35-40% of Under-50 Respondents Endorse "Assassinating a Politician"

OK, the actual headline to the article is longer and adds that the politician is harming our country or democracy, but my intent here isn't directly to talk about how both sides are apparently very open to assassination of political opponents which is disturbing enough in and of itself.

SPLC Poll finds younger Americans open to assassination.

In this poll it seems that upward of 40% of young, male Democrats, and nearly as high as percentage of young male Republicans would support assassinating political figures if they are deemed a threat in some way to the country. And we're not necessarily talking foreign threats, but also domestic ones. You see why that guy was caught crawling around outside Kavanaugh's home, but I am stressing here that this feeling is not unique to Democrats although slightly higher among them.

And my point isn't to talk ideology and assassination.

I've long felt that something has changed in our culture when we go back to the topic of mass shootings, and I think this poll opens a bit of a window in to that change. We all know the guns themselves have always been here, or at least they were here long before the phenomena of mass shootings like Columbine was a thing. So it's something else that has changed, something about us, and I think this is a bit of evidence for that shift.

35 to 40% is a disturbingly high percentage of people who are willing to kill their problems. It demonstrates a severe lack of respect for the concept of life and the lives of others outside your own. If you think you the best way to deal with a problem is to kill it, then what wouldn't you do? This just deals with a narrow facet, but it shows a broad issue across all spectrums and it also shows a concentration of the issue in the young.

We stopped teaching them how to connect with a view others outside themselves as human beings with lives of their own. I don't think people who oppose me politically deserve to be assassinated. It's rare that I would think that a justified solution, exceedingly rare. So I don't know, but I think this poll opens up where the problem is to some degree.

When the boomers die off and my generation takes over there will be civil war.

I do not believe in assassination. I believe in investigation, arrest, arraignment, trial, and punishment should they be found guilty in a fair and impartial trial by a jury of peers.

Anything less than this and it isn't justice.

ETA:

Tim Pool has been talking about this. These are scary figures.

a reply to: projectvxnAnd why will there be a civil war?

I find the article in question very puzzling and possibly misleading.

It seems to lead to being about assisanation of political enemy. The way it is so ambiguous about the actual question in the survey suggests it is about whether or not someone should be given the death penalty if convected of treason.

I am against an individual assisanating someone but treason, being found guilty of in an actual trial, is still treason.

Behavioral scientists sounded the alarm back in 06's and 70's when movies started to become increasingly violent. Universities did studies which showed a persons resistance to violence dropped considerable after watching violent images, and the bloodier, more violent the scene, the the higher their threshold for violence became.

When video games gained popularity we heard the same outcry, but the research was drowned out and that train left the station.

It's taken a lot of years to get to this point, and it would take as long if not longer to revert back to a society that is repulsed by violence.

You reap what you sow.

a reply to: ketsuko

This is how they'll usher in the police state.

a reply to: ketsuko

Mate, the source of this data is a shocker. Quite clearly SPLC has an axe to grind, and they are grinding it.

SPLC

Zero impartiality, Fully agenda driven, zero credibility.

a reply to: myselfaswell

They were trying to play politics with it, but for me the interesting thing is how ready people were to accept assassination across the board, left/right made no difference which is why this isn't likely being splashed all across the mainstream press.

a reply to: ketsuko

Personally I think this data and their approach is so skewed that it's meaningless, and is probably best off being ignored. Take for example this line at the end of the Partisanship and Violence section;

Our guard should be up, especially after receiving yet another stark reminder of the immense pain and violence that can come when far-right ideas are allowed to fester.

Honestly, where do you even start with that line.

originally posted by: ussmidway
a reply to: projectvxnAnd why will there be a civil war?

Are you serious?

Did you not read the article?

Any situation where you have that much of a bifurcated population advocating for the assassination of each other's political leaders is a sure recipe for it.

a reply to: myselfaswell

The fact that young male democrats in their sample were slightly more likely to approve of assassination proves the lie. This is a society wide issue, not a left/right one for all they want to make you think otherwise.

And that's my point. The young are narcissistic and see only their own lives as being of value.

More than just politics. There are personal differences. Environmental and diet factors at play as well. Due to processed foods, Gen X will probably outlive their children and in some cases their grandchildren just on diet and exercise factors alone.

Attitudes have been radically altered. Gen X is the first to receive participation trophies and organization rules of everyone has to play an inning or so many downs or minutes in a basketball game at younger ages. High school and Junior High were open competition with tryouts, winners/losers etc. But you poor sportsmanship at the transition stages now between organized fair play and free play.

Factor in the now decades of internet anonymity and trolling with broken coping mechanisms and politics becomes beyond gamesmanship to tribalism. The only end to tribalism is conflict. Concessions are not made until concerns of continuing become apparent.

originally posted by: projectvxn

originally posted by: ussmidway
a reply to: projectvxnAnd why will there be a civil war?

Are you serious?

Did you not read the article?

Any situation where you have that much of a bifurcated population advocating for the assassination of each other's political leaders is a sure recipe for it.

Exactly what article did you read? The one in the op says nothing about which side wants which side eliminated. Their own or the others.

Like I posted above , it is so ambiguous an article and question that it might just be about the punishment for treason.

Are you saying treason should not be punished or just one sides treason should not be punished?

I think the suggestion above about ignoring this article is best as it is just noise disguised as fact.

a reply to: ketsuko

And that's my point. The young are narcissistic and see only their own lives as being of value.

Well, there's no argument to be had there now is there.

Reading the comments, it seems the majority of the comments on the article are saying the poll is biased/skewed/wrong. Some of the comments are pretty nasty. I believe the poll though. People in this country are becoming less civilized and more like Neanderthals with each passing day. Never in my worst nightmare would I ever think of killing someone just because I don’t like them or don’t agree with them. WTH is happening to this country?

a reply to: Ahabstar

Tell me what happens when the millennial generation, 40% of which believe in political assassination, actually acts on these desires?

Political assassination led to the first world war. What is to stop a civil war from occuring for the same reasons?

Irrespective of who is killed the probability increases with every politically motivated killing.

originally posted by: ussmidway
a reply to: projectvxnAnd why will there be a civil war?

I have asked that question among a number of young people. The answer I received was, no one believes in fair elections or fair and equal justice with in the system anymore. It’s not right or wrong, it’s all about money. One young lady said, it’s not what you know, it’s who you blow.

I find this to be very alarming. Apparently young people have no faith in government.

Spam

a reply to: projectvxn

The only thing stopping civil war right now is basically cowardliness. Not that it is a bad thing. No one wants to be the first to lift their head up to be popped. But one day desperation will overcome the fear. They will lead the way into martyrdom from their followers. Their death a retaliation to their action. So yes, assassination is but one avenue.

But what if instead of another Jan6 inside the velvet ropes kind of insurrection there was a group that captured and held captive some Congress Critters? Or a group does a larger scale CHAZ that starts working? Can’t have separatists making a working society as example.

Or what there was a populist type of president that had considerable support that took widespread fraud to defeat during the illusion of a fair election?

a reply to: Nickn3

Government has only themselves to blame. In order to maintain trust from the public they have to be better than we are in a tangible respectable irreproachable way, not an elitist way. All they are is a bunch of d-bag elitists who think they're better because they went to Ivys and know people who know people who have money.

Sorry, that doesn't earn you my respect, and if polling is any indication, it hasn't earned the respect of most of the rest of the country, either.