Kragholm Free States wrote:Page wrote:
The acts of terrorism committed by white supremacists and right-wing extremists cannot accurately be described as lone wolf attacks, even in such cases when a single individual plans an attack without the assistance of anyone else.
The alt-right promotes stochastic terrorism. It is a game of probability. Incite millions and at least one person will act. There are no targets specified, there is no contract between a terrorist and an organization. There is only incitement with the knowledge that someone somewhere will do something.
Daesh uses this tactic. Many individuals who have committed acts of terrorism in the name of Daesh have never spoken to anyone about their plans. It is understood by those spreading propaganda that someone will eventually act. Yet when an individual carries out an attack, Daesh will claim credit despite the fact there was never a conspiracy between the terrorist and the ones who incited them. We do not call these terrorists "lone wolves" and we should not refer to alt-right terrorists any differently.
We tend not to call them "ISIS/Daesh terrorist attacks" until that organisation claims responsibility for them though. Until then, they're just radical Islamist terrorist attacks, with no real implication of an organisation's involvement until we have good reason to believe an organisation was involved. How many times has that oh-so-organised and united entity known as "the alt-right" actually made a claim of responsibility for any of the attacks committed by individual white supremacists, neo-nazis, or whatever else?
The only reason why Daesh claims responsibility for attacks that result from their stochastic terrorism tactics while the alt-right does not is because the leadership of Daesh are already wanted men in the crosshairs, while the leaders of the alt-right still have the benefit of denying they had anything to do any acts of terrorism. The central figures of the alt-right may not claim responsibility but they do celebrate things like the Christchurch mosque massacre when the cameras aren't on them.