Is Libs of TikTok a Stochastic Terrorist? Am I???

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ABOUT: Rebecca Watson is the founder of the Skepchick Network, a collection of sites focused on science and critical thinking. She has written for outlets such as Slate, Popular Science, and the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. She's also the host of Quiz-o-tron, a rowdy, live quiz show that pits scientists against comedians. Asteroid 153289 Rebeccawatson is named after her (her real name being 153289).

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[johnsheppard]

I'm not even trans, I'm just gay with long hair. I'm fairly masculine, with a beard. I'm astounded at the amount of transphobia I've experienced in my life. There was even an incident where a guy pulled a knife at a bar and he told the police it was so he could "see what I was underneath". I can't imagine what real trans people have to go through.

[Paint_The_Future]

I recommend the latest Leeja Miller video titled "Is Libs of TikTok a Terrorist?" At one point in the video, she lists all the time bomb and shooter threats occur after Libs of TikTok tweets about a school or hospital. That segment goes on for quite some time.

[theeviljames]

RIP Nex Benedict. 16 years old... all that possibility forever curtailed. Makes me really angry that people like Libs think this kind of stuff is humorous

[OrigamiMarie]

My metaphor for stochastic terrorism is a pot of water (the audience) with a flame under it (the terrorist).

Does the flame actually inflate little bubbles full of steam at the bottom of the pot? No. Can we point to one particular spot on the bottom or at the surface of the water where the next bubble will be? No, though we can make some pretty good guesses based on the locations where they commonly arise (defects in the pot surface, particularly susceptible people). Given a pot full of water and a large enough flame, will there eventually be bubbles? Absolutely. Is the flame at least partly responsible for the bubbles? Yes.

You can't set up a pot of water on top of a flame and realistically say that it will absolutely never boil. And boiling is the goal. Just like a stochastic terrorist will cause these terrible things to happen, as is their intent.

[puckerings]

"We aren't idiots."

Chaya Raichik: "Speak for yourself!"

[DahVoozel]

Boomers then: Jelly of the Month Club(tm) is grounds for terrorism and violence.

Boomers now: Look, the CEO gave you a pizza party, keep working because these dividend pay for my vacations.

[therabbithat]

there was a girl in my school killed herself and the bully who drove her to it laughed when she heard it and said "it servers her right"

However Nex died, those kids are responsible. I'm not saying death penalty for bullies or anything, but they aren't innocent.

[piedpiper]

The whole pizzagate thing lives rent free in my head.

Dude fired into the floor of a building that didn’t have a basement, demanding access to said nonexistent basement. Just… amazing.

[braintonguerottalk]

As anti trans rhetoric builds up in the states and anti trans policies in the South, I'm embracing trans joy while i legally can. Gotta keep fighting 🏳️‍⚧️

[MrDpool]

So by applying Mastadon’s moderation policies, my collection of 70’s and 80’s Bay Area punk is “stochastic on plastic”?

[kassemir]

I know it's sadly probably extremely common, but the police convincing a teenager who was hospitalized after their peers assaulted them to not press charges is shocking and insane.
Who cares if pressing charges would "ruin the future of the assaulters". Like, this was clearly very serious, and there should have been a serious investigation and charges pressed against them, no doubt about it.

[palmercolson]

Almost every time I hear of stochastic terrorism I think of Henry II and the killing of Thomas Beckett. The story goes that Becket, former Henry II flunky and now the new Archbishop of Canterbury, was causing Henry problems by acting insufficiently flunky-like. Henry eventually said to his knights something like "will no one rid me of this troublesome priest" and some of his knights killed Thomas Becket. This eventually caused some blow back on Henry, but he got away with it.

[subtlebluntduality]

She pulled this crap with a Waukesha principal recently. That post of her holding up the USA Today cover screams 'Oh look at me, isn't it cute that when I post a link to someone or a place, hate mail and death threats start happening? But it's not my fault, of course. It's not my fault that I imply that gay and trans people are groomers.'

[swagswap]

"Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?"

[Crazy_Diamond_]

This is why the right's war on education is so insidious--education, especially in the humanities, is the best defense against these kind of tactics. Yet we're seeing consistent cutting of English, Language Arts, and Music classes. If we're going to fight this epidemic, we need to double down on investment in quality education, starting with paying our teachers more.

[daviawyliefinch]

Aside from whether or not it counts as stochastic terrorism, I'm appalled at the number of people who don't agree that her behaviour is vile and dangerous.

[snekramen]

Reminds me of the alt right playbook (forget which vid, paraphrased) if two sides of the political spectrum sit across the aisle yelling 'you're the fascist', liberal centrism can condemn both or neither, but it can't determine who's the fascist. A conservative politician calling a gay person a groomer for being gay is not in any way equivalent to a gay person accusing a conservative politician of being complicit in child grooming for keeping child marriage legal.

[Telleryn]

"I didn't trample anyone, I just screamed 'FIRE' in the crowded theater"

[vforwombat]

"If someone out there were a huge fan of mine but could not understand humorous exaggeration..."


and thus, an oxymoron.

[justwatchclip]

I've been told that you can't use the term "media literacy" anymore because it is triggering for conservatives... poor things