The Wild Reed: September 2025

Saturday, September 20, 2025

Staying Strong in Trump’s Fascist America

If you have eight minutes to spare, the following video is both insightful and inspiring. It’s The Rational National’s David Doel highlighting Hasan Piker (aka HasanAbi) and his recent message in the wake of Trump’s attacks on speech.

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Brent Molnar on the the Silencing of Jimmy Kimmel: “This Is What Fascism Looks Like in Practice”
• Garrett Graff: “America Tips Into Fascism”
• Venice Williams on How We Get Through the Next Four Years
• Active Hope
• Marianne Williamson on the Need for “Radical Love” in Responding to Trump’s Dismantling of Democracy
• Hope and Courage – Christmas 2024
• Something We Dare Call Hope

The Goal of Spiritual Practice

Spiritual practice is to the mystical life what food and water is to the body. Just as we cannot survive very long without food and water, we cannot survive on the spiritual journey without a contemplative practice of some sort. It is the inner source of nourishment and growth, and it unites with the efforts of the divine, or the ultimate nature of the mind itself.

There are many forms of spiritual practice as there are individuals. Forms may differ, but the goal is the same: integration and transformation. To achieve authentic spirituality, genuine mysticism, we must adopt some form of spiritual practice.

– Wayne Teasdale
Excerpted from The Mystic Heart
New World Library, 1999
p. 141

Friday, September 19, 2025

A Poem That Remains Painfully Relevant

Notes Save the Children UK:

[The poem] “Don’t Mention the Children” was written in 2014 by the children’s author, poet and activist Michael Rosen following a Guardian report that the Israeli government had banned a radio advert naming children killed in Gaza.

Gaza is now the deadliest place in the world to be a child. Over 20,000 children have been killed by Israeli forces. The actual number is undoubtedly higher.

These children had names, and favourite subjects in school. They wanted to be teachers, doctors and astronauts when they grew up – the same as children in the UK and across the world.

They were, and still are, someone's everything: their entire universe.

We refuse to allow their suffering to become normalised. We must make their voices heard.

With Save the Children UK and Choose Love, we called on actors, presenters, activists and influencers to use their voices and platforms to ensure these children can never be erased.

The poem was written to expose the silencing of children’s suffering in the face of devastating violence. Since then, the situation for children has only grown worse. Its message remains painfully relevant today.

The great actress Vanessa Redgrave (pictured at right earlier this summer at a Gaza protest in the UK) begins and ends the following reading of “Don’t Mention the Children.”

As one YouTube commentator notes: “So happy to see Vanessa Redgrave finally vindicated for her stance decades ago. One speech in 1978 set back a promising career of a brilliant young actress. Now she is being respected and acknowledged by younger generations for her moral courage.”

James Greenberg on the Identity Politics of MAGA

James B. Greenberg is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Arizona, the Founding Editor of the Journal of Political Ecology, and the past president of the Political Ecology Society.

Earlier this week Greenberg published the following commentary on his substack. I find it to be a very informative and insightful piece. Perhaps you will too.

___________________

For a long time, I labored under the illusion that Republicans – once confronted with the true scope of Trump’s authoritarian ambitions and the depth of his betrayal – would come to their senses. I imagined a reckoning. I expected disillusionment. What I failed to grasp was that while I became disillusioned, they did not.

My mistake stemmed from a misplaced faith in rationality. I underestimated the degree to which the MAGA movement had metastasized into something more than politics: a cult, a brand, an identity. It is no longer about policy or governance. It is about who they are – and, more importantly, who they are not.

Like religions, these identities are not sustained only by belief, but by practice. Rallies, chants, merchandise, even memes function as rituals – repeated acts that anchor belonging. The community reinforces itself by marking who is inside and who is outside, who is pure and who is profane. Once politics takes on the rhythm of liturgy, it no longer depends on persuasion. It depends on repetition.

Christian Nationalism and the culture wars have become the scaffolding of this identity. These aren’t just positions; they are articles of faith. Religions rest on the acceptance of propositions that the faithful take to be unquestionably true – “God is One,” “Jesus Christ is our Savior.” To paraphrase Mark Twain, once someone believes something to be true, they’ll spend the rest of their life defending it – patching it, propping it up, shielding it from collapse.

Trump captured this dynamic with unsettling clarity: “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters.” That wasn’t a boast tossed off at a rally. It was recognition that once belief fuses with identity, loyalty is no longer conditional. It survives contradiction. It outlasts betrayal.

