ANSWERS: 18
  • Is war considered considered an act of violence?
  • As a liberal I would like to say that a extreme conservative is most likely to commit violence. Unfortunately the liberals are equally crazy. They were burning SUV's a couple years ago and PETA is known for throwing blood and freeing lab animals. So the answer is they are equally capable and likely to commit violence.
  • Interesting question!
  • Only idiots of any political conviction do that.
  • Liberals are nonviolent by definition, nonviolent modification, however an extremist is an extremist.
  • Probably the conservatives. I can't think of many examples of extreme violence from liberals.
  • I like extreme sports
  • A conservative. No doubt in my mind.
  • This in no way expresses my own political viewpoint. Derogatory names or attempted physical harm has never been focused upon me by a conservative for disagreeing with them. I have been verbally abused by liberals and have had them want to hit me and have had things thrown at me for disagreeing with them. But that's my own personal experience.
  • I think you can find people like that on both ends of the spectrum -- the Klan, abortion clinic bombers and assasins, to the more radical animal rights activists and the eco-terrorist types who spike trees and set fire to McMansions. If it looks like the violence meter swings a little toward the right, it's probably because war is a huge issue and pacifists are more likely to be characterized as liberals. But nobody has a monopoly on whack jobs.
  • Liberals in my experience are more prone to violence and radical protest. The old saying "If you want to see true hate disagree with a liberal" is very true. Not that there isn't extreme conservatives. The librals seem to outnumber them though.
  • I believe at the far ends of the political spectrum, the ends twist around and meet. When one dehumanizes others in pursuit of political goals, it really doesn't matter what those goals are. That being said, it seems to me that extreme conservatives are likely to be Authoritarians... . http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/09/03/sowell/index.html . ...and hence are more likely to justify violence. Conversely, extreme liberals seem somewhat more likely to believe in the non-violent principles of Martin Luther King, Ghandi, etc. . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonviolence . and are therefore somewhat less likely to use violence for political goals. Your mileage may vary. Void where prohibited.
  • Conservatives justify themselves through religion in most circumstances, so I would say conservatives. Conservatives are definitely more prone to violence. Liberals are nonviolent except when defending oneself.
  • Based on actions in the past few months, and on overall history, i would say it would be the extreme conservative. this is based on the incidents of violence in the US since Obama has been president, conservatives have killed in the name of "protecting our freedoms". in the past, during the civil rights movements, the acts of extreme violence were perpetrated by conservatives that didn't want the "liberal" blacks to change the present system. Oh, and don't forget, it was a liberal that dared to suggest that the world was round instead of flat! conservative thinking of the time maintained it was flat. and that the sun and planets revolved around the earth. so much for conservative thinking.
  • Let's look at recent events presented in no particular order. Richard Poplawski, a right-wing extremist, allegedly gunned down three police officers in Pittsburgh, in part because he feared the non-existent "Obama gun ban." Scott Roeder, another right-wing extremist, assassinated Dr. George Tiller in Kansas. Von Brunn, right-wing extremist, opened fire at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Jim David Adkisson after he entered the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church and killed two people and wounded six others during the presentation of a children's musical. The assassination of the Arkansas Democratic Party chairman Bill Gwatney. Statistics gathered by the National Abortion Federation suggest that 1994 was the big year for murders and attempted murders of abortion providers in the U.S. and Canada. Disturbingly, between 1989 and 1994, while the number of arrests of right-wing activists decreased, instances of right-wing hate mail increased. (Statistical table can be seen at:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-feldman/return-of-1990sstyle-righ_b_41324.html) We now know that students at Liberty University were ready to use homemade bombs against protesters at Jerry Falwell's funeral. One of the suspects is a soldier at Fort Benning. (Falwell had given the suspect a scholarship.) November 2007 a man walked into the Clinton Campaign office in New Hampshire and demanded to speak to Senator Clinton about her mental health plan. A six hour hostage scenario ensued with no injuries. Three people posing as police officers, who were in fact right wing members of a border surveillance group, forced their way into the home of Raul Flores in Arivaca, Arizona, about 10 miles from the Mexican border, on May 30,2009. They shot and killed Flores and his nine-year-old daughter, and wounded Flores' wife. Minutemen American Defense (MAD), a vigilante group that conducts patrols of the US-Mexico border. It's leader Forde had been talking about "starting a revolution against the United States government," We have right wing pundits like Michael Reagan telling his audience to kill a protester. G Gordon Liddy telling his audience to "shoot federal agents" and the likes of Michael Savage, Sean Hannity and Bill O'reilly regularly referencing violence in ways that barely clear their legal departments. Anti-choice groups (they call themselves Pro-life) websites not only celebrate violence against abortion providers some even suggest ways to better get away with murder! I t should also be mentioned that although not a recent event, the largest act of domestic terrorism was committed by a right wing militia member Timothy McVeigh who bombed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. I invite someone to please post verifiable incidents of "liberal violence" please.
  • Come out to Eugene, you'll find a few Libs doing something stupid. But overall, Conservatives. I cannot recall a Liberal walking into a Church to blow away someone he/she disagreed with. Because if one did, we'd never hear the end of it.
  • Consider PETA, Greenpeace (admittedly, their violence is in the form of harassment, criminal trespass, vandalism, and provoking their targets to violence), enviromental terrorists like the Unibomber, United Slaves, the Weathermen, the SBA, every revolutionary Marxist group in history, and far more than I have time to go into here. Also, FYI, in the last 30 years, there have been FIVE - that's it, 5 - abortion workers killed by 4 crazed anti-abortionists. Meanwhile violence against pro-life activists and groups goes unreported.
  • Downrate me as you see fit, I don't care. Of what political persuasion was the fellow pictured outside a town meeting with a gun on his hip and a sign saying, "it's time to water the tree of liberty?" I'm fairly certain it wasn't a liberal-minded person. Q.E.D.

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