they can not actually just do what they want people joke about "normies" but it is the heart of normies that this war is being fought over, if "normies" justify shooting treasonous senators in the capital no law will matter because laws only matter when people believe they should be followed or have a reason for existing. Once normies are the ones saying "yea let's kill these bastards" then all the psycho's who want to kill people can do so so long as they follow the "normie approved" targets Optics are probably one of the most important aspects of warfare these days. Why spend a costly amount of resources doing a thing when you can just make people believe the thing happened and then respond in kind as if it was real. I don't know if you have siblings but there was this thing me and my brother would do to each other when we were young sometimes if we were mad at each other, you'd just punch your hand real hard and then act like you got hit and mom would come running and discipline the other. That is basically what's going on here.