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Which Side Favors Political Violence More?

Moderate Right

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The left are always claiming they like to deal in facts. So, here are the facts:

In April, the Network Contagion Research Institute, along with Rutgers University, found that 55% of self-identified left-of-center respondents said that it was at least somewhat justified to murder President Trump. Forty-eight percent said the same of Elon Musk, and 40% of respondents, including 59.6% of left-of-center respondents, said it was at least somewhat acceptable to destroy a Tesla dealership in protest.

In the latest poll by YouGov taken after Kirk was murdered, 11% said violence can sometimes be justified to achieve political goals, while 72% said violence is never justified. (Another 5% said they would prefer not to say whether they think violence is sometimes justifiable to achieve political goals.)

Saying that violence can be justified was more prominent among Democrats and independents than among Republicans, with 14% of Democrats, 13% of independents, and only 6% of Republicans holding that opinion, according to the Sept. 10 poll. On the other end of the scale, 81% of Republicans said violence is never justified, compared with 72% of Democrats and 65% of independents.





Polls Show Rising Number of Americans Justify Political Violence

www.realclearpolling.com
 
Get out your AR-15s folks, the Leftists are comin' for ya. They all dangerous folks.

Meanwhile:

Data from recent years continues to show right-wing extremists as the dominant source of politically motivated violence.
  • A September 2025 report from the Cato Institute found that since 2020, right-wing terrorists accounted for over half (54%) of all politically motivated murders, while left-wing terrorists accounted for 22%.
  • The ADL found that in both 2023 and 2024, all extremist-related murders were committed by right-wing extremists. A mass killing by a homegrown Islamist extremist in January 2025 broke this trend.
  • Recent attacks attributed to the far-right include mass shootings, attacks on government targets, and murders related to sovereign citizen ideology.


So much for the suggestion that people turn DOWN the temperature. I guess we need to rile up the base to get angry enough to go get them evil liberals.
 
The right favors political violence more.
They get pardoned.
 
Even if polling has one side talking about it more (and the polling weirdly suggests independents are the ones we should be nervous about), the real question is which side acts. Most data suggests that it seems to be right wing actors doing most of the acts.
 
The same group who has been saying let's turn down the rhetoric are all over debate forums and social media turning up the rhetoric.
And when some Rightie gets revenge and kills a Leftist, how many are gonna admit they felt "good, we got one of 'em too."
 
A lot of time when maga says to turn down the rhetoric, what they are really saying is that they don’t want no talkback.
 
A poll?

So, are you attempting to establish that the left is more violent than the right because of a poll of what people say? How they respond to questions? But they are not asked to do any of the things in those answers.

How about what people actually do instead of what they say 'is justified?'

Because a scientific study by the government indicates the right is more violent:

"Following the 9/11 attacks, there were large increases in Islamist terrorism driven especially by al-Qaeda, ISIS, and their affiliates. More recently, we have seen an upsurge in right-wing political extremism in countries around the world. Despite the growing research literature generated by these developments, the issue of whether there are systematic differences between political ideologies in the use of violence remains unsettled. We address these gaps by comparing the use of political violence by left-wing, right-wing, and Islamist extremists in the United States and worldwide using two unique datasets. In both datasets we find that individuals and attacks associated with left-wing causes are less likely to be violent."

A comparison of political violence by left-wing, right-wing, in the United States - National Library of Medicine.​

 
Which Side Favors Political Violence More?
Click to expand...

It really depends on who is being asked.

Democrats will say unequivocally that the right are more violent.

Republicans will say unequivocally that the left are more violent.

Its one of things that will remain a mystery because the people who do the study will be biased, and their results will reflect their bias. It would be nearly impossible to find an objective study on which party favors violence the most.
 
Slartibartfast said:
Based on the numbers, we should fear independents.
Click to expand...
Nah.

Based on the numbers, we know why women choose the bear.

The vast majority of shooters are disaffected young men. In a wide variety of flavors, shapes, beliefs, persuasions, etc.

90% of homicides are committed by men….not just shooters, ALL homicides.

Men need to get together with other men and sit young men down and figure this shit out and get to the bottom of it.

Instead of treating the level of violence in this country like it’s a team sport and trying to figure out what “team” violent perpetrators are on. We know who the violence comes from - it’s young men.

