Who’s Committing Political Violence?
"Who's Committing Political Violence?"
The Facts
>> Sources
Many people and groups from all political persuasions commit political violence, but recent studies clearly show that right-wing violence is much more prevalent in terms of real-world cases resulting in death. What we believe after scrolling social media or watching endless news channels, and what the real-world data shows, are often not aligned.
None of us want to believe we’ve been a victim of propaganda. Ask yourself, do you truly only care about the facts?
The Details
The News Versus the Police Reports
We are confronted with dramatic differences between the groups we are told by the government and media are committing acts of political violence, and what the data actually shows. Equally disturbing, in the United States we find shocking similarities between levels of violence from both right-wing and Islamist attacks—Islamist extremists being a group that right-wing pundits are quick to identify as extraordinarily violent. The least prone to violence in the study? Immigrants.
This may come across as nearly unbelievable to many conservatives, likely due to the pervasive narrative of “the left” as violent extremists, and the right as rational and pragmatic. We frequently see accusations that a particular murder was committed “by the left” or an ominous “they” before a suspect is even named. The pundits erect the gallows for the “other” before police have even established a motive—guilty unless proven otherwise.
But where is the evidence to back up these claims? What does the data actually show?
The Numbers
The comprehensive PNAS study analyzed two major databases of political extremism and delivered findings that demolish the “violent left” narrative completely. Radical acts perpetrated by individuals associated with left-wing causes are 68% less likely to be violent than their right-wing counterparts.
When researchers examined documented cases of politically motivated violence rather than media speculation, the evidence became undeniable. These are peer-reviewed findings examining real-world violent behaviors across ideological lines, not partisan talking points or hypothetical scenarios. The data exposes how dramatically the media narrative diverges from documented reality.
While pundits obsess over antifa protests and campus disruptions, the actual body count tells a different story entirely. In the U.S. sample, right-wing supporters represented 59% of cases, yet showed dramatically higher violence rates than the 23% who were left-wing adherents.
The Uncomfortable Truth About Domestic Terrorism
The most damning finding reveals stunning hypocrisy: in the United States, researchers found no statistical difference between the level of violence perpetrated by right-wing and Islamist extremists. Read that again—the same people demanding extensive security spending and surveillance programs to combat Islamic extremism remain silent about a domestic threat that matches it exactly.
While Islamist extremists do engage in deadlier attacks globally, within U.S. borders, right-wing extremists close that gap completely. The researchers documented a clear upsurge in right-wing political extremism worldwide, yet media coverage and government resources remain disproportionately focused elsewhere.
This isn’t just statistical curiosity—it’s a dangerous blind spot that leaves our communities vulnerable to hate-motivated attacks while politicians chase lesser threats. The historical data makes this even more concerning: while left-wing extremism peaked in the 1970s, both right-wing and Islamist extremism have dwarfed their left-wing counterparts in recent decades, meaning current threat assessments are outdated and dangerously biased.
The System That Protects Its Own
These findings reveal systematic failure to acknowledge domestic terrorism when it doesn’t fit predetermined narratives. When violence comes from the right, it’s dismissed as isolated incidents by troubled individuals, but when it comes from anywhere else, it’s evidence of broader conspiracy requiring extensive government response. The data shows this framing is not just wrong—it’s lethally backwards.
This study shows that extremism on the left more commonly manifests as property damage rather than murder. While the news focuses on an overturned car burning, we miss the murders committed by right-wing extremists during those same periods.
This systematic blind spot appears deliberate. A government and media apparatus that emphasizes threat perception and group divisions serves to entrench existing power structures while misdirecting resources. While law enforcement agencies monitor left-wing activists who statistically pose minimal violent threat, the actual perpetrators of political violence continue their attacks with far less scrutiny.
The implications demand serious examination: if we can’t honestly assess where this violence originates, how can we effectively prevent it?
Sources
Katarzyna Jasko, Gary LaFree, James Piazza, and Michael H. Becker
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 119 (30) e2122593119
July 18, 2022