When we asked respondents if they approved of threatening or assassinating a politician, for example, roughly one in five said they at least somewhat approved. That kind of animosity could fuel partisan violence - a possibility that our results suggest we should take seriously. A majority of both Republicans and Democrats believe their political opponents pose a threat to the country and want to harm their political opponents. What we found was a great deal of hostility for people on the other side of the political aisle. In addition to extremist narratives, our survey looked at levels of partisanship, tolerance for antidemocratic actions, and expressions of approval for different kinds of political violence. The man allegedly responsible for the shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, for example, argued that Jews, immigrants and Latinos, in addition to the Black people he targeted, posed an existential threat to the white race, leading him to conclude that “fighting is the only way.” Hostile actions against an outgroup can take the forms of violence like terrorist attacks, but it can also include conduct like abusive language or discriminatory and dehumanizing legislation. Instead, we set out to examine to what degree people in certain groups feel threatened or persecuted by members of a defined “outgroup.” The belief that one group of people is inherently harmful to your own is foundational to extremism, as is the idea that the well-being and survival of the “in group” depends on taking hostile action against those who supposedly threaten it. The SPLC survey was not designed to simply measure prejudice or bigotry. These anti-LGBTQ, misogynistic and racist narratives have been promoted by many Republican politicians and other powerful right-wing figures, helping the ideas infiltrate the mainstream and contributing to an increasingly volatile and dangerous political environment. We also uncovered a widespread feeling - especially among right-leaning Americans - that transgender people and “gender ideology” pose a threat to children and society at large. Nearly 7 in 10 Republicans surveyed agree to at least some extent that demographic changes in the United States are deliberately driven by liberal and progressive politicians attempting to gain political power by “replacing more conservative white voters.” Across the political spectrum, we found substantial support for threatening or acting violently against perceived political opponents. We found that the ideas underpinning the white nationalist “great replacement” narrative recently cited by an alleged white supremacist terrorist in Buffalo, New York, have become thoroughly mainstream on the political right. In late April, the Southern Poverty Law Center and Tulchin Research conducted a poll of 1,500 Americans to examine the extent to which the extremist beliefs and narratives that mobilize the hard right have been absorbed by the wider American public.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |