the.com/provocation
the art of making someone else throw the first punch so you get to throw the second, legally.
means an act deliberately designed to trigger anger or retaliation, often used afterward as an excuse for what came next.
from from latin provocare, to call forth — pro (forward) plus vocare (to call), originally a legal term for summoning someone to a duel or trial.
legal defensecan reduce murder charges to manslaughter in some courts
military doctrinenations stage them to justify wars already planned
internet formtrolling is provocation optimized for scale and anonymity
for instance
gulf of tonkin — disputed 1964 naval incident used to justify us escalation in vietnam
franz ferdinand assassination — 1914 sarajevo shooting austria used as pretext for world war one
reichstag fire — 1933 blaze nazis blamed on communists to seize emergency powers