Most Extremist Violence in the U.S. Comes From the Political Right
By: David Leonhardt (nytimes)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
By David Leonhardt
May 17, 2022
Over the past decade, the Anti-Defamation League has counted about 450 U.S. murders committed by political extremists.
Of these 450 killings, right-wing extremists committed about 75 percent. Islamic extremists were responsible for about 20 percent, and left-wing extremists were responsible for 4 percent.
Nearly half of the murders were specifically tied to white supremacists:
As this data shows, the American political right has a violence problem that has no equivalent on the left. And the 10 victims in Buffalo this past weekend are now part of this toll. "Right-wing extremist violence is our biggest threat," Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of the ADL, has written. "The numbers don't lie."
The pattern extends to violence less severe than murder, like the Jan. 6 attack on Congress. It also extends to the language from some Republican politicians — including Donald Trump — and conservative media figures that treats violence as a legitimate form of political expression. A much larger number of Republican officials do not use this language but also do not denounce it or punish politicians who do use it; Kevin McCarthy, the top House Republican, is a leading example.
It's important to emphasize that not all extremist violence comes from the right — and that the precise explanation for any one attack can be murky, involving a mixture of ideology, mental illness, gun access and more. In the immediate aftermath of an attack, people are sometimes too quick to claim a direct cause and effect. But it is also incorrect to pretend that right-wing violence and left-wing violence are equivalent problems.
Fears in Washington
If you talk to members of Congress and their aides these days — especially off the record — you will often hear them mention their fears of violence being committed against them.
Some Republican members of Congress have said that they were reluctant to vote for Trump's impeachment or conviction partly because of the threats against other members who had already denounced him. House Republicans who voted for President Biden's infrastructure bill also received threats. Democrats say their offices receive a spike in phone calls and online messages threatening violence after they are criticized on conservative social media or cable television shows.
People who oversee elections report similar problems. "One in six election officials have experienced threats because of their job," the Brennan Center, a research group, reported this year. "Ranging from death threats that name officials' young children to racist and gendered harassment, these attacks have forced election officials across the country to take steps like hiring personal security, fleeing their homes, and putting their children into counseling."
There is often overlap between these violent threats and white supremacist beliefs. White supremacy tends to treat people of color as un-American or even less than fully human, views that can make violence seem justifiable. The suspect in the Buffalo massacre evidently posted an online manifesto that discussed replacement theory, a racial conspiracy theory that Tucker Carlson promotes on his Fox News show.
(This Times story examines how replacement theory has entered the Republican mainstream.)
"History has taught us that what begins with words ends in far worse," Representative Liz Cheney, one of the few Republicans who have repeatedly and consistently denounced violence and talk of violence from the right, wrote on Twitter yesterday. "The House GOP leadership has enabled white nationalism, white supremacy, and antisemitism," Cheney wrote, and called on Republican leaders to "renounce and reject these views and those who hold them."
A few other Republicans, like Senator Mitt Romney, have taken a similar stance. But many other prominent Republicans have taken a more neutral stance or even embraced talk of violence.
Some have spoken openly about violence as a legitimate political tool — and not just Trump, who has done so frequently.
At the rally that preceded the Jan. 6 attack, Representative Mo Brooks suggested the crowd should "start taking down names and kicking ass." Before she was elected to Congress, Marjorie Taylor Greene supported the idea of executing Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats. Representative Paul Gosar once posted an animated video altered to depict himself killing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and swinging swords at Biden.
Rick Perry, a former Texas governor, once called the Federal Reserve "treasonous" and talked about treating its chairman "pretty ugly." During Greg Gianforte's campaign for Montana's House seat, he went so far as to assault a reporter who asked him a question he didn't like; Gianforte won and has since become Montana's governor.
These Republicans have received no meaningful sanction from their party. McCarthy, the Republican leader in the House, has been especially solicitous of Brooks and other members who use violent imagery.
This Republican comfort with violence is new. Republican leaders from past decades, like Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole, Howard Baker and the Bushes, did not evoke violence.
"In a stable democracy," Steven Levitsky, a Harvard political scientist, told me, "politicians unambiguously reject violence and unambiguously expel from their ranks antidemocratic forces."
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Someone mentioned on Morning Joe this morning if that an Islamist terrorist had entered a US grocery story and gunned down 13 people we would already be bombing the terrorist's country of origin.
Why does the right insist on conflating domestic terrorism with black on black gangbanger crime?
Political violence in the US is overwhelmingly perpetrated from the right. Deal with it.
Why does he think that President Biden would do that?
Exactly political violence perpetrated from the left is so last century.
We are just supposed to ignore the whole "Summer of Love" in 2020.
Sorry, I forgot. That was all extreme right "agitators" impersonating and provoking BLM and Antifa. Damn those on extreme right are devious. Never were caught by the media or police during the entire "Summer of Love"; and they were really trying to find them! But on Jan 6th they went full on stupid and were caught on cameras, by police, and left a trail of evidence not even Biden's blind, moronic, highly partisan AG, DOJ, and FBI have a problem tracing.
