Extreme Left Violence: A Rising Concern

[Dale00]

People are beginning to wonder where all the violent rhetoric from hard left groups may be leading. Hate is ugly no matter how self-righteous a hater feels. Those in the media who feed into it had best step back and do some self-examination.

...Levin wonder[ed] if...he’d overlooked a growing source of extremism: the far left. “At that point, I said we have something coalescing on the hard left,” ...

Wednesday morning’s shooting of Republican lawmakers at a baseball practice in Virginia seemed to raise the question again. The shooter, James T. Hodgkinson, was a Bernie Sanders-supporting man from Illinois with a record of anti-Trump rantings on social media. His politics have quickly become a talking point among some conservative pundits seeking a quick political score: proof of a looming leftist campaign against the government.

Experts in homegrown extremism say it’s not so simple — Hodgkinson had no known association to any left-wing extremist group. But they also say that the past few months have seen enough of a rise in politically motivated violence from the far left that monitors of right-wing extremism have begun shifting their focus, and sounding the alarm. ...

“I think we’re in a time when we can’t ignore the extremism from the Left,” said Oren Segal, the director of the Center on Extremism, an arm of the Anti-Defamation League. Over the past few months, the ADL, which hosts regular seminars on homegrown extremism for law enforcement officials, has begun warning of the rising threat posed by far-left groups, most recently at a seminar just this past Sunday. “When we have anti-fascist counterprotests — not that they are the same as white supremacists — that can ratchet up the violence at these events, and it means we can see people who are violent on their own be attracted to that,” Segal said. “I hate to say it, but it feels inevitable.”

The evidence is so far largely anecdotal. Levin says that since December 2015, he’s documented nearly two-dozen episodes in California where political events turned violent because of agitation on both sides, something he says he hardly ever saw before. Now, there are violent clashes on college campuses involving groups like Antifa, the anti-fascist group, taking on the alt-right; and aggressive anti-Trump rallies attended by members of the Redneck Revolt, a new pro-minority, anti-supremacist group that encourages its members to train with rifles. Online, hard leftists increasingly discuss politics in dire terms, and rationalize violence as a necessity— even the true inheritor of traditional progressive activism. (Or, in the case of the “Punch a Nazi” meme, a fun game.)...

In a recent interview with VICE News Tonight, a chapter leader of one newly formed anti-fascist group called Redneck Revolt said the group has taken up guns only in self-defense. “We are a response to a rise in politically motivated violence and intimidation against vulnerable communities,” said the chapter leader, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Mitch. “That doesn’t mean that we’re, like, looking for a fight. We’re just trying to defend ourselves.”...

Chris Hamilton, an expert on American extremist movements at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas, says anti-authoritarian sentiment may be blurring what once seemed to be clear ideological lines. “If you think about it, leftists never joined the National Rifle Association — unless they were radicals, they never thought about stockpiling weapons,” he said. “Ok. Well, maybe we’re entering a period where leftists will start thinking about things in that way, like the eco-radicals did in the ’70s.”

Hamilton says that as he browses far-left websites and listens to left-wing talk radio, he hears some of the same sentiments he’s been hearing for years on the right. “These days, that kind of sentiment is popping up in the middle and on the left; it’s not just in the sovereign citizen movement,” he said. “I’m really worried about rising civil strife in the U.S.”...

https://news.vice.com/story/extremism-experts-are-starting-to-worry-about-the-left

 

[Glocktogo]

The hate and violence on the left are nothing new as the article states. They have no right to claim moral superiority, but neither do we if we don't condemn those on the far right who spread hate.

 

[YukonGlocker]

The hate and violence on the left are nothing new as the article states. They have no right to claim moral superiority, but neither do we if we don't condemn those on the far right who spread hate.

agreed

 

[Dale00]

Good to see Ted Nugent backing off from his hateful statements.

The heart is deceitful - we need to guard against ever thinking that our "pro-active" hatred is righteous. Love is the proper "pro-active" mode for engaging others. Ideologies can be flawed, destructive or totally wrong but the people who espouse them are not the true enemy.

 

[YukonGlocker]

a colleague of mine (professor of art history) is receiving death threats from republican groups...it's mind-boggling

 

[tomthebaker]

Many, many cases of supposed "right wing hate" have been exposed as hoaxes too.

 

[YukonGlocker]

this one isn't a hoax, and some arrests have been made in the case...that being said, hoaxes are found in left and right, nobody has a monopoly on those either

 

[okie362]

IMHO (Okay maybe not so humble but...) There is more than enough hateful rhetoric and BS going round on extreme sides to cause some of our idiots on either side to slip off the edge. It needs to stop but it won't because too many gre up without a mother to tell them "If you can't say something nice STFU".

Be that as it may, the bastards that act on their self-righteous bias are solely to blame for their actions and should be held accountable for the same. No excuses, no exceptions.

 

[tomthebaker]

The Left has been showing violent tendencies for some time. Remember all the civil unrest after BHO was elected?

Neither do I.

 

[emapples]

a colleague of mine (professor of art history) is receiving death threats from republican groups...it's mind-boggling

Which republican groups ?