*Heads-up that this thread will feature some extreme examples of homophobia and transphobia.*

Hey folks, have you ever wondered why trans people face constant accusations of fetishism, sexual predation and child abuse/grooming? Well, today let's talk about stochastic terrorism.

So, first we have to talk about what stochastic terrorism actually is. Remember when there was a conspiracy that there was a pedophile ring operating out of a pizza parlour basement, and a crazed gunman showed up? It's that sort of incitement that stochastic terrorism describes.
It's the demonisation or incitement against a group of people or individuals with the intent that other, unaffiliated parties will act upon it; it's the releasing doctored footage and a shooter show up at Planned Parenthood as a direct result of what he's been led to believe.
So with that in mind, let's talk about Russia's extreme anti-LGBT laws that banned the "promotion" of LGBT lifestyles to children. A move that specifically marked LGBT people as a threat to children, and resulted in neo-nazis meting out vigilante "justice" against gay men.
Groups such as this would lure unsuspecting gay men via dating sites, and brutalise and humiliate them on camera. They did so under the guise of combating child abusers, one group calling themselves "Occupy Pedophilia"

https://t.co/DjXxo6Jf4n
Homophobic propaganda that gay men recruit or groom children to be gay was enshrined into law, and as such emboldened those Nazi groups to act under the belief, or at least the pretence, that they are defending children from predatory gay men out to recruit.
It's like how the Quebec mosque shooter had been inspired by Ben Shapiro's constant fearmongering about Muslims and thought he was saving people from an imminent attack. He was terrified that his parents were going to be killed by terrorists, and felt he had to protect them.
And we can't do this thread without mentioning how George Soros got mailed a pipe bomb after constant far right conspiracy theories aimed at him. You see, it's not the actual act that we're describing here, but what inspired or incited it constitutes stochastic terrorism.
So with hopefully a good idea of what stochastic terrorism means, let's talk about trans people. Because right now trans folks are at the center of some very extremist conspiracies from people who have no problem invoking antisemitic hate by claiming we're funded by George Soros.
It is in this light you need to understand why trans people are being called pedophiles, fetishists, rapists, and "autogynephiles" on a relentless basis. Why we're being slurred, as a whole, as being some sort of pedophile grooming cult.

It is to inspire people to take action.
Even one of the more "tame" charges against trans women, is that we have a fetish for public urination. I say tame here only in relevant terms, because the point of this hatemongering is to inspire violence against us by painting us as involving unsuspecting victims in a fetish.
And the hate speech only gets worse from there...

Anti-trans ideologues have been making accusations about trans people being one giant international pedophile grooming ring, who are promoting the use of hormone blockers to keep victims in a perpetual state of adolescence. Yeah.
And I really wish I was joking about this, but those fantastical and dangerous allegations aren't that far removed from what's being published in mainstream right wing media. Look at the language used in the Daily Mail just this weekend.

Even children get painted as groomers.
This is pure fascist "they're coming for our children" rhetoric writ large, it is a deliberate attempt to cause moral panic about trans people by extremist ideologues and propagandists.

And we don't have to wait to see the results, it's happening now:

https://t.co/lFPeHTSje2
This is what happens when simple everyday things are painted as sexual acts when done by trans women, people are inspired to attack us because they believe, or use the excuse, that they're protecting women or children from a sexual predator.

And this is stochastic terrorism.
Every heinous allegation against trans people as a whole is designed to push us out of mainstream society and back into the closet. I've spoken before about how junk science is paving the way for Section 28/Russian style anti-LGBT laws:

https://t.co/IAaX5cyMQK
That is what is happening right now, anti-trans bigots want us gone by any means necessary, and they're more than happy to invoke antisemitic tropes like Jewish billionaires funding Gay-Straight Alliances in schools to turn people trans, as long as it gets the job done.

More from Society

I've seen many news articles cite that "the UK variant could be the dominant strain by March". This is emphasized by @CDCDirector.

While this will likely to be the case, this should not be an automatic cause for concern. Cases could still remain contained.

Here's how: 🧵

One of @CDCgov's own models has tracked the true decline in cases quite accurately thus far.

Their projection shows that the B.1.1.7 variant will become the dominant variant in March. But interestingly... there's no fourth wave. Cases simply level out:

https://t.co/tDce0MwO61


Just because a variant becomes the dominant strain does not automatically mean we will see a repeat of Fall 2020.

Let's look at UK and South Africa, where cases have been falling for the past month, in unison with the US (albeit with tougher restrictions):


Furthermore, the claim that the "variant is doubling every 10 days" is false. It's the *proportion of the variant* that is doubling every 10 days.

If overall prevalence drops during the studied time period, the true doubling time of the variant is actually much longer 10 days.

Simple example:

Day 0: 10 variant / 100 cases -> 10% variant
Day 10: 15 variant / 75 cases -> 20% variant
Day 20: 20 variant / 50 cases -> 40% variant

1) Proportion of variant doubles every 10 days
2) Doubling time of variant is actually 20 days
3) Total cases still drop by 50%

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This is a pretty valiant attempt to defend the "Feminist Glaciology" article, which says conventional wisdom is wrong, and this is a solid piece of scholarship. I'll beg to differ, because I think Jeffery, here, is confusing scholarship with "saying things that seem right".


The article is, at heart, deeply weird, even essentialist. Here, for example, is the claim that proposing climate engineering is a "man" thing. Also a "man" thing: attempting to get distance from a topic, approaching it in a disinterested fashion.


Also a "man" thing—physical courage. (I guess, not quite: physical courage "co-constitutes" masculinist glaciology along with nationalism and colonialism.)


There's criticism of a New York Times article that talks about glaciology adventures, which makes a similar point.


At the heart of this chunk is the claim that glaciology excludes women because of a narrative of scientific objectivity and physical adventure. This is a strong claim! It's not enough to say, hey, sure, sounds good. Is it true?