Should "stochastic terrorism" be recognized as a serious cause for concern?

[Secret Chief]

"The former head of counter-terrorism policing says some violence during the riots has “crossed the line into terrorism”. "

- Ex-police chief likens riots to terrorism

 

[Estro Felino]

Honestly I am more shocked about this "illegals' presence".
People without employment who can commit any crime.
There is an emergency, and the citizens should find solution, that is:
either you give all these illegals shelter and a job, so they can stay away from crime.
Or you protect the borders.
There is no third.

 

[mikkel_the_dane]

Honestly I am more shocked about this "illegals' presence".
People without employment who can commit any crime.
There is an emergency, and the citizens should find solution, that is:
either you give all these illegals shelter and a job, so they can stay away from crime.
Or you protect the borders.
There is no third.

What is "illegals"?

 

[Estro Felino]

What is "illegals"?

Illegal migrants.

 

[mikkel_the_dane]

Illegal migrants.

Are you aware that some people call some migrants illegal, though they are not?

 

[Pogo]

Honestly I am more shocked about this "illegals' presence".
People without employment who can commit any crime.
There is an emergency, and the citizens should find solution, that is:
either you give all these illegals shelter and a job, so they can stay away from crime.
Or you protect the borders.
There is no third.

What illegals? These Haitians are legally in the US in Springfield and working legally at US jobs. The fact that Ohio doesn't recognize their federal documents as sufficient for a drivers license is hardly enough to brand all of them as illegals.

Have you any evidence of illegals in Springfield or are you just spouting propaganda as usual?

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

Click the "Online offences" tab:

Who are the rioters and what jail sentences have they received?

"The violence, in towns and cities across England and in Northern Ireland, was fuelled by misinformation online"

These particular sentences have had a chilling effect on the prevalence of further riots and associated social media posts. Those riots and posts stopped almost immediately. So the police and priority court action worked very well. Defences like freedom of speech were blown out of the water. There never was freedom to call for people to riot.

 

[Estro Felino]

What illegals? These Haitians are legally in the US in Springfield and working legally at US jobs. The fact that Ohio doesn't recognize their federal documents as sufficient for a drivers license is hardly enough to brand all of them as illegals.

Have you any evidence of illegals in Springfield or are you just spouting propaganda as usual?

It's not in the European mind and spirit to tuck a problem away.

 

[mikkel_the_dane]

It's not in the European mind and spirit to tuck a problem away.

That is not relevant to your use of "illegals" as such.

 

[Pogo]

It's not in the European mind and spirit to tuck a problem away.

So you make no distinction between the people from North Africa or elsewhere that are in your country with the governments permission and those who are not. If you see a Somali collecting garbage on a garbage truck (or is it still piling up in the streets/) that is in your mind automatically an illegal?
Yeah we pretty much know your position.

 

[Debater Slayer]

A lot of stuff isn’t objectively accurate though, it is subjective evaluation that may be based on some degree of fact but tends towards the hyperbolic.

Completely agreed.

I would not say it is a fact that Trump is a “fascist” for example, and it’s still common for people to claim he praised Nazis as fine people (which is not true).

Another example topical to eating the cats.

The Daily Mail years ago had a headline that was something like “Gypsy immigrants kill and eat the Queen’s swans”.

iirc, there were photos, they were Gypsies and technically all swans in Britain are property of the monarch. As such it was true.

Would that framing make it ST though?

I don't know enough about that story to have an opinion on it, but in general, headlines highlighting the ethnicity, religion, etc., (whether confirmed or putative) of some person or group are sometimes designed to elicit outrage against members of the ethnicity, religion, or other categories in question. I wouldn't call this "stochastic terrorism," though, due to the objections I detailed earlier about that term.

Also, when a framing, even if uncharitable, has elements of truth or blurs the line between fact and opinion, I think it becomes extremely difficult to etablish definite intent to incite, let alone to an extent that warrants calling the framing "stochastic terrorism."

The “words are violence” type arguments are often made by people who consider themselves “on the right side of history”.

For me they are just further examples of the overall trend they claim to be critiquing from outside.

“It’s ok when we do it because we are right!” can be a very dangerous logic.

I don't disagree with the above in general, but I believe that words can inspire or lead to violence, of course, hence the need to prosecute incitement to violence even if it's only through words. I don't think any of this makes words themselves a form of violence, though, as I think of violence as a strictly physical action.