Why are all the violent crazies on the right? If both sides

[Blue Meany]

engage in violent rhetoric equally--as some are claiming--then why are there not equal number of violent attacks coming from left-wingers? Are we to conclude that conservative ideology is a possible marker for mental illness? What other explanation could there be?

[valerief]

1. Guns are sooooooo left-wing, too.

:sarcasm:

[arcane1]

2. The simple answer:

The left isn't breast-fed lies 24/7, lies that are specifically designed to stir up rage and anger and violent over-reaction.

[Blue Meany]

Quite so, but that negates the "both sides do it" argument. I'm

just trying to follow this fallacious argument to its logical end.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

5. But we're still breast-fed lies.

:cry:

[Last_Stand]

3. Right-wing ideology is easier to swallow when you're intellectually challenged...

Most of the right-wingers I have ever encountered have never been able to think their way out of a wet paper bag.

When you don't have the smarts to figure out a problem, it's easier to use violence.

[arcane1]

6. It's also easier to be stirred into violence and led by authority figures n/t

[EFerrari]

4. Authoritarians believe they know best, including in matter of life and death.

Plus, authoritarian followers don't think for themselves.

[kestrel91316]

7. The RW HAS to sell its lies and hate to the crazies. No one else will

believe it. We are a nation of madmen and madwomen and mental defectives - at least 30% are too stupid or deranged to think rationally.

[upi402]

8. The media incites violence in the RWers

I'm disgusted by our side telling our side to tone it down.

The false equivalency from "our side" that pointing to similarities of BushCo and nascent Nazism = RW incitement to violence...
Disgusting!

[backscatter712]

9. Right-wing authoritarianism has been scientifically researched.

http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/

Altemeyer stopped short of calling right-wing authoritarianism a mental disorder, but he did document in great detail how they behaved - authoritarian submission, authoritarian aggression, and conventionalism.

Altemeyer did observe that there were a few left-wing authoritarians out there, described by the author as very rare when compared to RWAs, and these were the campus student Marxists who spent all their time infighting with each other like the People's Front of Judea and the Judean People's Front in The Life of Brian. They and the Weathermen couldn't find a niche in our society.

[wuushew]

10. Much of leftist thought is the manipulation of complex systems and cooperation

I believe those who are mentally unhinged and conservative exhibit a greater sense of the power of self. Since believing in one's ability to act as an individual agent of change against a real or imagined conspiracy provides a self-sustaining opiate of empowerment it really is no surprise the unhinged gravitate towards it.

Plus look at all the relativism, playing devil's advocate or realizing multiple solutions or a given problem inherent on the left. The natural intellectual wonkness blunts the purity of the emotional stimuli the person seeks.

[Rex]

11. Dunno, just asked that question at the dinner table and got silence.

Name me ONE lefty that shouts death to their opponents and tells their followers to go out and be violent? All I got back was silence and agreement. THERE IS NO COMPARISON and anyone that is trying real real hard has an agenda quite unlike the one we have here on DU.

[gmoney]

12. But, but... uh, Bill Ayres! Hippies!! Riots!! Black Panthers!!!

:sarcasm: