Welcome, my dear readers, once again to the asylum. This week, we will be discussing political violence and the myth that it is primarily a right-wing thing. I do agree that there has been political violence from both sides, and right-wing violence does tend to kill more people, but just because the right is more effective doesn’t mean they commit more total acts of violence than the left. The “studies” that people like to use to prove the right are a more violent narrative all have massive flaws. Some downplay leftist political violence by classifying all events surrounding the summer of love riots as either peaceful protests or civil disobedience and not political violence, and only use body counts to determine the level of violence, excluding car burning, rape, looting, and other violent acts from their calculations. Another strategy is classifying all Looney Tunes shooters that don’t have a discernible agenda but have ever registered to vote as Republicans as political violence. Finally, they use very tight timelines (you see this with the global warming people, too), starting in the mid-90s, to avoid the political violence of the Weather Underground and other groups of the 70s and 80s, and end before the 2020 riots, if they don’t excuse them entirely. While I do intend to prove the studies are nothing more than political hack jobs, even if I fail that, there is one key difference between the left and right regarding political violence and that is the libertarian\right people condemn political violence regardless of who perpetrates it while the left openly encourages, supports, and cheers political violence so long as it is for their cause.
With multiple assassination attempts on President Trump, the assassination of Charlie Kirk, and constant calls for violence or cheering violent acts by leftists, including elected officials, on social media (here, here, and here), as we slip from the 5th generational culture war into the morass of a full-on 4th generational Civil War, it is more important than ever to disconnect from the propaganda machine that is the mainstream media, be seriously situationally aware, and be prepared to defend yourself at all times.
To start, we need to define political violence, and honestly, it isn’t much different than terrorism. Political violence is the use of physical force, coercion, or intimidation to achieve political goals. Terrorism is the calculated use of violence or the threat of violence to intimidate or coerce a civilian population to achieve political, religious, or ideological goals. I am just a poor redneck hick, but for all intents and purposes, they are the same thing, especially when conducted by non-state actors. The only real difference is that political violence tends to exclude religious motivation, while terrorism could be motivated by politics or religion. As a result, any violence that is random without a stated goal, is related directly to criminal intent, or is done for religious reasons, should be discounted when discussing political violence. We should include any act or threat of violence made with the intention of stimulating a political result.
One of the most commonly cited sources for the narrative that rightwing folks are more politically violent in America is the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) (here), which shows that in 2025, for the first time in 30 years, the left is far more violent than the right. It doesn’t matter if you accept the numbers for the previous 30 years (we will get to them), but they show clearly that something is up on the left. Sadly, this is the most honest source. Another source is a report by the CATO Institute (here), and lastly the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) (here). I am including all of the sources commonly used so you can read them for yourself and decide if my criticism is justified or just hot air. The first problem is that all of these reports use body counts as their primary metric. So, if there are 10 leftist riots with 100 cars burned, 200 stabbings, and a billion dollars in property damage, but nobody dies; then there is one guy pissed off because a liberal judge has barred him from seeing his 12-year-old son while mom mutilates him into a caricature of a girl, who shoots up a pride event killing 6. All of these sources would count that as more right-wing violence than left-wing.
The CSIS report doesn’t show any of its data and reports itself as its own source; this makes their claim of 5 leftist attacks and one rightwing attack in 2025, as well as their past 30 years of data, suspect. While the report doesn’t tell us what is counted, it does include an appendix that shows some of what wasn’t counted. All of the attacks on Tesla dealerships and Tesla owners were not counted as political violence, but economic vandalism without political motivation. It goes on to say that an arson attack on the Pennsylvania Governor’s home, the murder of Israeli Embassy staff in DC, and the firebombing of a pro-Israel march in Colorado were ethno-nationalist incidents, not leftist political violence? All while pro-Palestine protests nearly shut down college campuses and Jewish students were frequently accosted (here and here). They also do not count any of the ICE riots, the shooting of ICE agents, or other immigration related violence by ANTIFA or other left-wing political violence. At least if no one was killed, it just doesn’t rise to the level of trying to effect political change with violence, according to the report. Note, they only counted eight incidents of leftist political violence in all of 2020 because the Summer of Love riots didn’t involve lethal force, never mind the people who died as a direct result of the fiery but mostly peaceful protests. They don’t count leftist school shooters, even those who left manifestos citing the desire for political change as motivation, because those are personal grievances, of course. The icing on the cake is that the shooter who tried to kill Trump in Pennsylvania was also not politically motivated because he had also done a Google search for Joe Biden. So, the shooting was a mix of personal issues, not political violence. You can’t make this shit up. It should be clear to any rational person that the CSIS report is nothing but a narrative supporting garbage with little basis in reality.
CATO says effectively the same thing and isn’t much better. CATO also refuses to provide its data, sources, or methodologies, and openly says it focuses only on deaths and discounts injury or property damage as not crucial to its findings. Just by the fact that CATO only counts casualties and then only the total number rather than the number of events that generated them, it must also be seen as highly suspect, if not irrelevant. Its finding is essentially that there isn’t really that much political violence, and right-wing people are more lethal, trust us, bro.
This brings us at last to the ADL, and it is crazy, both only focusing on deaths, and then not counting any leftist homicides at all. Luigi Mangione, the guy who killed an insurance CEO, doesn’t count. The Zizian Cult murders don’t count, and the attempts on Trump’s life don’t count. However, the ADL does count two white supremacists killing prison guards in an attempted breakout as political violence (I would think the motive there was to escape, not racial supremacy or political change). They also
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Thoughts from the asylum to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.