Stochastic terrorism is “the use of mass communications to incite random actors to carry out violent or terrorist acts that are statistically predictable but individually unpredictable."

Trump & his supporters have embraced this tactic and I’ve written about it countless times over the years, like in this piece about Roger Stone. 2/
https://americanindependent.com/longtime-trump-ally-roger-stone-promises-violence-if-congress-impeaches/

I’ve heard stochastic terrorism described as a pan of popcorn on a hot stove, where the pan is social media and the kernels are random members of the public. Far-right figures are the ones turning up the heat, pouring oil in the pan, and shaking the kernels around.

No one can really be sure *which* kernel will “pop” next, but you can be pretty damn certain that if you keep the heat on, keep adding oil, and keep shaking the pan around, one of those kernels is going to pop sooner or later. 3/

I shared this article earlier today on Twitter, and I’m re-sharing here because it’s an important explainer on how those who engage in stochastic terrorism exploit one of our most primal emotions: disgust.

Disgust can help us avoid harm by triggering an aversion to things that can make us physically sick. But it can be weaponized against us, too. 4/
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-stochastic-terrorism-uses-disgust-to-incite-violence/

Some of the most horrific acts of violence in human history have been preceded by a campaign of dehumanization during which propaganda is used to foment disgust against the targeted group.

Disinformation about sexual “grooming” is meant to evoke that same sense of disgust — to engage our instincts and direct our attention towards something that is supposedly a threat to our wellbeing and even our existence. 5/

Disgust is an evolutionarily advantageous emotion that trains our “behavioral immune system” to avoid danger, but it’s being weaponized to encourage dehumanization, cruelty, and at times deadly violence by manufacturing a threat.

They’re hijacking our primal instincts — our brains — to incite violence. 6/

Much of the anti-trans rhetoric circulating today is aimed at dehumanization, which is a psychological process of demonizing an "enemy" as sub-human & thus not worthy of humane treatment. It’s considered a key component of intergroup violence because it is an important precursor to moral exclusion, “the process by which stigmatized groups are placed outside the boundary in which moral values, rules, and considerations of fairness apply.”

It’s also the 3rd of 8 stages of genocide. 7/