The Anti-Defamation League’s Absurd Claim that 100% of Domestic Extremist Murders were Committed by “Right-wing Extremists,” most murders were actually committed by people who should be classified as “Left-wing Extremists”

The Anti-Defamation League has a new report titled: “Murder and Extremism in the United States in 2022.” They claim that all the murderers of the 25 people murdered by extremists in 2022 were “right-wingers,” which they describe as white supremacists, anti-government extremists, QAnon extremists, and other right-wing extremists. Their report has been getting extensive uncritical news coverage. In fact, most of these murders were committed by either an environmentalist or a nonbinary “socialist.” Are those the views of “right-wingers”? Our data is available here. Some perspective for these 25 murders is that there were 19,196 murders in 2022.

Payton Gendron in Buffalo and Anderson Lee Aldrich in Colorado Springs accounted for 15 of the 25 murders. Ten other people accounted for one murder each. The Buffalo murderer was racist, but the ADL believes that racists can only be right-wingers. He hated blacks because he thought they had too many children, which damaged the environment.

. . . the Buffalo killer was yet another mass murderer motivated by environmentalism. 

In his manifesto, the Buffalo mass murderer self-identifies as an “eco-fascist national socialist” and a member of the “mild-moderate authoritarian left.” He expresses concern that minority immigrants have too many children and will damage the environment. “The invaders are the ones overpopulating the world,” he writes. “Kill the invaders, kill the overpopulation and by doing so save the environment.”

The murderer argues that capitalists are destroying the environment, and are at the root of much of the problem. “The trade of goods is to be discouraged at all costs,” he insists.

Overpopulation and the environment are hardly signature conservative issues. It’s certainly not something you’ll hear Donald Trump talk about at his rallies. And while some Republicans believe in limiting international trade, it’s certainly not for environmental reasons. . . .

John R. Lott, Jr., “The “Crazy, Right-Wing Shooter” Myth,” Real Clear Politics, December 6, 2022.

So how can Payton Gendron, who murdered 10 of the 25 people, be classified as a right-winger? Reclassifying just Gendron as a left-winger means at least 40% of these murders were by left-wingers.

The Colorado Springs murderer killed five people at a gay bar named “Club Q.” While he murdered gay people, he claims that he is nonbinary and uses the pronouns they and them, hardly something normally associated with right-wingers and something that the ADL leaves out despite emphasizing it was a “LGBTQ+ bar.” He hosted a “neo Nazi white supremacist” website, which people identify as “right-wing,” but he identified himself as a “socialist.” Including Aldrich as a left-winger means that at least 60% of the murders were by left-wingers.