17 Comments

So many people refer to 'antifa' as if it were an organized group the way that the Proud Boys are. I haven't seen it.

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Fascinating. And if you view it all through the lens of gender, what proportion of such violent incidents are perpetrated by MALES? I would venture that it must be 95% or higher.

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Outstanding research that is much needed. Now I have reputable data to use against the scourge of far right trolls, antisemites, racists, and all the haters that come for me. Thank you!

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Does the decline in alleged 'far left' violence correlate with that it is the 'far right' whose politics and concerns have driven the rise of populist governments like Trump's, Bolsonaro's, Orban's, etc. from about 2005? These governments have formed because populist leaders/opportunists recognise that (and I'd argue that's because neoliberalism has ruled the economic paradigm for over 40 years) power is now well and truly vested in the right's sense of dispossession. Thus the opportunist populist leader can play to the right's natural suspicion that they are being stripped of hegemony, power, agency.

Could it be that the far right is bewildered by change and resents liberal humanist progression?

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I fail to see how jihadist terror is not right-wing terror. The perpetrators are religiously conservative, homo/trans-phobic, misogynistic, anti-Semitic, authoritarian/anti-democratic, and kill in the name of their God. How is this different from your typical right-wing terrorist?

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This study is a good complement to your research

Robert Pape, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, has been gathering information on rioters who faced prosecution for their involvement on January 6. He and his “little army of researchers” have analyzed 890 insurrectionists and the 439 counties in 47 states from which they came. The rioters were 92 percent white and 86 percent male. Only 14 percent had extremist ties. They were far less likely to be unemployed or have a criminal record than right-wing protesters arrested earlier in the Trump era. They were also older, mostly in their 40s and 50s. But what especially jumped out to Pape and his colleagues was that more than half were from counties that Joe Biden won. The more rural a county was, and the more its voters favored Trump over Biden, the less likely it was to produce an insurrectionist.

There was another striking common denominator: The more a county’s white population declined, percentage wise, the more likely it was to send a would-be rioter to the Capitol. “Race is the primary factor,” Pape says, accounting for “as much as 75 percent of the energy underneath the insurrectionist movement.” It’s not that the rioters were duped by Trump, but that his lies found fertile ground amid their fears. “The word ‘disinformation’ is off,” Pape says. “It’s about demographic change and whether you’re afraid of it or not.” https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/01/trump-jan-january-6-insurrection-big-lie-white-supremacy-confederate/

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I hate it when politicians are asked to condemn rightwing violence which they may have helped to incite, and come out with ‘I condemn violence from all sides’ (or similar). By doing so they knowingly give a free pass / thumbs-up to the perpetrators. We know what they really mean, but we cannot take action on this insight.

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"Notably, the low number of fatalities at the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, has been attributed by some researchers not to a lack of willingness or desire to kill, but to the fact that most of the far-right extremists who were there that day left their guns at home since possession of a firearm in D.C. is a federal offense."

Since no one else seems to have noticed, I will proudly be the first to highlight the stunning acumen displayed in this sentence. Behold: the dividends of decades of scholarly work that shine forth in this one penetrating insight into the motives of homicial maniacs.

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This is great reporting. Can I ask if you know how /if the Dallas 2016 shootings of police officers were coded? While Micah Johnson was motivated by the killing of black men by police, I don't know if his ideology could be described as black separatist, nationalist, etc.

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I agree and of course it's not a simple binary; right wing = bad, left wing = good. But of course, violence and all the 'isms thrive on simple binaries. See my commentary on how right wing extremism and nationalist populism utilise the 'population time bomb' (threat = global south) as divisive clarion call on https://sjkimberwrites.net/2022/11/30/population/

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Spot on - the 'perfect space' indeed. As Hitler took advantage of well established divisions in Germany so too do opportunist characters like Trump et al adopt the gripe. Social media amplifies and accelerates the process.

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40+ murders and 2+ billion in property damage courtesy of BLM & Antifa terrorists. But but but Mostly Peaceful right? Who runs the global pedophile rings? Democrats and leftists to whom Love is Love, especially when sodomizing a 2 year old...

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Nov 28, 2022·edited Nov 28, 2022

I am surprised at the way ''antifa'' (anti-fascism) is used these days. Go back to the 1940's,during WW2 and antifa could describe our forefathers fighting against fascism,just as the word describes,and that was against germany/nazism because they were trying to spread fascism. I have been amazed at how many people think antifa is actually a ''hate group'' of sorts,to me it is idealism of a certain belief. But then again,if the republicans are against it,i say it must be a good thing,,lol. (which it is,i don't want to live in a fascist country) I say,if you are against the idea of ''antifa'',, you are a fascist,plain and simple,,just like people wanting to ''de-fund'' the police or FBI just might be criminals.

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