In this sense, loyalty to Trump mirrors the logic of domestic abuse. The victim internalizes blame, rationalizes harm, and defends the abuser. Even when the evidence is plain – Trump has not made America great again. He has re-engineered the economy to benefit the wealthy at the expense of his base – they persist in the belief that prosperity is just around the corner.

Anthropologists would recognize this as a revitalization movement: a promise of renewal offered to those who feel dispossessed, framed as a return to a lost golden age. At its center is a messianic figure, cast as uniquely chosen to redeem and restore. His failures become tests of faith, his betrayals reframed as sacrifices on the path to deliverance.

They are told that the undocumented stole their jobs, when in truth it was globalization, automation, and the erosion of labor protections. They are promised that tariffs will bring back manufacturing, despite decades of structural offshoring and corporate consolidation. These are not policy errors – they are narrative strategies, and their power lies in how they redirect anger away from the architects of economic abandonment. Deindustrialization, union-busting, and deregulation hollowed out communities, yet instead of naming corporate power or state retreat, the story fixes blame on scapegoats who cannot fight back. This is not just misdirection – it is a political economy of grievance, transforming material dispossession into cultural warfare.

So why can’t the spell be broken?

Because belief, once weaponized, becomes a fortress. It resists contradiction, metabolizes betrayal, and punishes dissent. The MAGA movement is not simply a political coalition – it is a system of meaning. And systems like that do not collapse under the weight of facts, but when the stories that sustain them lose their grip.

Collapse rarely comes from external critique. It begins within, when the story starts to fray – through promises of prosperity that never arrive, scandals that cut too deep, or the slow realization that the narrative no longer explains the world, no longer offers dignity, coherence, or agency.

Belief systems tied to identity are especially resilient. They absorb failure by reframing it as persecution. They turn betrayal into proof of righteousness. They survive not because they are true, but because they are useful – psychologically, socially, politically. And when alternative narratives emerge – ones that offer a clearer sense of self, a more honest reckoning with reality – they are met not with curiosity but with hostility.

This is why appeals to reason fall flat. The MAGA movement is not a debate. It is a worldview. And worldviews do not yield to evidence; they yield to rupture.

If rupture is rare, then resilience must be cultivated. Not through fact-checking alone, but through narrative reformation – stories that offer coherence without conspiracy, dignity without domination, and agency without scapegoating.

We have glimpses of what this looks like. When labor movements organize around dignity on the job rather than resentment of the outsider, they create belonging through solidarity. When local communities reclaim public institutions — schools, libraries, clinics – they generate meaning that resists privatization and fear. These efforts are fragile, but they remind us that counter-narratives are possible when they are lived as well as told.

That means confronting the architecture of belief not with contempt, but with clarity. It means recognizing that for many, MAGA is not a political position – it’s a survival strategy. And if we want to dislodge it, we must offer something more resilient than resentment. We must offer belonging.

The work ahead is not just political. It is anthropological, in how people make meaning together; ecological, in how survival depends on the world we share; and narrative, in how stories anchor belonging. And it begins with the courage to name what’s broken – and the imagination to build what comes next.

– James Greenberg
“Beyond Facts: The Identity Politics of MAGA”
James’s Substack
September 17, 2025

Photo of the Day

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• First Signs of “By Far the Most Paradoxical” Season
• September Garden
• Summer’s End (2024)
• Summer’s End (2021)
• Summer’s Parting Gift
• Eternal Summer

Image: Michael J. Bayly.

Thursday, September 18, 2025

Brent Molnar on the the Silencing of Jimmy Kimmel: “This Is What Fascism Looks Like in Practice”

As much as I love watching the comedy Abbott Elementary, I’ll be canceling my subscription to Hulu . . . and to Disney+ (which means no more rewatching of Andor). 😢

Why am I doing this? Because when entertainment conglomerates like Disney (which operates the ABC television network and the Hulu and Disney+ streaming services) are complicit in governmental attempts to suppress free speech, they should not be supported. As Brent Molnar writes: This is what happens when the state and corporate power merge to enforce one political line and erase dissent. . . . This is fascism."

Money talks. And it’s the only thing these companies listen and respond to. So please consider joining with me and many others in boycotting these companies and services.

