Why Is the American Far Right More Violent Than the American Far Left?

[DonViejo]

By Brian Beutler

Between September 11, 2001 and March 2014, right-wing extremists killed 34 people in America. If you count the three Jewish community members Frazier Glenn Cross killed in Kansas City before screaming "Heil Hitler" as police arrested him this past April, the tally jumps to 37. And it hits 40 when you add the two policemen and lone civilian who died this weekend when Jerad and Amanda Miller launched their Las Vegas revolution. The officers were eating lunch at a pizza restaurant, treading on no one, when they were shot dead and draped in a Gadsden flag. The civilian at the nearby Wal-Mart, Joseph Wilcox, was armed and ready to put an end to Jerad's rampage, but didn't know Amanda was armed as well. Turns out a good guy with a gun is the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun, unless the bad guy's wife happens to have a gun, too.

The above figures are based on a tally maintained by experts at the New America Foundation. They array their analysis in a way that makes the implicit point that, for all our fretting about jihadi extremism, it's been less deadly in the U.S. since 9/11 than domestic terrorism, but that neither problem is particularly dangerous.

And it's true. There are 320-or-so million people in the United States, over 30 million more than lived here on September 11, 2001. Forty people isn't very many. Among causes of death in the U.S., right-wing violence must rank near the bottom.

But 40 people is more than zero people, which is the number that have been killed by left-wing extremists over the same stretch. As NAF's Peter Bergen wrote recently, "although a variety of left wing militants and environmental extremists have carried out violent attacks for political reasons against property and individuals since 9/11, none have been linked to a lethal attack."

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http://www.newrepublic.com/article/118067/las-vegas-shooters-right-wing-beliefs-inflamed-gop

[onehandle]

1. The American Far Right Has Its Own Amendment.

And They Love To 'Exercise' It.

[movonne]

33. And because they get away with this shit..if this was a liberal they would have the fbi and all

police out rounding them up and in jail...they are domestic terrorist and should be in jail...

[The Magistrate]

2. Absolutely, Sir: True Throughout Our Country's History

[SharonAnn]

38. Also, why are men more violent than women?

[Rod Beauvex]

3. American Far Left.

There is no far left in America. You have to go to Europe for that.

[Leme]

5. I was going to say similar, far left is now just left of center.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

4. The difference between 0.00000002 murders per person per year and 0.00000000 is not large.

So I wouldn't attach too much significance to this.

[BrotherIvan]

6. Move along, nothing to see here.

Domestic terrorism, nah, it's all a false flag to grab MAH GUNZ!!!!!!!

[Donald Ian Rankin]

10. Those are your words, not mine.

I think you may not be quite clear about what the term "false flag" means - it would imply that right-wing domestic terrorist attacks were being perpetrated by left-wingers with the goal of discrediting the people they're attributed to, which I suspect isn't what you're trying to accuse me of thinking.


*My* words would be "complete non-issue on a national scale", not "false flag".

There are about 30,000 shooting deaths in the USA every year. That is enough to make a compelling case for repealing the 2nd amendment.

There are (according to the OP, which I haven't checked) about 3 politically motivated shooting deaths in the USA per year. That's sufficiently few that it should not be a significant part of the debate.

[BrotherIvan]

11. Yes, I understand the current NRA/Gunner talking point about false flags

Your post read that the 40 deaths in the article are insignificant. Statistically, yes. For humanity and our society, NO.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

17. No, definitely insignificant for your society.

"For humanity" is empty & meaningless rhetoric, obviously.

3 deaths a year are significant for the approximately 3500 humans (give or take an order of magnitude) who are affected by them, and are not significant for the other 99.999% of America's humans.

30,000 deaths a year, by contrast, affect about 10% of America's humans every year. That *is* enough to have a meaningful effect on society as a whole, and to justify policies with a significant cost to reduce.

[BrotherIvan]

22. If we only base the worth of our citizenry on statistics, we are fucked

40 deaths by domestic terrorists is a call for action, 30k deaths per year is appalling and a flashing neon sign of national shame. It seems as though we both agree there needs to be something done, yet are disagreeing about some details. I don't truly care, as long as we begin to stop this madness.

[G_j]

8. facepalm!

[Starry Messenger]

7. Because we don't want to kill people?

[kelliekat44]

18. Or starve people, or belittle people, or keep people poor, or keep people ignorant...

or scare people, or hate different people.

