Too often we complicate public affairs. After all, everything that seems so crucial — platforms, elections, policies, etc. — recedes in the face of one defining question: Whom do you serve, light or darkness?
According to a new report from the Network Contagion Research Institute at Rutgers University, the darkness that so many of us have sensed steadily growing in the minds of deeply disturbed and propagandized American leftists has metastasized to their hearts and souls, resulting in an “assassination culture” fixated on prominent figures, such as President Donald Trump and his ally Elon Musk, owner of the social media platform X, the electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla, and head of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency.
“NCRI empirically assessed this shift with original survey data and open source intelligence analysis to assess how normalized and justified violence against the administration has become in public discourse,” the report read.
Then came a shocking conclusion that called to mind the circumstances of 1860-61.
“The findings signal a threat to political stability and public safety,” the report added.
Of course, before laying the threat of civil war-like conditions at the doorstep of the American left, one must explain precisely what one means — and does not mean — by “left.”
The guilty “left” in this case does not refer to individuals who merely advocate for policies traditionally associated with leftists. These might include, for instance, an end to military interventionism or tariffs to help the working class. On those issues, Trump and some former Democrats have found common ground. In that sense, those issues now qualify as “populist” or “America first” rather than “leftist.”
Instead, the modern American “left” denotes something far more sinister.
“Central to this belief system is Left-Wing Authoritarianism (LWA), characterized by moral absolutism, punitive attitudes toward ideological opponents, and a willingness to use coercion for progressive aims,” the report read.
Does leftist authoritarianism normalize political violence?
In other words, this “assassination culture” has emerged among individuals whom 20th-century Communists would have recruited. Those kinds of people — the Communists and the recruits — spouted Marxist platitudes and spread mayhem in order to acquire power.
They are the kind of people who cheered when Luigi Mangione allegedly took the life of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December.
Joel Finkelstein, lead author of the NCRI report, summarized its findings.
“What was formerly taboo culturally has become acceptable,” Finkelstein told Fox News Digital.
Indeed, a survey of 1,264 U.S. residents produced once-unfathomable results.
“Over half of those who self-identified as left of center (55.2 percent) reported that if someone murdered Donald Trump, they would be at least somewhat justified,” the report read.
More than half? That, of course, suggests substantial overlap between “left of center” and left-wing authoritarianism.
“These are not isolated opinions,” the report stated. “They are part of a tightly connected belief system linked to what we call left-wing authoritarianism.”
In fact — and many of us have sensed this for years — one struggles to distinguish between the modern left’s political agenda and its pathological hatred for Trump. The two have long since blended into one.
To the extent that the modern left does have a distinctive political agenda, it includes authoritarian measures only. We saw this during the COVID madness, when leftists salivated over the power to impose masks, lockdowns, and mandates on their neighbors. We still see it in cancel culture and the radical transgender demand for access to women’s spaces.
Of course, the broader political discourse has changed in a way that facilitates left-wing authoritarianism. The establishment and its media allies, for instance, have spent so many years slandering Trump and those closest to him as “Nazis” that one marvels at the fact that it took until July 13 for a would-be assassin to take actual shots at the president.
After all, if Trump resembles Adolf Hitler, then the angry and feeble minded would view the president’s murder as justified. Remember, Hitler’s own generals tried to assassinate him. The 2008 movie “Valkyrie,” starring veteran actor Tom Cruise, told the story of that plot. And did anyone in the audience cheer when Hitler survived?
In short, the darkness of authoritarianism has overcome a significant percentage of those who call themselves “leftists.” And that began years ago. The NCRI report merely quantified the phenomenon.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
