IMO has more to do with what Americans have to lose, and gain by committing violence. There's a recognition even among the most violently groomed young men on the right that they still have alot to lose in life if they actually act. Then there is the issue of religion which is what you have to gain if you lose your freedoms or your life. Religion is key to violence in many cases because the perceived benefits of what you are gaining in the afterlife. In my experience here in the US, the toxic angry men playing call of duty for 8 hours a day and wearing American flag + skull under armor t-shirts aren't the same people who are in the ultra religious right social circles.... yet. The folks that attend the hard right activist Jerry Followill type of churches typically are your suburban driving soccer moms. Their young boys and dads will surely be gun people potentially, but not at the level of the guys who instead of going to church, go out to the deer lease with their bros so they can use the N word in every sentence, unload 1000 rounds, drink beer, and show each other your d*cks. So I think the thing that really is saving us from violence on the left is the venn diagram not yet connecting hardcore religion with the hardcore violent base of young men in this country. It isn't however saving us from Mass shootings with the one-off people who instead of committing suicide, decide to take it a step further. Right now we have a suicide rate of 18 per 1000 for young men. You can do the math on the population of gun nuts young men in the US, and run the same suicide rate, and shock yourself with an alarming number of threats to commit mass shootings. Only 2% of 2 million people is still an alarming number of threats at any given time we have out there at any given time. So yeah... separation of church and state, and being able to root out the corrupt religious leaders in this country is key to preventing future violence. At some point the religious leaders, if left unchecked, will tap into that young angry dude demographic, and we have a recipe for disaster. Either that or we hit a terrible recession, and economically people have much less to lose. Keep the economy strong, root out corruption within religious circles, and start curbing assault weapon access.... and we'll be a much safer country with little risk to mass political violence.
I don't think that is true. The Left are the ones who congratulate the Mullahs in Iran, who support Hamas, etc. The Right is more aligned with Israel.
This isn’t true. The liberals definitely have the select few who do what you said, but in general there is very little policy daylight between republicans and democrats with regards to Israel. but that wasn’t my point. I didn’t say American republicans supported islamists, I said that they are closer to each other on the ideological spectrum. leftists who support Islamist’s definitely don’t do so because they share ideological beliefs.
I see a lot more support for Hamas from the Left than from the Right. Just one example. Same with the Mullahs in Iran. And Leftists are usually completely silent when it comes to oppression of women and gays by Islamists. It's a really weird thing. They get angry with fundamentalist Christians, but when a Muslim does the same thing/something worse, they get confused, because they see Muslims as victims so they don't dare to criticize them. Here's a book recommendation for you:
This is profound well sources academic work right here. Yes the left believes a nation state with a modern military that keeps a population of people in certain zones who don't have sovereignty over their own air space, water supply, electricity etc trapped as oppressive. It has absolutely nothing to do with religion. Like the best example of your narrative is probably that Ben Affleck clip on Bill Maher's show.
Is a leftist or a Muslim going to be more concerned about some story they heard of teachers grooming kids to be gay?
I think I understand the disconnect here. You cannot fathom a emphatic mindset that people you disagree with deserve basic rights. If a group of millions of evangelical Christians who routinely advocate for the imprisonment of homosexuals for example were confided to open air prisons where they have no sovereignty over their food supply, water supply, electrical grid, airspace etc and we're extremely limited in their freedom of movement I would advocate for them and support their causes to be removed from such conditions even though I vehemently disagree with their ideology. This is a concept that I think you have difficulty grasping. For you, in that situation would probably believe they deserve it.
The point @justtxyank made is correct. It's the right-wingers in Iran who are most militantly anti-West. They are the ones who were cheering the assassination attempt against Rushdie. Generally speaking, left-wingers are far more likely to be sympathetic towards and defend those who, from their vantage point, are disempowered or oppressed. The power relationships that they focus on will depend on where they are situated and who they are interacting with and having influence over.
My theory has always been that the extreme right-wing people and extreme left-wing people are actually closer and more similar to each other than either of them is to moderates. At the end of the day, "right" and "left" are just labels. One thing both extreme right-wing and extreme left-wing folks have in common is that they are anti-freedom. And I am pro-freedom. So I dislike all the wingnuts, whether they call themselves right or left.
You also might have an issue with self reflection. In America, moderat a and indepdents don't have "wokeism" anywhere in the top 20 of their agenda list of issues with this country. You are part of that wing nuts crowd. You watch and listen to the same content as wignuts. Sit down. You might want to hear this because it's a shocker. Moderate Americans don't believe leftist school districts are turning kids gay. And as someone who actually has spent considerable time in actual right wing bubbles(Marine Infantry) and left wing bubbles(Amherst MA) I can tell you that there is little to no resemblance.
CNN disagrees. https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/12/politics/woke-green-new-deal-defund-the-police/index.html You are simply wrong.
