Take a stand on political violence

rambot said:

Not sure whether a side is more prone to violence but the right has demonstrably been .more violent over the last 15 years or so when it comes to political violence.

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RestoreTheJoy said:

Actually the left has been more violent recently, but that said, all political violence is wrong.

"Political violence from left-wing extremists exceeded attacks from right-wing extremists in the first half of 2025, according to a study from the bipartisan Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The study found five domestic terror attacks were committed by left-wing perpetrators from Jan. 1 to July 4, compared with just one — the murder of Minnesota state legislator Melissa Hortman and her husband — by right-wing perpetrators during that same period."

MSN

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Ophiolite said:

So, your take on this is that only extremists are violent. Interesting. I associate "extremists" with individuals who are deeply committed to changing matters forcefully and who are involved in thinking and planning how to proceed. Individuals, whose daily focus revolve around this. I think of extremist as very similar to activist.

From that perspective there is a large amount of political violence that can occur from the non-extremist, on both sides of the fence. That would account for very many more incidents that the number present in your smaller extremist Venn diagram, potentially distorting the validity of your conclusion.

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RestoreTheJoy said:

Extremist activists are the ones who are violent in the political realm. Everyone else either writes to congressmen or peacefully protests somewhere, standing around with signs.

No one who is committing violence, assaulting officers, attacking others, spitting on or screeching at anyone is a "deeply committed" rational person. Irrational people commit violence (unless they are just psychopaths/sociopaths and know full well what they are doing- get them off the street).

Show me news articles of non-extremists charged with/convicted of violent crimes.

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