Do something.
 
So the second amendment was a mistake because violence is never justified to achieve your political goals.
 
I just look at the results.

The right attacked the US capitol in an effort to stop an election.
The left did not.
 
I mean, the bear is a good chef, but all women choosing him?
 
Slartibartfast said:
I mean, the bear is a good chef, but all women choosing him?
Click to expand...
Cooking skills are a great way to impress women. I think my chicken wings are responsible for 80% of my relationships.
 
Deuce said:
I just look at the results.

The right attacked the US capitol in an effort to stop an election.
The left did not.
Click to expand...
I see. So you're perfectly willing to ignore the countless times that mobs of violent lefties took to the streets and burned and looted and caused mayhem.

Thanks - you just confirmed my point.
 

Clue. Real STATS show political crimes are 85% from the right.
 
SkyChief said:
I see. So you're perfectly willing to ignore the countless times that mobs of violent lefties took to the streets and burned and looted and caused mayhem.

Thanks - you just confirmed my point.
Click to expand...
We had two full years of the left's violence with the George Floyd protests.
 
noonereal said:
Clue. Real STATS show political crimes are 85% from the right.
Click to expand...
LOL. And we had two years of violent George Floyd protests where leftists, including Kamala Harris, set up a bail fund to bail out the rioters, not to mention leftists paying for the defense of their hero Luigi Mangione, for shooting in the back and killing the United Health CEO.
 
TBH, I think the poll's execution (no pun intended) is ill-conceived and produces some really vague results. Justification to use violence or murder is highly abstract, and is susceptible to change based on emotional currents. It's easy for someone to answer glibly or without really thinking it through. How many of the respondents would actually be willing to do it themselves, or make that statement publicly and have to defend it?

Also, the party in power is always more likely to oppose theoretical violence that threatens their position. Support for violence comes more often when other avenues for change are blocked. In these cases, it is the last resort of the disenfranchised. This begs the question of what is meant by "justified." Are the respondents thinking about inflicting retribution/consequences for perceived bad behavior by the victim? Or, are they thinking about the removal of the victim as leading to positive change? Or are they saying they they can understand why someone might commit a political murder

Moreover, what does it actually mean to say that political murder is, "somewhat justified"? Murder/not murder is binary. Justified is defined as: "having, done for, or marked by a good or legitimate reason." The poll takes a range of responses from 2 to 7 and lumps them together. But what does this actually mean and does it make sense to lump together all those intermediate responses between "never justified" and "completely justified"? If someone responded "2", the lowest level of "partially justified", are they saying they are a "little" happy about it, or they can a little understand why someone would commit such a murder or that they support a slightly lighter sentence for such a murderer? Does someone who responded "4" support or oppose political murder? If the question were binary, what would the numbers look like?

And the 81% of Republicans who claimed that political violence is never justified, seem to have overlooked the pardoning of the Jan. 6 rioters. Polling showed that between 40% and 67% of Republicans supporting pardoning the rioters, including those who attacked police. There is also ample support among Republicans for the violence inflicted on both unauthorized immigrants and American citizens by ICE. Why don't these numbers line up?

Finally, all the questions were asked about Musk and Trump, two bugbears of the left. What if the questions were about bugbears of the right, like Soros or a President Hillary? I would think that context matters.
 
Facts.

Most research on political violence in the U.S. has concluded that right-wing extremism has been the most prevalent and lethal threat in recent decades.

The prevalence of right-wing political violence
  • Greater number of incidents and plots. The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) reported that between 1994 and 2019, right-wing attacks and plots accounted for the majority of all terrorist incidents in the U.S.. This was especially true in 2019, when they made up nearly two-thirds of all such incidents.
  • More fatalities over time (excluding 9/11). When the 9/11 attacks are excluded, analyses from organizations like the Cato Institute and CSIS show that right-wing extremists are responsible for a significantly higher number of politically motivated murders than left-wing extremists.
  • Most lethal extremist threat. A 2023 report from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) stated that 76% of extremist-related murders over the past decade were committed by those on the right.
 

Which Side Favors Political Violence More?​

I can't imagine.

 
It would have been easier if you just said you were a fact denier.
 
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