Following is Molnar’s most recent commentary, one in which he describes the recent events that have led to a growing number of people “pulling [their] viewership and dollars away from ABC, Disney, Nexstar, and any advertiser that props up this silencing.”

_________________

There are moments when the curtain pulls back and you see the machinery of power in all its naked form. This week was one of those moments. Jimmy Kimmel did what late night hosts have always done. He cracked a monologue, skewered hypocrisy, and pointed out the absurdity of how the right has turned the murder of Charlie Kirk into a loyalty test. Within hours, his show was gone. Suspended. Pulled not because of low ratings, not because of scandal, but because powerful people did not like what he said. This is authoritarianism.

ABC announced the indefinite suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live! after pressure from affiliates and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The trigger was his criticism of the MAGA grief machine. He pointed out the grotesque spectacle of forcing a nation to perform mourning on command, while ignoring victims who are inconvenient to the narrative. He compared it to the staged grief of North Korea. And for that, he was yanked off the air.

The right erupted in outrage, demanding punishment, while the FCC’s Brendan Carr dangled the threat of license consequences. Nexstar, one of the largest station groups in the country, refused to air Kimmel’s show. That was the death knell. ABC folded, not because of principle, but because power demanded it. The result is chilling.

Let us be clear about what happened. A comedian pointed out a double standard. The government threatened regulatory retaliation. Corporate affiliates caved. The network silenced him. That sequence is not democracy. That sequence is fascism. It is what happens when the state and corporate power merge to enforce one political line and erase dissent.

The argument will be made that Kimmel was “insensitive.” That his jokes were “too soon.” That broadcasters have to be “responsible.” But responsibility is not what this is about. If it were, Fox hosts who spread lies that fueled insurrections would be gone. If it were, commentators who cheer for book bans and call immigrants “vermin” would not still be on prime time. The difference is not standards. The difference is whose speech serves power, and whose speech challenges it.

Free speech does not only mean the right to whisper in your living room. It means the right to challenge the narratives of those in power. Kimmel did that, and the machinery of politics and media made an example of him. To send a message not just to him, but to every other broadcaster: cross this line and you are next.

This is what fascism looks like in practice. Not always jackboots at your door, but the slow narrowing of the public square until only state-approved voices remain. It is the fusion of government pressure, corporate cowardice, and political intimidation. It is the chilling effect where comedians, journalists, and citizens alike learn to self-censor out of fear that speaking truth to power will cost them their platform, their livelihood, or their safety.

The stakes are bigger than Jimmy Kimmel. They are about whether dissent is allowed to breathe in America. If an FCC chair can publicly threaten a network over content and force them to silence a late-night comedian, what will happen to independent journalists? To dissident podcasters? To critics without the protection of Disney’s lawyers? The answer is simple. They will be crushed.

And this is not just about one night’s jokes. It is about the trajectory of a regime that increasingly treats criticism as treason, satire as crime, and disagreement as disloyalty. When authoritarian governments rise, they do not begin with mass arrests. They begin with silencing the voices that make people laugh, think, and question. They begin by erasing the entertainers who puncture propaganda. Because if you can control what people laugh at, you can control what they fear.

Jimmy Kimmel may come back. Or he may not. But the lesson has already been taught. The line has been drawn. Speak against the regime’s martyrs, and you will pay. That is the playbook. That is fascism, American-style.

The response must be louder than their censorship. Because silence is the point. They want us quiet, intimidated, atomized. We cannot let that stand. Share the stories. Support independent outlets. Back the creators and journalists who will not bend. And never let the absurdity of this moment be normalized. A country where comedians cannot tell jokes is a country already in collapse.

If you want to hit back in a way they will actually feel, the most direct step is to boycott the companies tied to this censorship. That means pulling your viewership and dollars away from ABC, Disney, Nexstar, and any advertiser that props up this silencing. Do not give them your time, your clicks, or your money. Cancel subscriptions, change your streaming habits, and tell their sponsors exactly why. These corporations believe they can silence dissent without cost. Let’s prove them wrong. Economic pressure is one of the last levers ordinary people still hold, and it works best when we use it together.

– Brent Molnar
via Brent Molnar: Voice of Reason
September 18, 2025

Marianne Williamson on the Need for “Radical Love” in Responding to Trump’s Dismantling of Democracy

“We Must Get Back to Our Hearts”

Author and former presidential candidate Marianne Williamson has been positively shaping the conversation around politics and spirituality for decades. I’ve come to greatly appreciate her informed and insightful perspective and synoptic vision.

