According to a new mega survey by medical and public health scientists, at least 50 million Americans, or one in five adults, believe in justified political violence in certain circumstances.
The study titled ‘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, reports The Guardian.
“The prospect of large-scale violence in the near future is entirely plausible,” scientists have warned, adding that this is more than a year after the horrific Jan. 6 riots on Capitol Hill.
The team of scientists at the University of California, Davis, came to the conclusion after collating opinions of almost 9,000 people across the country to find out the acceptance rate of political violence.
The survey was done by scientists Garen Wintemute, Sonia Robinson and Andrew Crawford, and it was conducted over three weeks beginning on May 3.
The survey threw up some alarming statics. It says that 3 per cent 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”.
But the most alarming aspect of the survey revealed that almost 7.1 per cent said that can kill a person to serve an important political goal. The UC Davis team points out that it is equivalent of 18 million Americans.
Apart from that. nearly a third of Americans surveyed among 9,000 believe the lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump.
The scientists claimed that extreme political polarisation, scepticism about government and democratic institutions, rising gun violence and increased firearms sales, along with the rampant spread of conspiracy theories and misinformation, have combined into a toxic soup.
(With inputs from agencies)
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