Lawrence O'Donnell: "Dear Republican Senators & Chief Justice Roberts. Are you absolutely sure..."

[crickets]

25. Exactly. It's called stochastic terrorism.

It's not accidental or unintended. It's a purposeful strategy.

Stochastic Terrorism: Triggering the shooters

Jargon Watch: The Rising Danger of Stochastic Terrorism

In 2011, after the shooting of US representative Gabby Giffords, a Daily Kos blog warned of a new threat the writer called stochastic terrorism: the use of mass media to incite attacks by random nut jobs—acts that are “statistically predictable but individually unpredictable.” The writer had in mind right-wing radio and TV agitators, but in 2016, Rolling Stone accused then-candidate Trump of using the same playbook when he joked that “Second Amendment people” might “do” something if Hillary Clinton won the election.

Of course, Trump’s people later said he meant they might … “vote.” That’s how it works: Stochastic terrorism lets bullies operate in the open with full deniability, since the random element erases any provable causation.