A new mega survey reveals one in every five American adults, believes in justified political violence in certain circumstances. Here’s more on the study by medical and public health scientists.
Americans believe violence is justified to fit political ends
A study called ‘Views of American Democracy and Society and Support for Political Violence’, has stated that alienation and mistrust from democratic institutions have reached such a peak that substantial US minorities feel that violence is just as long as it serves its political ends
“The prospect of large-scale violence in the near future is entirely plausible,” warned researchers. This is rising after the horrific events on Capitol Hill.
The scientists from the University of California, Davis concluded the results after collating the opinions of about 9,000 people. They studied the acceptance rates of political violence.
The team consists of Garen Wintemute, Sonia Robinson, and Andrew Crawford. The research was conducted over three weeks starting on May 3. Additionally, it revealed other alarming data. According to the survey, It says that 3 percent of respondents or about 7 million people feel that political violence is usually or always justified. While one in four of the surveyors – equivalent to more than 60 million Americans – believe that violence can be justified “to preserve an American way of life-based on western European traditions”.
More on the ‘alarming situation‘
The most alarming part of the survey is new that almost 7.1 percent stated that killing a person to serve an important political goal is justified. According to the team of scientists from UC Davis, this is equal to 18 million Americans.
Additionally, almost a third of Americans surveyed among 9,000 believe the lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump.
