PB>>17947323
Excellent and detailed article.
The first move in the game
“Stochastic Terrorism is also a truly clever piece of rhetoric because it creates the illusion of sophistication and rigor. “Stochastic” is not a common word except in the world of probability and statistics (and fields that heavily rely on them). Nobody goes to their grocery store, bumps into an old friend from middle-school they haven’t seen in decades, and says “it’s quite stochastic that I bumped into you today!”
“The phrase sounds to the average person as being very academic. Only very intelligent and erudite individuals must discuss complex subject matter such as Stochastic Terrorism. Taking control of this idea is the first part of the game.”
“While the term can obviously have meaning, it is just a term that popped into existence because someone recently made it up in order to accuse Sarah Palin of being responsible for the shooting of Gabby Giffords. And since it is constructed to appear academic, people can claim to be experts who study it.”
“You know that you didn’t spend years studying it, but that’s all you could know.”
“Anyone who claims to be an expert on the subject becomes an expert by fiat. You, perhaps not generally inclined to being a liar, don’t consider the prospect of just asserting yourself an expert of this newly minted term. But someone who does simply declare themselves an expert now has the ability to decide for the public who is, and who is not, a Stochastic Terrorist.”
https://drrollergator.substack.com/p/stochastic-terrorism-a-game-of-rhetorical