[Octafish]

9. Parenting.

The right makes kids feel that the Other is the enemy and must be watched, policed or killed.

The left makes kids feel that the Other is also a special person and must be treated as a fellow human being.

[steve2470]

13. excellent answer Octafish, you win the thread ! nt

[G_j]

16. well said

that is really what it boils down to. Compassion and empathy for others (and the environment)

[DirkGently]

43. Yes. And, liberals fear those with more power

then they; conservatives fear those with LESS.

We punch up; they punch down. We fear wealthy corporations; they fear immigrant workers. We protest Wall Street non-violently; they assassinate doctors in church and slaughter cops eating pizza.

What's stupid is, the angriest rightwing clowns aren't getting hurt by immigrants or welfare recipients or Muslims or abortion clinics, and if anything, they tend to get more government benefits in those deep red states.

Their targeting is off and their information is bad. Their instinct that someone's out to get them is correct; they're just confused about who that is.

[steve2470]

12. I think the left is far more represented in academia and "high IQ circles" than the right

That's my impression anyway. I have no data to back that up ATM. Academia is not known for violence, not physical violence anyway

[Savannahmann]

14. Irrelevant

You see, the aforementioned people are merely asshats who would crap their pants if they ever faced the police. Some even referred to them as Dilettantes.

So these RW Shooters can't be dangerous, or a trend, or anything. Because you see, the armed people at the Bundy Ranch were just a handful of wimps who wanted to use women and children as shields, and would run home terrified if a helicopter hovered over their heads and dumped paint on their heads.

So I really don't understand all these posts which are clearly spreading FUD about the RW and how big of a threat they are. I've had it explained to me several times that I had no idea what I was talking about when I said they were dangerous a couple months ago. So these threads are totally inappropriate. This issue has been decided. There is no need for further discussions.

[TBF]

15. There is no far left in this country -

not in any organized fashion anyway. Even the CPUSA endorsed Obama for president - that is hardly indicative of a revolutionary party. Our leftists were purged by Palmer and McCarthy.

[FiveGoodMen]

19. Our 60's leftists were mostly lured away by yuppieism.

[TBF]

24. Well they weren't the hard-core labor/socialists/communists

As far as the counter-culture of the 60s I'd be hard-pressed to call that "far left". Perhaps revolutionary in a cultural sense but the hippies of the 60s were more about civil rights/womens rights etc than economic equality (although these rights are important also - no intention to downplay that important work). But the hard core socialists/communists fighting for the rights of working folks were long gone.

Palmer Raids - arresting and deporting leftists in the US - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmer_Raids
McCarthyism (2nd red scare) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism

Some of our leftist heroes:

Eugene V. Debs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_V._Debs
Emma Goldman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_Goldman
Lucy Parsons http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_Parsons
William Z. Foster http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Z._Foster
James P. Cannon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_P._Cannon

[DirkGently]

20. Strange date window. Go back to 1995 & you have Oklahoma City

... the largest domestic terror attack in American history -- 168 killed, plus another 680 injured, by a pair Sovereign Citizen-minded rightwingers.

In 1996, another rightwinger set off a bomb at the Atlanta Olympics, killing 1 and injuring 111. The bomber was a religious fundamentalist who also bombed gay clubs and abortion clinics.

So, first of all, it's more like a couple of hundred people, not a few dozen.

Rightwing domestic terrorism has been with us a long time now, and has far outshadowed the spate of leftwing violence emanating from the protest movements of the 1960s.

Why? A fear of the loss of cultural dominance, and a string of huge losses in social policy, dating back to the Civil War, maybe?

Listen to the current crop of We Hate The Government people, and their grievances all revolve around the idea that something has been taken from them; that it's not "their country" any more.

Compounding that now, though, we have a new, deliberate reinterpretation of the Second Amendment, embraced with religious gusto, that says that the Founding Fathers intended people to carry guns around as a hedge against government intrusion, and that you can never be armed enough to be safe.

[IronLionZion]

39. Most white Americans forget about the KKK as well

who held a reign of terror, murder, and violent oppression over Americans on American soil for political and socio-economic purposes.

[DirkGently]

40. They blew up little girls in church in Birmingham, as I recall.

I don't forget the Klan. It may be impossible for any terrorist group to catch up with its record.