Yesterday, Williamson was a guest on ABC’s News Live. Below is an excerpt from this interview. It’s followed by Williamson’s latest substack piece and an 8-minute video commentary she shared on social media this past weekend.

An Invisible Army of Decent Souls

By Marianne Williamson

Transform
September 17, 2025
Tn so many ways it’s actually getting worse. On the level of the external world, what Trump has done and is doing to this country is disastrous. For those of us who believe in the basic tenets of American democracy this is beyond our worst nightmares. He is chipping away at our freedoms, from due process to free speech. He is militarizing cities, extorting businesses, controlling cultural institutions. His personal paramilitary is terrorizing immigrants, grabbing innocent people and throwing them into concentration camps. The Supreme Court and Congress are giving him permission to do all of it. And he is threatening much more to come.

I say it’s getting worse “on the external level” because internally he cannot touch us unless we allow him to. In many ways, he is waking us up. Millions of people who hadn’t really thought about what freedom means, much less what it means to them personally, are thinking about it now.

I hope you’ll tell everyone you know, and make your plans now, to be at the next No Kings Protest on October 18th. This one needs to be massive. We need many millions of people on the streets of America, in a nonviolent show of extraordinary citizen power. See it in your mind’s eye as a sea of patriotism and love.

Pray it will be peaceful. Plan for it to be amazing. And remember you’re not alone. You’re part of an invisible army of decent souls.

Of course it’s hard.

Watching an entire rules-based order being demolished by such unworthy characters, right in front of our eyes, is soul-shattering. At times you feel motivated to push back, at other times the awfulness of the whole thing hits you like a ton of bricks. That’s okay. It’s normal to feel that way. The entire situation is an assault on our nervous system. Don’t blame yourself for feeling exhausted, or scared, or depressed about it all. When you feel such overwhelm, take a break and rest up. Prayer and meditation will help you adapt to the moment.

We will endure. Love will prevail. But we cannot give up.

PRAYER FOR THE EXHAUSTED

Dear God,
We surrender to You this difficult moment.
Pour forth Your spirit on our country and the world.
Lift our minds and hearts above the chaos.
Pour forth Your spirit on all of us,
and guide our feet to better days.

Amen.

_________________

This past Saturday, Marianne shared the following video commentary, one that includes a guided mediation for the times we are living through. In introducing this video, Marianne writes the following:

As we change our consciousness, we’ll change the world. As we surrender our anger, we’ll bring peace to the world. As we learn to love, we’ll heal the world.

I hope this meditation helps you shift your perceptions beyond fear to love. At the end of the video, try to remain several more minutes in the space of the Light beyond the body.

Love is the ultimate Answer, revealing our oneness in a realm beyond what we can see with our physical eyes. Nothing less will do. It’s the next stage of our humanity. It will save us from ourselves.

Wednesday, September 17, 2025

In the Garden of Spirituality – Wendy Benning Swanson

“We are not on earth to guard a museum,
but to cultivate a flowering garden of life.”

– Pope John XXIII

The Wild Reed’s series of reflections on religion and spirituality continues with an article by Wendy Benning Swanson, first published in the August-September 2025 issue of The Edge magazine. The focus of this article is on unity, “the sacred thread that connects us all.”

________________

Unity is the sacred recognition that we are all connected. In a world that often encourages separation and individualism, unity is not only radical; it is deeply healing. It reminds us of a truth that our souls have always known: we belong to each other.

This sense of connection isn’t just a comforting thought – it’s a principle found at the heart of many ancient traditions. In the Hermetic teachings, there is a guiding truth: As above, so below; as within, so without. This principle reveals that everything is interconnected, and what happens in one part of the whole affects the rest. When we understand this, we begin to see others not as separate from us, but as extensions of the same divine source. Their healing is our healing. Their peace is our peace.

The journey to unity begins within. So many of us have experienced moments where we felt disconnected or even unsafe in the world – emotionally, spiritually, or energetically. True unity cannot be forced or faked; it arises naturally when we cultivate a sense of safety inside ourselves. When we feel grounded, seen, and whole within, we are no longer threatened by difference or driven by fear. We become capable of deep connection.

