This is why they're deleting studies [View all]

[littlemissmartypants]

This is why they’re deleting studies

— The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social) 2025-09-16T23:50:47.462Z

Is “radical-left” violence really on the rise in America

Sep 12th 2025

5 min read
ON SEPTEMBER 10th Charlie Kirk, a right-wing activist, was shot dead while speaking at a university in Utah. Although a suspect is in custody, the motive of the killer is still unknown. President Donald Trump, who has himself been the target of gunmen, pinned the blame on rhetoric from the “radical left”. Assessing political violence in America is inherently subjective: analysts must determine which forms of violence count as political and assign ideological labels to attackers or victims. But the studies and datasets available—largely compiled by researchers whom sceptical conservatives would probably dismiss as biased—suggest that the killing of Mr Kirk is not representative of broader trends.

Distinguishing madmen and militants is never simple, but the Prosecution Project, led by Michael Loadenthal of the University of Cincinnati, analyses felony criminal cases involving political violence to see which ideologies are most common. The project examines criminal complaints, indictments and court records, looking for crimes that seek “a socio-political change or to communicate” to outside audiences, says Mr Loadenthal. Its data show that extremists on both left and right commit violence, although more incidents appear to come from right-leaning attackers (see chart 1). The figures do not, however, capture the severity of the crime nor the death toll. In 2001, for instance, there were more cases of right-wing violence than attacks by Islamists, even though the September 11th attacks by al-Qaeda killed almost 3,000 people that year.

One paper by Celinet Duran of the State University of New York at Oswego studied political violence between 1990 and 2020. It found that there were far more frequent and deadly attacks by the hard-right than the hard-left, although left-wing violence increased throughout the study period. A separate tally by the Anti-Defamation League, an advocacy group, shows that 76% of extremist-related murders over the past decade were committed by those on the right. Such tallies, however, depend on how extremism is defined and how ideology is assigned. The ADL uses public records such as media reports and police filings to reach their numbers. But those who commit violence often leave a messy trail of resentments that defy easy classification, and some are clearly mentally ill.

There is no single definition of political violence and no federal database. The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), another research outfit, defines it as the use of force with political purpose or effects. By its count 37 people have been killed in such attacks in America this year, and 373 since 2020. The incidents it classifies as political range from a July shooting in midtown Manhattan, when a man killed four people in the NFL’s headquarters, blaming the league for his alleged brain injuries; to more straightforward attacks, such as the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staff in Washington.
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https://archive.ph/p7dF8
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2025/09/12/is-radical-left-violence-really-on-the-rise-in-america?taid=9c96d491-67e3-4365-9911-6676b8f282a3