Charlie Pierce says it perfectly, as always.

And yes, I firmly believe that, had Warner been a Black Lives Matter activist or a Muslim cleric, we would not be having these angels-on-the-head-of-a-pin discussions about who is or isn’t a terrorist. If, as all the evidence indicates, Warner set off a huge incendiary device on a downtown street in a major American city, then he committed a terrorist act and is, therefore, a dead terrorist. The idea that one cannot be a terrorist unless the person leaves behind a 100-page manifesto is dangerous in this age of accelerated communication. Random bits of violence are swirling in the very air around us, and all throughout our politics and our national dialogue. Occasionally, they coalesce, as they did on Christmas Day on Second Street in Nashville, where a terrorist act took place.

Rumors are flying; we don’t know yet whether he was motivated by right wing conspiracy theories about 5G wireless networks, but the target of the attack was reportedly a major AT&T switching center. So we’ll see.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump hasn’t said a word about the attack; he hasn’t even called the mayor of Nashville. He’s too busy trying to overturn the results of the election he lost.