Those who can make you believe absurdities, can get you to commit atrocities

[gollygee]

The Comet Pizza gunman is a good example of this. This kind of thing scares me. How can people believe something so ridiculous and absurd? Are these just people with really low IQs? We have a bunch of very well armed people who are willing to believe really out-there, ridiculous stories. And we have people very willing to make up ridiculous absurd stories and feed them to their well armed fans.

There isn't any way to hold people responsible if they make up some stupid fake story and people kill people because of it, is there? Or is this along the lines of yelling "fire" in a crowded theater? I can see this going somewhere horrible. What if people made up a story that people with some attribute or another were sent by the devil and needed to be immediately killed? Or that a whole group of people with some attribute were running a pedophile ring out of their homes, or places of worship, or restaurants, or whatever? We have a group of people with tons of weapons who would believe that and potentially kill lots of people based on something someone made up and put on the internet.

[2naSalit]

1. That's what our country is now

thus, it's what we as a society have become.

[ProfessorPlum]

2. It's called stochastic terrorism ("will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?")

and it sucks. I wonder if the rico laws cover it.

[gollygee]

4. Thank you for giving me a name!

I am going to read up and find out what your quote means.

Eta: Ah, Shakespeare. I have never read Henry II.

[ProfessorPlum]

5. ah, well, the quote is supposedly what Henry II said before the murder of Thomas Becket

Four knights allegedly heard him say it, and then carried out the murder for which Henry could claim plausible deniability.

It is similar to Bill O'Reilly calling Dr. Tiller "the baby killer" over and over again until someone, sure enough, came along and killed him. (How is O'Reilly not in jail for that, by the way)

but stochastic terrorism means you point out something, real or false, about a target, and just wait for someone armed and unhinged to do the natural thing.

[SamKnause]

3. That is what we are facing and it is truly terrifying.

[mnhtnbb]

6. A dumbfu*k from North Carolina. There are way too many armed, stupid bigots

all over this country and we sure have our share here in NC.

It's one of the reasons I've told my husband I want out of here--even though we live in the blue oasis of Chapel Hill--
there are too many gun nuts and ignorant bigots in the state. A year ago--right here in Chapel Hill--there was
one of these gun nuts (also a white male) who killed three wonderful young Muslim university students over a damn parking space.

It scares the crap out of me how many of these ignorant, armed bigots are out there.