One of the most powerful shifts I’ve experienced came when I began to study ancient teachings that emphasized self-mastery. These teachings, rooted in the Hermetic tradition, offer tools not just for understanding the world, but for transforming my inner landscape. The more I work with these principles, the more I begin to release the patterns that keep me in judgment, comparison, or isolation. I discover a deeper version of myself – one that is capable of trust, compassion, and unity.

Even more beautiful is how this inner work translates into my relationships. I found myself part of a global spiritual community where I feel truly connected. Whether gathering for classes, warrior training, or professional development, there is an unmistakable feeling of unity. It isn’t about knowing everyone’s life story. It is about recognizing the shared commitment to becoming more loving, more conscious, and more true to who we really are.

What surprises me most is how safe I feel among people I have just met. There is a silent understanding: we are all walking this path together. And because we each do the inner work to take responsibility for our own thoughts and emotions, there’s less drama, less projection. There’s space for authenticity. And that creates a profound sense of peace.

This, to me, is a glimpse of what a harmonious world could look like. Some might call it a vision of Shamballah – a world where peace, respect, and unity are not ideals, but realities we live every day. In such a world, we honor each other not in spite of our differences, but because of them. We see beyond the surface and recognize the soul within.

Unity doesn’t require us to be perfect. It asks us to be present. To be courageous enough to look within, soften the walls we’ve built, and remember that we are part of something greater.

When we live from unity, everything shifts. We make choices that serve the whole. We speak with more kindness. We listen with more heart. And slowly, the world begins to reflect back that same harmony.

Unity isn’t a destination – it’s a way of being. And when we align with unity, we don’t just change ourselves. We help heal the world.

– Wendy Benning Swanson
The Edge
August-September 2025

Tuesday, September 16, 2025

Bowing to an Idol

The Rev. Dr. Mark Sandlin is Minister of Word and Sacrament at Presbyterian Church of the Covenant in Greensboro NC. He also serves as co-host of The Moonshine Jesus Show and is the founder of The Christian Left, “a ministry for Christian progressives and their allies.”

Earlier today on social media, Rev. Sandlin shared the following on the travesty – and danger – of Christian nationalism in the United States.

________________

Christian nationalism loves to dress itself up as faith.

Wrap a Bible in a flag, pray at a political rally, drop Jesus’ name into a stump speech, and suddenly people call it holy. But Rev. Barber was right: when you sanctify wrong with God-language, you’re not worshiping God. You’re bowing to an idol.

That idol has a name. It’s empire.

And it’s nothing new.

The prophets railed against rulers who wrapped oppression in piety. Jesus himself stood toe-to-toe with empire, refusing to wave Caesar’s banner. He flipped tables, healed outsiders, and reminded us that Love is bigger than loyalty to the state.

The trick of Christian nationalism is that it takes something good (love of country, love of community) and twists it.

Suddenly, patriotism means excusing injustice.

Suddenly, the Beatitudes get traded for border walls.

Suddenly, loving your country means closing your eyes to its cruelty.

Suddenly, faith gets measured by political loyalty instead of compassion for the hungry, the sick, the stranger at the gate.

That’s not patriotism. That’s idolatry with better branding.

History is full of it: wars justified, slavery defended, oppression baptized, all because people blurred God and nation. And every time, it ended in blood and tears.

So let’s be clear. Love of neighbor never required allegiance to Caesar. It still doesn’t. Our calling isn’t to worship flags and borders. Our calling is to serve Love.

And idols (whether golden calves or star-spangled ones) don’t last.

Love does.

– Rev. Mark Sandlin
via social media
September 16, 2025

Related Off-site Links:
Charlie Kirk and Christian Nationalism – Stephanie Rutt (Concord Monitor, September 16, 2025).
The Gospel and the Specter of Christian Nationalism – Stewart Clem (Covenant, September 16, 2025).
Bishop William Barber Condemns Charlie Kirk Murder and the Right’s Religious Nationalism – Democracy Now! (September 16, 2025).
The Shameful Christian Idolatry and Fraudulent Martyrdom of Charlie Kirk – John Pavlovitz (The Beautiful Mess, September 12, 2025).
Charlie Kirk: From Secular Activist to Christian Nationalist Icon – Religion Media Center (September 11, 2025).
Charlie Kirk’s Toxic Legacy of Hatred and Division – Christopher D. Cook (Common Dreams, September 11, 2025).