But even limiting ourselves to the past few decades, domestic terror comes from the rightwing. The plane into the IRS building -- lauded by Iowa's Congressman Steve King. The Sikh shooting. The plot a couple of years back to set off a bomb filled with rat-poison-soaked ball bearings at an MLK parade. The Tiller assassination.

Somehow we never publicly, en masse, connect those dots. The presumption remains: Conservatives' hearts are in the right place. Liberals are wiggy "radicals."

When does that set of assumptions get reversed?

Why hasn't Glenn Beck been called out by major news organizations for promoting FEMA deathcamps and the impending war about taxes and all of that?

Where is the reporting on the absolute bloodthirsty crazy-pantsedness of Alex Jones, who has people mocking and threatening the parents of school shooting victims as "actors?"

Why is that rightwingers can "slyly" scoot riiiight up to the line of calling for violent revolt, based on complete and utter lies, and it goes in the "political pundit" bucket, but OWS protesters get scoped and tracked and gassed?

GLENN: They had scary gates, we’ll show you the deal. They had prison bars and these turnstiles that were leading right into what they claimed were gas chambers.

MEIGS: Yes, actually those turnstiles aren’t there anymore but that was a, it was a work facility and that was there. They had some kind of magnetic pass cars or something like that to let people around.

GLENN: When you say work facility, that was for the Americans that were taken when they were to work?

MEIGS: That was for the people who were repairing the trains and if you think about it

GLENN: Why would they need prison bars and turnstiles like that?

MEIGS: Well, the turnstiles to me look a lot like the turnstiles they have to get into the New York subway.

GLENN: Trains. Interesting that that happens to be a common theme here, also used by Hitler, trains.

http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/23656/

[Contrary1]

21. Because the Far Left doesn't have multiple radio and TV "personalities" egging them on.

Then there is Cruz, Palin, Paul(s), etc...

[JoeyT]

23. The far left isn't really set up for that sort of thing anyway.

If tomorrow Thom Hartmann or Rachel Maddow started urging people to blow up a government building, they'd run out of listeners before anyone bothered to do it. The left doesn't take orders from above. Many of us straight up don't recognize anyone as being above anyone else. IMO, the thing that infuriates party loyalists so much is what keeps the left from blowing shit up.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

29. There is no "Far Left"....

[alfredo]

35. Anyone left of Palin is the far left.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

44. Great,....now I gotta watch "Nailin' Palin" to see who was on the left.

[alfredo]

46. I'm going to have to pour bleach in my brain to

Banish that image.

[lsewpershad]

25. Because they

are allowed to get away with it.

[pinto]

27. There's that, too.

[pinto]

26. They are scared. (nt)

[Spitfire of ATJ]

28. Duh,....because they are motivated by hate and fear.

[PowerToThePeople]

30. Palin?

[Lobo27]

31. It's because they are insane...

I was just on youtube seeing a video where Alex Jones was being the victim. Crying he was blamed for the 2 cops killed. He then goes to say 300k cops will die and that civil war is coming. The comments were insane, saying people needed to die and Obama was unleashing a muslim herd upon American. How can you possibly reason with that insanity.

[ancianita]

32. They believe in force, hierarchy, patriarchy and money as the ruling frameworks from top to bottom.

[alfredo]

34. They have God on their side, and that gives them total license.

[Nye Bevan]

36. Leftists realize that any kind of violent revolution is unthinkable, and unnecessary,

and recognize the importance of working within our democratic system, not outside of it.

[The2ndWheel]

42. You can probably just stop at the first one

Unnecessary or working within the system don't have much to do with it in my mind. Violent revolution is basically unthinkable, as there's no end game to it. There's no breaking away from something. There's no outside of the system anymore. There's nowhere to go.

[el_bryanto]

37. There's more of them

It depends on what you mean by the far right and far left -but people who are so ideologically driven that they believe that violence is an acceptable tactic, exist on both sides of the fence - but in much greater numbers on the right side.

Bryant

[SoCalDem]

41. Fearful ignorant people are just that way..n/t

[betterdemsonly]

45. They have a long tradition to draw on

going back to the civil war. It really does boil down to white supremecy and neoconfederate ideas. The American left, doesn't really draw on Revolutionary Marxism and Anarchism, like the Euro left does, though that may be changing with the growth of online Anarchism.

[ThoughtCriminal]

47. Because non-violence has historically worked better for us

"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent." - (from Foundation - Asimov)