Another daily dose of unsubstantiated bullshit and lies
There were over 19,000 gun related murders in 2020. So 340 murders attributed to right-wing extremists doesn't seem to be that big a problem. The 225 murders attributed to white supremacists are an even smaller problem. As usual the race baiters are focusing attention on 1.7 pct of the problem because that tiny, tiny fraction can be used as a wedge issue in politics.
The seed article is using highly selective facts to deliberately mislead. These race baiters are pounding the news cycle for their own benefit.
You dont seem to be able to comprehend that politically motivated violence and black on black crime are two different things.
Again, if Muslim extremists had murdered 340 people would you be saying it is "not a big problem" because there were thousands more people killed by guns in the US ?
Don't make me laugh.
The good news is that most Islamist inspired terrorist here are inept and 75% of the incidents are foiled. I think that since 2008, incidents resulted in about 105 deaths.
Black on Black crime can be motivated by extremism, too. There really are Black Identity Extremists. And Black extremists seem to focus their violence on Black people.
The shooting at Tops in Buffalo was obviously motivated by racial hatred. The hate crime in Buffalo is pretty easy to politicize. The significant event was the shooting at the Laguna Woods church. That was an Asian on Asian crime motivated by political hatred. The Laguna Woods church shooting marks a shift in how hate crimes are defined. So, some Black on Black crimes can also be viewed as hate crimes, too. The motivation for the crime is what matters.
Muslim extremism is not domestic terror. It's pretty easy to identify sources of Muslim extremism and radicalization outside the United States. And attempting to control Muslim extremism would require the government to adopt measures that would isolate the United States from foreign Muslim extremists.
White supremacy has been described as home-grown domestic terrorism (which is quite different than foreign inspired Muslim terrorism). The source of white terrorism would be inside the United States. The political claim is that domestic terrorism can be controlled inside the United States by the government adopting measures to isolate white supremacists inside the United States. The political narrative of domestic terrorism is being used politically to expand the autocratic authority of government inside the United States. That political narrative emphasizes that domestic terrorism cannot be controlled democratically and cannot be addressed without taking away freedoms (and Constitutional rights).
But the numbers show that white supremacy (and right wing extremism) account for a tiny, tiny fraction of the problem. That tiny, tiny fraction of the problem is being politicized to advocate for government measures that sets aside democracy inside the United States and would require the government to take away freedoms (and Constitutional rights).
Nonsense.
I think that since 2008, there have been around 130 killed by right wing extremist (white supremacy, anti-abortion, anti-Semitism).
It's a response you can't refute
Nonsense
Nonsense! Absurd!
A response of 'nonsense' means nothing. That's merely dismissive without reason or justification. That's a slacker response made by the intellectually lazy.
So my response above with the claim of hundreds of thousands is a slacker response made by the intellectually lazy?
Beg to differ my friend. The posit was pure nonsensical drama virtue signaling bullshit.
Except it isn't true. Especially in this case. Got a link backing up your hundreds of thousands? [deleted]
What source are you using?
How often are you hurt by it?
Just did.........unless you can show us a source for your hundreds of thousands claim.............
As I said, no source. No backup. Nonsense is nonsense. and nice edit. Stupid but nice
Never have, deny it? Did your post get garbled in transmission?
Yup. That spade is still a spade no matter who plays the card.
An unbelievable claim is just that. Obviously the comment was intended to throw bullshit against the wall to see if it would stick. That, too, is a slacker claim made by the intellectually lazy.
What is your fascination with Tessy's ass?
“There were over 19,000 gun related murders in 2020.”
As some quibble over how that appallingly tragic number is allocated…while completely, continually, and conveniently ignoring the elephant in the room.
Did you just ignore as well?
Grossly exaggerated? You think? What number are you now claiming?
To both of you - dont start up again with the pointless back and forth or this thread will be locked too.
Why do you see the number as pointless?
I didnt say the number was pointless ( the seed says 450 murders by political extremists in the past 10 years, 75% from the right.) Your back and forth insults are pointless.
JR’s number is much closer to mine. Where did you get yours?
She already said she made a mistake. Leave it alone.
Exactly, anything she said would remain pointless.
Perhaps, 2012 vs 2008. You made up your numbers.
How did you confuse a question for an insult?
These compilations put out by activist groups are always so blatently partisan as to be funny.
ADL has no idea why the Waukesha terrorist with the documented racist history drove into the Christmas parade, so that apparently doesn't count. But when they think the perpetrator is "right wing" suddenly this counts: "Neumann allegedly shot Pierce, then transported the body to a remote location. Police have not yet offered a motive.
Take two seconds and dig into the incidents and you can see plenty of similar incidents. A domestic violence murder suddenly becomes political if it moves the numbers in the right direction.