UPDATES: Charlie Kirk, Redeemed: A Political Class Finds Its Lost Cause – Ta-Nehisi Coates (Vanity Fair, September 16, 2025).
Ta-Nehisi Coates on the Liberal Absolution of Charlie Kirk and the Lost Cause – The Benjamin Dixon Show (September 17, 2025).
Rep. Jasmine Crockett Doesn’t Hold Back About Who Charlie Kirk Really Was – John Iadarola (The Damage Report, September 18, 2025).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• “This Is What Fascism Looks Like”
• Trump's America: Normalized White Supremacy and a Rising Tide of Racist Violence
• What the Bible Really Says About Gender Justice
• Sufism: Way of Love, Tradition of Enlightenment, and Antidote to Fanaticism

Monday, September 15, 2025

Taylor Lorenz on the Real “Political Violence” in the U.S.

In introducing her most recent video commentary, journalist and author Taylor Lorenz says the following.

When a powerful right-wing figure like Charlie Kirk is attacked or killed, political leaders and media rush to mourn them as a martyr and condemn “political violence.”

But what does political violence actually mean? While violence against elites is treated as a national tragedy, violence against poor, Black, immigrant, queer, and disabled people is sanctioned. The truth is that political violence has always been part of life in America, but somehow it only becomes a “national emergency” when that violence threatens power.

In this video, I talk about the history of “political violence” in the U.S., what the term actually means in practice, how it’s weaponized, and what we need to do if we actually want to put a stop to it.

Related Off-site Links:
Israel, Charlie Kirk, and the Weaponization of Murder: An Interview with Max Blumenthal – The Chris Hedges Report (September 15, 2025).
Charlie Kirk Refused Netanyahu Funding Offer, Was “Frightened” by Pro-Israel Forces Before Death, Friend Reveals – Max Blumenthal and Anya Parampil (The Grayzone,September 12, 2025).
“Moment of Great Peril”: Jeff Sharlet on Killing of Charlie Kirk and Rising Political Violence in U.S. – Democracy Now! (September 11, 2025).
Charlie Kirk’s Toxic Legacy of Hatred and Division – Christopher D. Cook (Common Dreams, September 11, 2025).
Charlie Kirk Dies After Being Shot During Utah Event – David Doel (The Rational National, September 10, 2025).

UPDATES: Stephen Miller Says He and Trump Will Use Law Enforcement to “Dismantle” the Left After Charlie Kirk Shooting – Stephen Prager (Common Dreams, September 13, 2025).
“The Martyrdom of Charlie Kirk”: Journalist Chris Hedges on the Weaponization of Kirk’s Killing – Democracy Now! (September 15, 2025).
White House Working to Criminalize Left-Wing Dissent as “Domestic Terror” in Wake of Charlie Kirk Murder – Brett Wilkins (Common Dreams, September 15, 2025).
“Political Violence” is All Around Us – Stephen Prager (Current Affairs, September 16, 2025).
Charlie Kirk, Redeemed: A Political Class Finds Its Lost Cause – Ta-Nehisi Coates (Vanity Fair, September 16, 2025).
Ta-Nehisi Coates on the Liberal Absolution of Charlie Kirk and the Lost Cause – The Benjamin Dixon Show (September 17, 2025).
Black Pastors Torch Unsettling Sanitization of Charlie Kirk’s Hateful Legacy – Roland S. Martin (via YouTube, September 17, 2025).
Conservatives Demand Trump Administration Violently Suppress the Left to Avenge Charlie Kirk – Mike Figueredo (The Humanist Report, September 18, 2025).
Trump Is Exploiting Charlie Kirk’s Death To Carry Out a Political Purge: An Interview with Max Blumenthal – The Chris Hedges Report (September 18, 2025).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• “Bullets Are Replacing Ballots and Political Arguments Are Being Answered with Gunfire”
• Calvin Michaels: “I Really Don’t Want to Hear What Charlie Kirk’s Supporters Have to Say When It Comes to Morality”
• A Simple and Brutal Truth
• Naming the Pattern and the Source
• A “Racist and Factless Meltdown” Over Omar Fateh
• Robert Reich: Quote of the Day – July 14, 2024

Sunday, September 14, 2025

Domestic Extremist-Related Killings in the U.S. by Perpetrator Political Affiliation (2015-2024)

– Source: ADL

Following is a related article by Alex Samuels, first published September 12, 2025 by Daily Kos.

