User:Opencooper/Stochastic terrorism

Stochastic terrorism is the use of media such as television "to incite random actors to carry out violent or terrorist acts that are statistically predictable but individually unpredictable". The speaker, whether intentionally or not, incites those with a combination of personality traits that leads them to violence. Since the speaker only focuses animus towards the victim instead of directly participating, they escape culpability and the perpetrator is labeled a lone wolf by law enforcement. The term originates in academic studies of international terrorism, but has also been applied by journalists to domestic American incidents of violence.

The blogger who popularized the term accuses personalities such as Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, and Sean Hannity of inciting perpetrators such as Jim David Adkisson, Scott Roeder, and Byron Williams. Rawstory said that the 2015 Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood shooting was incited by far-right Christians. An op-ed in Rolling Stone referred to then presidential-candidate Donald Trump's comment during one of his 2016 campaign rallies as stochastic terrorism. Trump said of his opponent Hillary Clinton: "If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is. I don't know". Salon tied these comments to a history of encouragement of violence by O'Reilly and other right-wing media personalities.