NY Times David Leonhardt: Most Extremist Violence Comes From the Right

[Tomconroy]

May 17, 2022

Author Headshot
By David Leonhardt

Good morning. The Buffalo killings are part of a pattern: Most extremist violence in the U.S. comes from the political right.


A memorial for the Buffalo shooting victims.Gabriela Bhaskar/The New York Times
‘Numbers don’t lie’
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:


Source: Anti-Defamation League
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.

https://messaging-custom-newsletters.nytimes.com/template/oakv2?campaign_id=9&emc=edit_nn_20220517&instance_id=61553&nl=the-morning&productCode=NN&regi_id=63878655&segment_id=92459&te=1&uri=nyt%3A%2F%2Fnewsletter%2F095cc587-8474-5c7c-834e-f5a99763488e&user_id=13ffad9bdbc094431ac6c5ff94c77b8c

[Novara]

1. "the political right"

This needs to be shouted from the rooftops. This needs to be repeated over and over again.

And then Congress needs to pass HR350. Get republicans on the record voting down a domestic terrorism law, I dare you, Congress.

[Takket]

2. BUT...but... ANTIIIIFFFFAAAAAAAAA!!!!

*head explodes*

[Pobeka]

3. "Most" ??? "Almost all" is a better descriptor. Language matters.

This is once again an example of how a couple of words can really change the meaning of a headline. And it's always (not most of the time, ...) biased to the favor of the right in the cases I see.

So many people don't even have time to read the article, so the headline becomes the entirety of the news they get.

[Baitball Blogger]

4. Did we just break the bothersiderism warp?

[blue sky at night]

5. Funny....

I can't put a finger on the "left" wing terrorists that committed murder or anything for that matter...oh, maybe it was jaywalking.

[Tomconroy]

6. The Anti defamation league chart didn't come through.

Last edited Tue May 17, 2022, 06:56 PM - Edit history (1)

It shows four left wing murders. I don't remember them either.

[maxsolomon]

7. The Scalise Shooting was a "Leftist" attack, but I don't think anyone died.

4% of 405 is 18 murders.

IIRC, we've discussed this previously - the "Leftist" nature of those 18 murders was tenuous. Black Nationalists were classified as "Leftists". Is Farrakhan "Left"? That's debatable.

For purposes of this report, the COE classifies Black nationalism as left-wing extremism. Black nationalist-related murders—almost all of police officers—constitute the great majority of the 18 murders over the past decade connected to left-wing extremism. Most of these occurred in just two years, 2016 and 2017.

https://www.adl.org/murder-and-extremism-2021#the-perpetrators

[Martin68]

8. Yet right wingers still bring up leftist radicals in the 60s.

[ancianita]

9. It's a cool chart covering almost 10 years.

[GoCubsGo]

10. Yeah, and the Obama Administration said the same thing more than a decade ago.

When Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano pointed this out in 2009, the Grifting Old Pedophiles tore her to shreds. Where was the NYT then?

[GenThePerservering]

11. Iin other news,

water is wet.

[Sick_n_Tired]

12. Action

We need action. NOW. We control Congress and Presidency. We need to pass another, more rigid and comprehensive assault weapons ban. Ammunition bans. Anything we can to prevent more atrocities. Handwringing won’t do it. Why isn’t legislation already on Biden’s desk??