The Politics of Fear: White Voters and the Left

[Nevilledog]

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New data shows 28% of white voters in US are concerned about extreme left-wing groups – when all the evidence shows that it is the US far-right which poses the greatest danger to democracy @sianushka @BylineTimes
#wtpBlue #wtpEARTH #DemVoice1 #FreshResists

bylinetimes.com
The Politics of Fear: White Voters and the Left – Byline Times
New data shows a quarter of white voters in the US are concerned about extreme left-wing groups – ignoring the reality of political violence
6:51 AM · Aug 5, 2022

https://bylinetimes.com/2022/08/05/the-politics-of-fear-white-voters-and-the-left/

Just over a quarter (28%) of white voters in the United States feel unsafe because of extreme left-wing groups, suggesting that far-right rhetoric has succeeded in manufacturing fear and mistrust of anti-fascism.

In contrast, only 21% of white voters were concerned about extreme right-wing groups. For black voters, a mere 4% were concerned about extreme left wing groups, rising to 21% for extreme-right groups. 7% of Hispanic voters worried about the left, while 30% feared the right.

The research by the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) measured how afraid American voters are in the run-up to the November mid-term elections.

26% of white survey respondents were “very worried” about attacks by left-wing groups like ‘antifa’, while 24% of white respondents felt the same about attacks by far-right militias such as the Proud Boys and Oathkeepers – both of which took part in the attempted insurrection on 6 January.

*snip*


Well duh.... Of course they're not afraid of the militia... they're not the targets.

The idiots are afraid of a make-up boogeyman tho. On brand.

[uponit7771]

1. The world needs a journalism standard group or something close. The Murdochs of the world ....

... having the ability to misinform at will is dangerous on its face.

[TheProle]

2. How the hell are these numbers the same?

In contrast, only 21% of white voters were concerned about extreme right-wing groups. For black voters, a mere 4% were concerned about extreme left wing groups, rising to 21% for extreme-right groups. 7% of Hispanic voters worried about the left, while 30% feared the right.

[Solly Mack]

3. In the very early days of DU someone asked what best describes your politics

and my answer was "anti-fascist". That still holds true.

I am only seen as a threat by those who seek to oppress me.

They fear me not because I am an actual threat to them but because I don't think and believe as they do.

[Ron Green]

4. There is no functioning Left in this country.

“The Left” is whatever AM talk radio blames for white people having to acknowledge what it means to be white.

[maxsolomon]

5. That White Fear of TeH lEfT didn't come from nowhere.

Vice Mag's report on the "Antifa Bus" in Forks, WA, and the RW attack on a peaceful BLM rally in Sequim, WA, in the Spring of 2020. Worth a read or two.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/akzem5/the-incident-on-the-a-road

...In the past few weeks, as protests over Floyd’s death and other police killings heated up, and as looting and rioting occurred in several cities including New York, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Seattle, right-wing politicians have spent increasing amounts of time on the purported antifa threat. Donald Trump has hurled a mountain of invective against the demonstrators across the country—“radical left bad people,” “dangerous thugs,” “criminals and vandals”—but he has repeatedly and with relish invoked the idea that they’re antifa, and swore that the government would designate antifa as “a terror organization.” More recently, he specifically accused Martin Gugino, a 75-year-old peace activist who was violently pushed by Buffalo police officers, leading to a serious head injury, of being an “antifa provocateur.”

That rhetoric has filtered down to all levels of politicians, would-be politicians, and right-wing bloviators. Senator Ted Cruz has accused “antifa riots” of destroying communities, Candace Owens accused demonstrators in Minnesota of being “on the payroll of leftist anarchist groups,” and formerly mainstream journalist Lara Logan, who’s now a Fox Nation talking head, has claimed that “Antifa/anarchist groups” act as “violent enforcers” for some other, hidden group of people executing an agenda, one that uses racial-justice protests as a cover to execute a power grab. A QAnon fan named Marjory Green running for Congress in Georgia ran an eye-popping ad wherein she declares, “Antifa terrorists have declared war on America.” She cocks the AR-15 she’s holding, then adds, “Rioting, looting and burning our cities, George Soros, Hollywood elites and Joe Biden’s staff are funding antifa.”

This narrative being pressed by people with huge platforms has predictably spurred a wave of “antifa bus” panics, mostly in extremely small towns, which arise when community members become convinced that the shadowy threat they’ve heard so much about is on the way to destroy their businesses. In Asheville, NC, a one-man news outlet claimed that busloads of people had been dropped off at the local Harris Teeter, from buses with Georgia license plates. In Sparta, Illinois, a Facebook post that’s still up quoted the ultra-conspiratorial website Natural News, writing “Antifa terrorists to be bused to Sparta, Illinois with orders to burn farm houses and kill livestock in rural white’ areas.”

2 years on, it still lingers. I heard that fear from my Dad, and he basically couldn't be talked out of it.

[blm]

6. Democrats did a terrible job of countering the lies

that were spread about the protests. It was so simple to counter it, too. The lion’s share of the violence and destruction during those months of protest were committed by RightWing anti-government activists, including ALL the murders of law enforcement. They were intent on triggering a Civil War.

Few Democratic leaders even mention it, and just let the lies slip past them.

[enki23]

7. That 28% of white voters is the extreme right.

So, yes, they rightly understand that Antifa is anti them.