Nearly a quarter of Americans (23%) agree that “because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country,” according to the survey. This is up from 15% in 2021.

In a statement, PRRI researchers say they have asked about this in “eight separate surveys since March 2021.” They said that “this is the first time support for political violence has peaked above 20%” in their survey results.

While Americans across the political spectrum feel democracy is at risk next year, support for political violence runs mostly along party lines.

Currently one-third of Republicans support violence as a means to save the country, compared with 22% of independents and 13% of Democrats, the survey found. More specifically, Republicans who have favorable views of Donald Trump were found to be “nearly three times as likely as Republicans who have unfavorable views of Trump” to support political violence.

Compared to past surveys, researchers also found an uptick in support for conspiracy theories among Americans — specifically QAnon. According to PRRI, there has been a significant increase in “QAnon believers (from 14% to 23%),” as well as a “a decrease in QAnon rejecters,” since 2021. However, Republicans are still twice as likely as Democrats to agree with the core beliefs of the QAnon conspiracy theory.

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27 points

I’m one of those who votes for Democrats, but increasingly want to see violence against our politicians, supreme court justices, and others who are not following the will of the people.

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17 points

Unfortunately this doesn’t work in practice. Sporadic murders of high profile politicians end up causing a lot of fear and galvanizing public sentiment towards tough-on-crime and other fascist leaders. A wide-scale revolution is almost always co-opted by a strong, militant group that seeks to establish an autocracy afterwards. Often they are bankrolling the revolution. And if they don’t exist at the time of revolution, it is inevitable they pop up to seize control afterwards.

Also, this is essentially Republicans’ plans: Project 2025

Project 2025 is a plan to reshape the Executive Branch of the U.S. federal government in the event of a Republican victory in the 2024 United States presidential election.[1][2] Established in 2022, the project seeks to recruit thousands to come to Washington, D.C., to replace existing employees to restructure the Executive Branch of the federal government as to further the agenda and policies of Donald Trump.[3] The plan would perform a quick takeover of the entire U.S. federal government under a maximalist version of the unitary executive theory – a theory proposing the president of the United States have absolute power of the executive branch – upon inauguration.

I.e. a coup.

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7 points
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-4 points

Damn that would be fucked up, could you imagine, the President of the united states, who according to the US constitution is literally the absolute power of the executive branch of government, and actually used that power? Wow. What a crazy world that would be.

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7 points

Unfortunately this doesn’t work in practice. Sporadic murders of high profile politicians end up causing a lot of fear and galvanizing public sentiment towards tough-on-crime and other fascist leaders. A wide-scale revolution is almost always co-opted by a strong, militant group that seeks to establish an autocracy afterwards. Often they are bankrolling the revolution. And if they don’t exist at the time of revolution, it is inevitable they pop up to seize control afterwards

so then wth are we supposed to do to fight against the descent into fascism?

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1 point

Vote, organize, protest (not entirely legally). If a country falls to fascism or is getting close, there might not be enough the populace can do to stop it or resist. Both examples of Fascist Italy and Germany required outside intervention. We see a LOT of authoritarian countries with little chance at them getting out of it themselves.

Fighting a fascist country is mostly just playing into their hands. You need an organized resistance ready to setup a government that isn’t just another authoritarian powerbase. Which is a tall order.

The real way to stop fascism: kill it in the cradle. Don’t let it get to the point where a president or chancellor is executing the legislature and taking supreme executive authority.

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6 points

It worked recently in Japan when someone assassinated Abe.

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0 points

It shifted government?

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3 points

Thanks, that’s terrifying.

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2 points
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handmaid’s tale

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