Don’t Make Assumptions on Political Violence

Timothy Snyder: “If a radical-right politician such as Donald Trump is the victim of an assassination attempt, should we not presume that the perpetrator is on the radical left?”

“No, we should not.”

“That sort of presumption, based on us-and-them thinking, is dangerous.  It begins a chain of thinking that can lead to more violence.  We are the victims, and they are the aggressors.  We have been hurt, so it must have been them.  No one thinking this way ever asks about the violence on one’s own side.”

“And this way of thinking is also very often erroneous.  The history of the far right tells a different story, one in which violence often refracts within and around a political movement that endorses it.”