Stochastic terrorism: critical reflections on an emerging concept

This paper critically discusses the recent concept, stochastic terrorism - broadly, the idea that influential individuals may demonise target groups or individuals, inspiring unknown actors to take up terroristic violence against them. I collect together different strains of thought on the emerging concept, reflecting critically on what a suitable definition of the phenomenon would look like (or whether it would be needed), what the social urge to coin the concept may reveal about authoritarian power and violence, and what makes this form of political violence possible. I argue that present commentary fails to emphasise sufficiently the role of mistruth and deceit in such rhetoric, as well as its historical and mainstream precedents. Moreover, I understand the phenomenon to be specifically authoritarian in nature, which not only demonises but dehumanises its targets. In light of this, I suggest that given both the mainstreaming of racist conspiracy theory and the historical and continuing presence of centrally constructed "folk devils", the authoritarian problem which can manifest into stochastic violence is very much endemic to modern liberal democracies. With this framing of stochastic violence in mind, we ignore it simply as a buzzword at our peril: even if the theoretical issues I have highlighted continue to persist, even if we struggle to pin down the concept with desired clarity - it bears a phenomenological significance and reflects an ongoing political structure of violence.