Talk:stochastic terrorism

The text for this entry was copied from dictionary.com's definition: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/stochastic-terrorism

This is my first time to ever do any edits to any wiki-anything. Apologies in advance if anything was not done correctly. I couldn't figure out how to edit the entry request queue, so I just created the entry myself.

--Skoskie (talk) 17:00, 24 January 2018 (UTC)

Edited definition appears to be incorrect.
The revised definition of this term seems incorrect by every other definition I have found. It is the act of "stirring the pot" that is considered the act of terrorism in this case. It is not whatever terrorism results from said stirring.

Here's an example of it used in the wild:

Republican nominee engaged in so-called stochastic terrorism with his remarks about "Second Amendment people" and Clinton

Source: Rolling Stone

Obviously this definition should apply to mass communication.

--Skoskie (talk) 20:12, 24 January 2018 (UTC)


 * Here is the problem. The term “Stochastic Terrorism” was coined by an earnest anonymous blogger http://stochasticterrorism.blogspot.com/ who wrote an eloquent essay without doing any social science research. Alas, journalists failed to fact-check the concept in social science, where the term “Scripted Violence” has been used for decades. Some journalists now claim the term is used in social science. Maybe on the web, but this is an internet meme that lazy journalists and scholars are now being drawn toward. The term “Stochastic Terrorism” has become popular in risk management studies and in the study of terrorism, where the idea is used to describe terrorism where the target and date are “random” and “unpredictable” and used to destabilize a government or society. Some of us are still trying to sort this out on Wikipedia. Sigh. Chip.berlet (talk) 19:41, 9 November 2018 (UTC)

Can we PLEASE talk about solving definition conflicts?
There is much confusion and debate over a series of terms used in different ways by different sources. Folks, it is of little use to our readers to have advocates for one definition or another zapping the entries at Wikipedia and Wiktionary, and replacing them with their POV on on a contentious subject.

The term "Scripted Violence" was used in social science for over a decade before the terms "Stochastic Violence" and "Stochastic terrorism," were coined by an anonymous blogger. Now all these terms are swirling around. Now we have to sort out the various definitions and usages. All the terms are now in print someplace. Scripted Violence Scripted Terrorism Stochastic Violence Scripted Terrorism I have suggested disambiguation pages at both Wikipedia and Wiktionary. These so far just get deleted or listed for deletion. Can we please move to discussion solutions? Chip.berlet (talk) 02:51, 10 November 2018 (UTC)

Use in a sentence
A stochastic terrorist is a demagogue who uses the rhetoric of scripted violence (such as demonization or scapegoating) to portray a target group as involved in a malevolent conspiracy to undermine the society or nation, and thus prompt most acts of stochastic terrorism. See, for example, the work of Hannah Arendt and Gordon Allport.