for merely disagreeing with the anointed ideology. It is clear that what they are ultimately demanding is criminalizing disagreement and dissent.

What Orr and her companions also fail to recognize is that if you adhere to such a broad and subjective definition of terrorism and you conflate speech with violence, then you not only condemn your political enemies, but you simultaneously condemn yourself. If we are to accept the given definition of stochastic terrorism, then Orr, herself, would be guilty of engaging in it by publicly demonizing Chaya and all conservatives who criticize LGBT activism and accusing them of essentially being murderers and wanting people dead. If we are to embrace this ridiculous ideological framework then it logically follows that such vitriolic accusations must mean that Dr. Orr is openly requesting for some random crazy person out in the world to seek out Chaya or any other conservative who criticizes transgender activism and commit violence against them. Such is the problem with all authoritarian ideologies. Frankenstein’s monster always turns on his creator.

These sort of obvious logical problems are never considered by those who myopically wish to silence dissent and censor the speech of their opponents. Emotion is the primary driver, not logic and reason. It is only “ends justify the means” rationalizing. It is “rules for thee but not for me” hypocrisy. Progressives are quick to blame violent acts on the rhetoric of others, yet they have spent years dehumanizing conservatives, painting them as bigots, racists, Nazis, etc. and yet immediately transform into the Sandra Bullock Bird Box meme when violence is committed against them. Are we supposed to forget that Senator Rand Paul was assaulted by his neighbor and had his ribs broken? Whose rhetoric was responsible for that? Are we supposed to ignore that someone attempted to assassinate Republican members of Congress at a baseball game? Whose speech caused him to do that? It wasn’t even that long ago that a man who was upset about Roe v. Wade attempted to assassinate Justice Kavanaugh. What about all of the police officers being ambushed and murdered after being labeled racist, white supremacists? How about when Darrell Brooks decided to mow down a bunch of people in his car at a Christmas Parade after the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict? Or how about all of the pro-life pregnancy centers that were firebombed and vandalized? What about the “Summer of Love” where BLM and Antifa rioters, driven by false and inflammatory mainstream media narratives and egged on by Democratic politicians, caused billions of dollars in property damage and murdered 30 people? How’s that for stochastic terrorism?

Sandra Bullock in Bird Box

We should also remember that it wasn’t just that these acts occurred but that there were people who actually supported and celebrated them. Shall we ignore that many progressives mocked Senator Paul and cheered his neighbor when he was attacked, that the media mocked President Trump when he was forced to retreat to the White House bunker when rioters attempted to breach the barrier, that progressives promoted “punch a Nazi” campaigns and embraced the idea that violence against “bigots” is justified, that we were told that the BLM riots were mostly peaceful and to essentially ignore the extensive property damage and loss of life? If anyone is guilty of this mythological concept of stochastic terrorism, it is the political left.

Ultimately, however, there is not and cannot be a such thing as stochastic terrorism. It is a nonsensical concept used only to attempt to undermine free speech and silence the dissent of political opponents. If merely criticizing a person or group makes one guilty of terrorism, then everyone is guilty. Everything, then, is stochastic terrorism.

Words are not violence. Violence is violence. We would do well to remember that simple truth.