In Today’s Democrat Party, Political Violence Is Mainstream
The so-called “fringe” left is not fringe at all
Within the last two weeks, the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and the targeted shooting of a Dallas Immigration and Customs Enforcement office have confirmed a grim reality. The so-called “fringe” left is not fringe at all, but a fully entrenched, violent, mainstream force.
More concerning, the once near-universal belief that violence is never an acceptable response to speech is quickly eroding, particularly among younger generations.
The reaction to Kirk’s murder made this abundantly clear.
Across social media and in sympathetic corners of the corporate press, voices rushed not to condemn the violence but to rationalize it. Some, like popular streamer Destiny, even celebrated it, suggesting that conservatives bring such attacks upon themselves, adding that they need “to be afraid of getting killed when they go to events.”
Former MSNBC analyst Matthew Dowd (he was fired for his comments) captured this mindset when he said immediately after Kirk’s shooting: “Hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions. You can’t stop with these sort of awful thoughts you have, saying these awful words, and then not expect awful actions to take place. And that’s the unfortunate environment we are in.”
In other words, the violence itself is treated as inevitable and, by extension, justified.
This chilling shift reflects a deeper trend. Survey data and campus studies show that a rising share of Americans, especially younger generations, now see violence as an acceptable tool of politics. What was once unthinkable is being normalized. In a national survey, respondents were asked whether using violence to stop a speech containing the ideas they found most offensive was “never,” “rarely,” “sometimes,” or “always” acceptable.
Though 80 percent said violence was never acceptable, this still signals that 20 percent would find violence to silence speech acceptable. But it gets worse as we look at the statistics by generation.
While 93 percent of Baby Boomers and 85 percent of Generation X rejected political violence, only 71 percent of Millennials and just 58 percent of Generation Z did. Put another way, among Gen Z, the generation now entering civic life, roughly 42 percent say political violence to silence speech can be justified.
This data aligns with findings from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s 2026 College Free Speech Rankings, which reported that more than one-third of students now consider “using violence to stop a campus speech” acceptable.
Tragically, it was Kirk himself who warned that assassination culture was spreading on the left. In an April 7 social media post, he cited a study by the Network Contagion Research Institute showing that 31 percent of respondents said murdering Elon Musk would be at least somewhat justified, while 38 percent said the same about President Trump.
Among those who considered themselves on the political left, the numbers spiked to 50 percent for Musk and 56 percent for Trump. When it came to destroying property, nearly 40 percent said it would be at least somewhat acceptable to attack a Tesla dealership in protest.
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