Puck News journalist — and GQ alumna — Julia Ioffe has a real knack for spotting right-wing extremism. She’s so good at it, in fact, that she sees it everywhere.
So you can imagine how vindicated she felt when she saw the Anti-Defamation League’s report on “Murder and Extremism in the United States in 2021” that they put out a few months ago. According to the ADL, which definitely hasn’t turned into a highly partisan left-wing organization over the past decade or two, an overwhelming percentage of extremist-related murders in 2021 were committed by right-wing extremists:
For the both-siders out there: left-wing extremists were responsible for 4% of extremist-related killings; the right wing was responsible for 75%.https://t.co/fXJbyamBhv pic.twitter.com/cRUT9Os3Jk
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) May 18, 2022
Oh. Well. 75% vs. 4%. Guess that settles it! Period. End of discussion. No reason whatsoever to question the ADL’s methodology (or Ioffe’s belief in its soundness).
We’re being facetious, of course. We’re basically out here on a little dinghy in a veritable sea of blood-red flags.
Because even if you’re not a stats aficionado, it should become immediately clear as soon as you start skimming the ADL’s report that their conclusions literally don’t make sense.
statistics https://t.co/cQHXLK9tr6 pic.twitter.com/HzFE51VAnt
— Kaya Masters (@redneckgeisha) May 19, 2022
https://twitter.com/homanclature/status/1526980796191588358
Neat trick, that.
They count every white male who shoots people as "right-wing" in this study, even if they specifically called themselves socialists
They also include domestic violence as "right wing extremism" https://t.co/gOf9KNwBlJ
— PoliMath (@politicalmath) May 19, 2022
Moreover, adherents of some far-right extremist movements engage not only in ideological violence (defined narrowly for the purposes of this report as attacking perceived enemies, as well as others who may get in the way of such attacks), but also other forms of deadly violence. Extremists often engage in violence related to their group or movement that may not involve attacking an enemy. For example, extremists sometimes murder suspected informants in their own ranks; they may also kill rival members of their own group or of another group.
Additionally, members of some extremist groups—particularly those that take the form of gangs—may kill while committing “traditional” crimes, such as those involving illegal drugs. It may also be likely, though it is difficult to definitively prove, that the ideologies or subcultures of certain types of extremists, including white supremacists and toxic masculinity extremists, may play a role in enabling incidents of deadly domestic violence—or other violent acts as well.
So basically, all forms of violence are effectively inherently right-wing, according to the ADL.
And if by some crazy chance the specific act of violence somehow still cannot be explicitly linked to right-wing extremism, well, the ADL just doesn’t feel comfortable getting into ideological motivations:
https://twitter.com/bonchieredstate/status/1527286968840704000
They do not count Waukesha as any kind of extremist violence because, according to the @ADL, apparently cars drive themselves when they mow down innocent children
— PoliMath (@politicalmath) May 19, 2022
Shame on Julia Ioffe for promoting the ADL’s BS “report,” and shame on the ADL for ever putting it together in the first place. In the name of fighting racism and bigotry, they’re only adding more fuel to the fires.
A calm reminder that the people who put out these reports are deeply dishonest, filled with hatred, and would find their hearts leaping with joy if they discovered that someone murdered their political opponents
Distrust the people who promote this kind of hateful bullshit
— PoliMath (@politicalmath) May 19, 2022
There is unity to be found in *genuinely* opposing white supremacy, but that is not what is happening here
Here, they want to say that the "right wing" is killing people.
They are intentionally causing division. They are feeding hatred. They know it. They want that.
— PoliMath (@politicalmath) May 19, 2022
They live for that.
they take these things that aren’t explicitly tied to one political party, declare them Right Wing Extremism, and spout this stat to scare people away from voting Republican
— Kaya Masters (@redneckgeisha) May 19, 2022
Bingo.
This is how they do it. Most of you have never met a neo-Nazi, KKK member, or white supremacist in your life and wouldn’t know where to find one (other than maybe on Jake Tapper’s show), but you’re totally on the same team. https://t.co/SfmgzfO7nR
— Fuzzy Chimp 🇺🇸 (@fuzzychimpcom) May 19, 2022
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