Here’s an eye-opening survey from American National Elections Studies that blows the lid off the media narrative that the right is more of a threat to commit violence for political purposes than the left. The study has been conducted before and after U.S. general elections since 1948.
Participants were asked: “How much do you feel it is justified for people to use violence to pursue their political goals in this country?” Respondents could answer with “Not at all,” “A little,” “A moderate amount,” A lot,” and “A great deal.” The study has a total of 8,280 interviews that were conducted before the 2020 presidential election.
Bestselling author and University of Toronto psychology professor Jordan Peterson posted a revealing graph online.
Bad. And getting worse? pic.twitter.com/M2VCBBaeZh
— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) March 11, 2021
The survey found that 95.8% of “very conservative” white respondents said violence should never be used to pursue a political ambition, which was up from 93.3% in 2016. “Conservative” respondents were nearly identical, with 95% disavowing political violence in 2020 and 93.3% in 2016.
However, on the other end of the political spectrum, leftists are more likely to embrace political violence as a means to an end. According to the poll, only 66.5% of “very liberal” white respondents said it was wrong to use violence to attain their political goals. That means that over a third of “very liberal” Americans would justify using some or a “great deal” of violence to pursue their political goals. In the 2016 survey, the percent of “very liberal” respondents willing to endorse political violence was much higher at 86.9%.
There were 82.8% that identified as “liberals” who were against political violence, down from 88.1% in 2016.
It’s interesting that the more the left’s political power grows, the more supportive they are of political violence. You would think the opposite would be true. But maybe it shouldn’t really surprise us.
As the riots continued, night after night, week after week, month after month, Democrat after Democrat trotted out before a television camera, or onto a CNN or MSNBC set, to remind America that “far-right extremists” are far more likely to embrace violence as means to achieve political goals, and peaceful, “buy the world a Coke and teach it to sing in perfect harmony” Democrats were anything but.
In other words, the Democrat Party and its liberal media sock puppets told you not to believe your “lying” eyes, as you watched building after building torched, and small business after small business destroyed — many, permanently —along with the livelihoods of hardworking Americans who built those businesses.
Turns out the Democrats were the “misinformed” — not your eyes.
Political violence will be with us for the foreseeable future because some people see it as the only way to effect change. Whether it’s changing an election or all of American society, people have lost faith in the institutions that govern us.
And we’ve lost faith in having the ability to govern ourselves.
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