Origin and popularization of the term[edit]
In 2002, the term was first used by Gordon Woo to describe a process to quantify risk of a terrorist attack.[1][15][16][17]
Credit for defining the term has also been given to the blogger, G2geek, on the Daily Kos platform in 2011, when defining it as "the use of mass communications to stir up random lone wolves to carry out violent or terrorist acts that are statistically predictable but individually unpredictable", with plausible deniability for those creating media messaging.[1][18][19] The article covered the 2011 Tucson shooting.[9]
As of 2016, "stochastic terrorism" was an "obscure" academic term according to professor David S. Cohen.[20] During an August 9, 2016 campaign rally, then-candidate Donald Trump remarked "If [Hillary Clinton] gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is. I don't know." These comments were widely condemned as instigating violence, and described by Cohen as "stochastic terrorism", further popularizing the term.[21][20][9] Trump has continued to be criticized as inspiring violence.[22][23][24][25]
Incidents[edit]
The 2009 murder of George Tiller has been described as an example of stochastic terrorism, as many conservative news opinion shows and talk radio shows repeatedly demonized him for his administration of post-viability abortions.[21][28][20]
In their 2017 book Age of Lone Wolf Terrorism, criminologist Mark S. Hamm and sociologist Ramón Spaaij describe ISIS,[1] Anwar al-Awlaki, and Alex Jones as guilty of stochastic terrorism.[19]: 157 In the 2010 Oakland freeway shootout, Byron Williams was said to be en route to offices of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Tides Foundation, planning to commit mass murder, "indirectly enabled by the conspiracy theories" of Glenn Beck and Alex Jones.[19] They also cite the 2012 shooting at the Family Research Council.[19]
The Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping plot in 2020 has been described as an example of stochastic terrorism.[2][6][1]
In the wake of escalating attacks on the LGBT community in the early 2020s, including bomb threats on children's hospitals and the Colorado Springs nightclub shooting, right-wing activists such as Matt Walsh and Chaiya Raichik of Libs of TikTok have been accused of stochastic terrorism.[29][30][31][32]
The May 2022 Buffalo shooting[11][33][34] and the August 2022 Cincinnati FBI field office attack have been cited as examples of stochastic terrorism.[35][36][37][38][39]
The perpetrator of the October 2022 attack on Paul Pelosi stated he was looking for Nancy Pelosi and hoping to intimidate other Democratic lawmakers, actions that have been described as stochastic terrorism.[6][4][40]
In June 2024, two racially motivated stabbing incidents happened in Oulu, Finland. The attacks were predated by years of hostile rhetoric from Far-Right politicians in Finland, most notably from the Finns Party.[41][42][43]