Lighting the Fire: How MAGA Rhetoric Fueled an Arson Attack on Gov. Shapiro

There's a killer on the road. His brain is squirmin' like a toad. Take a long holiday. Let your children play. If you give this man a ride. Sweet memory will die. Killer on the road - The Doors

BLUE LETTER

CLIFF’S NOTE: Hate Speech Leads To Hate Crimes. It’s Called Stochastic Terrorism. And It’s A MAGA Staple

In yet another infected chapter in America’s untreated wound that’s led to MAGA madness, Cody Balmer—the suspect charged with scaling a security fence at the Pennsylvania Governor’s Mansion, breaking in and lighting a homemade incendiary device in an effort to murder Governor Josh Shapiro and his family—we again see an extremist blueprint for inspiring violence. A concept with which you may not be familiar, but we all should be: Stochastic Terrorism.

It’s not a “concept” in the sense that terror-cheerleader Trump has “concepts of a plan” for replacing Obamacare. I.e. the okra-tinted conman has no f*king idea how to do it, much like his understanding of, well, his entire job, yet needed to pull some bs outta an orifice in his bloated, decrepit carcass on the spot during a debate. And that phrase slinked through a pile of crushed adderall likely piled high enough to re-focus a day-dreaming elephant.

No, this is a genuine concept. From Encyclopedia Brittanica:

Stochastic terrorism refers to the indirect incitement of violence through public discourse, where the repeated use of hate speech or vilifying rhetoric by public figures inspires individuals to commit acts of violence against targeted groups or individuals. This phenomenon is characterized by the unpredictability of the violent acts, which are statistically probable but cannot be specifically predicted. Essentially, it highlights how dehumanizing rhetoric can provoke ideologically driven attacks, often by "lone wolf" extremists.

Not only is hate speech and disinformation not free speech, it undermines free speech, as my friend, Salon columnist and former Playboy Magazine White House correspondent Brian Karem, put it to me in a discussion we had.

WHO IS CODY BALLMER?

A 38-year old white man steeped in online extremism, with a history of criminal acts from three charges of misdemeanor assault to forgery and theft—and a habit of hating Joe Biden in online posts. But, Balmer isn’t just some “lone wolf,” he’s the inevitable byproduct of years of right-wing propaganda poisoning our airwaves and echoing off the bleachers at Trump’s Il Duce ingatherings.

To paraphrase Barack Obama: They built this.

Fox”News,” Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Steve Bannon, Alex Jones, Marjorie Taylor Greene and many more on The Right stoke this violence virtually every time they open their gaping pie-holes to barf up their blather to the brainwashed. Painting Democrats as child-trafficking tyrants or vaccine-wielding fascists, someone like Balmer doesn’t just hear the message—he treats it like a call to arms.

In the affidavit of his arrest, when asked what he would’ve done had the Governor caught him in the act, he responded he "would have beaten him with his hammer." Sound familiar? It should. Because that’s what a crazed right-wing cretin did to Paul Pelosi when he broke into Nancy Pelosi’s house and she wasn’t there.

After talk of a “caravan” coming from Mexico, Latino shoppers were murdered in a Walmart in El Paso Texas. But George Soros was sponsoring it, per many right-wing voices, so to take revenge a reactionary bobblehead walked into the Tree of Life Temple in Pittsburgh and murdered Jews in their House of worship.

Which brings us back to this case. Shapiro is Jewish, a Democrat and a leader who stood up to Trump’s lies—so of course he’s a target. He’d only hours earlier participated in a Passover Seder with his family. We’ll see what the investigation finds, but let’s just say I don’t think there’s a ton of suspense here. This isn’t isolated, it’s orchestrated chaos with plausible deniability.

The same people who rile up the Balmer types with “stolen election” screams and QAnon fairy tales will now act shocked, shocked I tell you, that their rhetoric lit the match. This isn’t politics—it’s incitement dressed up as patriotism, and every time we fail to call it what it is, we’re just setting the next stage for disaster.

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…Yo, Check This Out!

• We kicked off my new Substack Show, Amped Up w/ Cliff Schecter last Thursda!—it will take place every Thursday, livestreamed at 2pm et—and it was a blast! David Shuster, close friend & contributor here, co-hosted. And we opened with a great convo with Republican turned Trump scourge, Joe Walsh! It had humor, it had dire warnings and more. CHECK IT OUT!

  

• Is the US really being taken advantage of by other NATO members and trading partners (or, at least, former trading partners til Trump got back in office)? OF COURSE NOT. We set up this system post-WWII and have benefitted from it in extraordinary ways. I go into it all here if you missed it! So check it out!

  On a related not, the Trump tariffs, fights with allies and Elon Musk’s DOGE firings have helped finally convince (too) many Democrats who hesitated, to start fighting back. HARD. More on this here. It is crucial for our democracy.

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  Quick Kitty Break! The Always Pic Friendly Steve w/ Cutie Pal Rocki!

  Sometimes Steve & Rocki just wanna cuddle with each other…and a few of my ties. Can ya blame ‘em??

  

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