_______________

Americans See Left and Right Violence
as Equal issues. The Data Doesn’t

By Alex Samuels

Daily Kos
September 12, 2025
There’s a wide gap between right-wing and left-wing violence in the U.S. – and it doesn’t line up with what many Americans believe.

A YouGov poll released late Wednesday found that Americans are almost evenly split on which side poses a greater threat: 31% say left-wing violence is a bigger issue, 33% say right-wing violence is, and 36% weren’t sure. The partisan divide was clear – two-thirds of Republicans blamed the left, while 62% of Democrats expressed more concern about the right.

However, the data on political violence shows a much more lopsided situation.

A 2021 study published in the journal Criminology, Criminal Justice, Law and Society analyzed ideologically motivated extremist killings from 1990 to 2020. The results were clear: Only 42 incidents of politically motivated homicide, or 15.6% of all incidents, involved far-left extremists. In contrast, far-right extremists were responsible for 227 incidents – 84.4% of the total.

“A far-right ideologically motivated homicide has occurred at least once every year since 1990,” the study’s authors wrote. “By comparison, far-left ideologically motivated homicides were present for only 17 years of the 31-year timespan of the current analysis.”

And this pattern of far-right violence hasn’t slowed since 2020, the final year included in the study’s data.

For instance, the study doesn’t include the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, for which President Donald Trump later pardoned his supporters. And in October 2022, an assailant broke into former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home and attacked her husband, Paul Pelosi, with a hammer. Earlier this year, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s residence was set on fire while his family was sleeping inside. Then in June, a gunman targeted Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota, killing state House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, and wounding state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife inside their home.

Right-wing violence isn’t just persistent – it’s accelerating. Yet many prominent officials, including the president, have downplayed or even excused it. The killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk on Wednesday has emboldened far-right voices to call for “war”-like retaliation against the left, even as Trump frames right-wing radicals as well-meaning.

“I’ll tell you something that’s gonna get me in trouble, but I couldn’t care less. The radicals on the right oftentimes are radical because they don’t want to see crime,” Trump said. “The radicals on the left are the problem.”

That narrative doesn’t hold up. The aforementioned study makes one thing clear: The far-right has been the driving force behind ideologically motivated killings for decades. And it’s not the only research to draw that conclusion.

A 2022 study published by the highly regarded scientific journal PNAS found that right-wing extremists are more likely to engage in political violence than their left-wing counterparts. Researchers tied that risk to personality traits often associated with right-wing ideology, such as closed-mindedness, dogmatism, and a heightened need for order and certainty, all of which can intensify in-group bias and hostility toward outsiders.

By contrast, the study found that left-leaning individuals tend to score higher on openness and tolerance for ambiguity, and are less likely to support social dominance – factors that correlate with a lower risk of using violence. Other studies have even identified an “empathy gap” between liberals and conservatives, which may help explain the frequency of far-right attacks.

Even federal agencies have been sounding the alarm. In early January, the Justice Department warned that militant white-supremacist and nationalist violence continues to rise. Since 1990, far-right extremists have carried out more than 520 killings, compared to just 78 by far-left extremists. A Department of Homeland Security threat assessment flagged immigration grievances, election denialism, and even pandemic stress as likely drivers of attacks in the years ahead.

So what accounts for why the public is split on whether left- or right-wing violence is more of a problem?

Part of that divide may stem from how incidents are presented. Violence against right-wing figures is often assumed to originate from the left, but that’s not always the case. Both of Trump’s would-be assassins last year had complex political backgrounds: One was a registered Republican but donated to a liberal group, and the other was a 2016 Trump voter who turned against him and whose most recent voter registration was unaffiliated with any party.

Left-wing violence, while far less common, has been inching up in recent years. The 2021 Criminology study found that “far-left violence has increased over the last five years” and that “while far-right extremists are responsible for a higher frequency of incidents, far-left extremists more often kill more than one individual.” But the researchers caution that under the right social and political conditions, the threat could grow well beyond its historic baseline – one reason they call for data-driven strategies to address domestic extremism across the spectrum.

For now, the greatest danger is obvious. Right-wing violence isn’t a relic of the past – it’s an active and larger threat. Experts warn that continuous talk of “stolen elections,” immigrant “invasions,” and revenge is further stoking a fire, meaning the next attack is not a matter of if but when. The real question is whether the country will respond before more lives are lost.

– Alex Samuels
Daily Kos
September 12, 2012

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