With regular protests from both white supremacists and Black Lives Matter, people often talk about how there are extremists on the right and left, and how both are just as dangerous.
This is simply not true.
In the current political climate, the far-right protests are aligned with white supremacy, while the far-left protests are aligned with the Black Lives Matter campaign and associated riots. The two cannot be compared.
White supremacy is the continuation of thousands of years of oppression. It is violent and actively harms people of color. This violence against BIPOC will always, always be more harmful than any kind of property damage. Lives cannot be equated to property.
Looking further into the protests, there are repeated anti-mask rallies from the right. These protests are also intensely more harmful than the riots associated with the Black Lives Matter protests. There has been no evidence that Black Lives Matter protests have contributed to many COVID-19 cases, while anti-mask protests stage “super-spreader” events to spread COVID in the name of Trump.
The idea that left-wing extremists are just as bad as right-wing extremists is perpetuated by the media. 93% of Black Lives Matter protests have been peaceful, and yet media coverage is only given to the violent protests to raise fear of “far-left extremists.” The media refuses to call planned attacks by white supremacists “terrorism” when they would be quick to do so for any left-wing attacks.
Despite what the general public deems “terrorism”, far-right groups are a lot more dangerous than any far-left groups. Far-right terrorism has significantly outpaced terrorism from any other group, accounting for the majority of terrorist attacks and plans since 1994, two thirds of terrorist attacks and plans in 2019, and 90% of terrorist attacks and plans from Jan-May 2020 according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
On the other hand, far-left groups don’t normally harm any others — their most harmful activity is just the destruction of property, and even then destruction is rare. Most organizations explicitly tell protestors not to cause any destruction of property, and those who do so are often not associated with the organizations.
Yet people are still somehow comparing the two, as if property damage can be equated to white supremacy.
Despite all of this information, in regards to the Black Lives Matter protests President Trump said, “Left-wing violent extremism poses an increasing threat to our country.” At the Presidential Debate, when asked to condemn white supremacists he first evaded the question, saying, “Almost everything I see is from the left-wing, not from the right-wing.” He then said, “Proud Boys — stand back and stand by. But I’ll tell you what… this is not a right-wing problem. This is a left-wing problem.”
With the president refusing to condemn white supremacy while shifting blame to the left, it’s understandable that many Americans condemn the left while celebrating the right. Trump reinforcing the myth that far-left activity is more harmful than far-right activity shows him actively ignoring data (something not unusual) and instead placing property over human lives.
Ultimately, people are trying to justify white supremacists and their actions by saying that the left-wing has engaged in dangerous activity. But when discussing the extremists on the right and the left, it is imperative that there are distinctions between their activity. Extremists on the right actively harm others, while far-left activity doesn’t go beyond destruction of property.
When people try to compare the two, they are placing property at the same value as actual human lives — something ridiculous and entirely unethical. There may be extremists on both sides, but only those on the right are extremely dangerous.