Something profound has shifted in the political culture and the media, because The Atlantic just admitted what many of us have known for a long time: Left-wing violence is on the rise.
It's a shocking admission from a media that, according to CNN's Donie O'Sullivan, can't find any examples of Left-wing violence.
For the first time in more than 30 years, attacks by the far left outnumber those by the far right.@dbyman and @rileydmccabe report on their newly compiled data set of 750 terror attacks and plots in the United States, from January 1994 to July 2025. https://t.co/4tsW8FDAzl
— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) September 23, 2025
We found that left-wing terrorism has increased since President Donald Trump’s rise to political prominence in 2016. Indeed, 2025 marks the first time in more than 30 years that left-wing attacks outnumber those from the far right. Despite its recent increase, however, left-wing terrorism is not nearly as common today as it was in the 1960s and early ’70s. Those years marked the height of groups such as the Weather Underground and the Symbionese Liberation Army, best known for kidnapping the newspaper heiress Patty Hearst. In the ’80s and early ’90s, left-wing terrorism declined while jihadist and right-wing terrorism rose, particularly in the forms of anti-government and white-supremacist violence.
Following that trend, according to our analysis, violence on the left accounted for four plots and attacks from 1994 to 2000, compared with 144 on the right. That difference narrowed in the following decade, but the right continued to account for significantly more attacks and killings than did the left.
The year 2016 was a turning point for left-wing terrorism, even as right-wing incidents remained much more common. Trump’s political ascent and the expansion of the MAGA movement seem to have reenergized left-wing violent extremism, which accounted for 37 incidents from 2016 to 2024, most of them motivated by either anti-government or partisan sentiment. By July 4 of this year, far-left extremists had already been responsible for five terrorist attacks and plots, putting 2025 on pace to be the left’s most violent year in more than three decades.
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Of course, this article isn't perfect. It implies that President Trump is somehow to blame for the rise of Left-wing extremism and terrorism. According to a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) used by The Atlantic, 71% of the plots and attacks from 1994 to 2000 were "against government targets [and] were inspired by general opposition to federal authority. This wave of attacks was spearheaded by the broader American militia movement, which emerged as a reaction to perceived government overreach, fueled by concerns about gun control, federal regulations, and a growing mistrust of the federal government.15 The movement was galvanized by the 1992 Ruby Ridge standoff in Idaho, where a confrontation between federal agents and the family of Randy Weaver resulted in three deaths, and the 1993 Waco siege in Texas, where a standoff between the Branch Davidians and federal agents ended in a deadly fire, killing over 80 people. These incidents reinforced the belief among American militia groups that the federal government was an oppressive force infringing on personal freedoms."
It does not list a specific political ideology; some will undoubtedly balk at the assertion that most violence is Right-wing, given the countless examples of Left-wing violence documented on social media.
That being said, many people had the same reaction to the article:
How bad does left-wing terrorism have to be for The Atlantic to admit it’s a problem? pic.twitter.com/g6ruR6OjDZ
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) September 23, 2025
Things must be really bad.
The Atlantic finally touching facts based in reality instead of running propaganda for DNC. https://t.co/XuZMYeLznJ
— Charbel Hage (@Charbel__H) September 23, 2025
For years, the Biden administration told us that "White supremacists" were the biggest threat to Americans, and that veterans, Catholics, and parents were "domestic terrorists."
Joe Biden himself said Left-wing Antifa was "an idea" and not an organization, a sentiment recently echoed by Chuck Todd, who was upset the Trump administration classified that "idea" as a terrorist organization earlier this week.
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