America’s elected officials are living in fear

[u/horseradishstalker]

https://archive.ph/eqpzk

[u/spotlight-app]

OP has pinned a comment:

Regardless of which side you're on, this seems like a serious issue that threatens democracy wherever it spreads. For one it severely impacts politicians' willingness to implement unpopular but theoretically beneficial policy, it also has the potential to turn politics, even on a small scale, into a playground of the economically privileged (as stated in the article, many resort to paying out of pocket for protection of themselves and their families) and zealots who are the only ones remaining that are capable of taking the risk.

On the other hand it does show that people feel that legitimate methods to enact positive change are no longer sufficient, but we should also discuss how social media contributes to the proliferation of this phenomenon and how much of it is really just online trolling and teenage mischief. And also the fact that harassing politicians is not really a new thing and the implications of that. Politics have always served as fertile ground for mentally ill people to justify their antisocial behaviour because of how much "righteous anger" is involved.

This article is a call to curtail extremism and online rhetoric that legitimises political violence. Honestly it serves as a great tool to evidence the real world impacts of unmoderated free speech.

The methods that governments have begun implementing somehow are largely insufficient yet trample over human rights to free speech and privacy. I believe if there's an easy target it's these algorithms that exploit human nature to promote controversy and extremism who are largely responsible.

^{[What is Spotlight?](https://developers.reddit.com/apps/spotlight-app})

[u/Grimke42]

Remember when the FBI was about to release a report on right wing terrorism and the Republicans cried and the Dems gave in so the report was not released? Perhaps politicians would have been safer if they paid attention to who American terrorists really are.

[u/Loggerdon → u/Grimke42]

The far right absolutely dominates domestic terrorism for the past 60 years.

[u/horseradishstalker → u/Grimke42]

I’m not sure reports would’ve helped. 

Too many of us know the statistics, but the statistics haven’t stopped anything. Like ever. 

Congress could theoretically pass a specific law saying it’s illegal to terrorize politician’s staff and families and even execute domestic terrorists on TV by a firing squad. 

But would that really change what is happening? 

I’m guessing most politicians are far more aware of the back history of threats than we are. Since they’re the ones that would’ve been issuing the report - they already knew. Why would you think they didn’t?

It almost feels like you’re saying, they deserve it, because they didn’t release a report so the public would be more aware of what they already knew. How does that even work?

Downvoting me over a you problem doesn’t change facts - ever. 

[u/Superb-Draft → u/horseradishstalker]

What exactly are you advocating for here then? I don’t understand what point you are trying to make. You’re doing a lot of Just Asking (rhetorical) Questions. What’s the answer? 

[u/horseradishstalker → u/Superb-Draft]

It’s a polite way of allowing users to actually think it through for themselves.  However, if you want it put bluntly, I can accommodate you.

Only total bleeps think that there is ever an excuse for threatening violence against people and killing people.  It’s neither a moral or a rational response no matter how nicely it  is worded. Only someone who’s not all there thinks a report is going to make one iota a difference.

Because at the end of the day, people who blame the victim are no different than the people who threaten the victims. Both are angry because someone hasn’t done or said what someone wants them to. 

That is messed up. I have no idea whether you or anyone else thinks it’s totally rational and moral to shoot people just because they represent something you don’t like. Or to threaten their children or a father who’s dying of cancer. 

Supposedly all because a report was not issued? Acknowledgment of a problem that everyone knows about is a necessary step. However, I am not sure why people would think a strongly worded memo or report is going to make one bit of difference in 2026. 

[u/Grimke42 → u/horseradishstalker]

You totally misread me. I am absolutely not victim blaming. I am saying that if the democrats had insisted that we be honest about right wing terrorism, we might have been able to make sure our federal law enforcement prioritized the real threat of domestic terrorism. That would have encouraged the media to better identify the dangers of right wing extremism, the manosphere and Christian Nationalism.

Look I am a sociologist and I am fine saying that as a discipline we dropped the ball and did not pay enough attention to the rise of these movements. They are now attacking sociology. I do not blame sociologists for that, but I do see the error we made.

Understanding our errors is not the same as accepting blame.

[u/horseradishstalker → u/[deleted]]

“Threats to family and staff feel more chilling, several officials said, and the impacts are often more disruptive. “My daughter just sent me one yesterday,” Mr. Walz told The Times, “where somebody said, ‘Wait what I’ve got in store for you — and then a picture in front of the house.”

Mr. Van Orden moved his family because of violent threats. “I know exactly what these people are trying to do,” he said. “To make me leave the public square through threatening my family, because they know threatening me has no effect at all because of my background.”

Many officials cite a desire to improve their country for their children and grandchildren as motivation for seeking office. The deluge of threats has done the reverse, pushing the civic-minded out of the public square to shield their loved ones from an increasingly toxic world.

Carly Koppes, a Republican county election official in Colorado, saw a new kind of violent threat after her pregnancy became public: messages targeting both her and her unborn child.“

[u/SilverMedal4Life → u/horseradishstalker]

On the wider Internet outside of curated spaces, I too am inundated with death threats online, along with legions of users telling me to take my own life.

It's horrible and nobody should have to experience this, and yet, we do. When these users face no accountability, this is what happens.

Even if only 1 in a million death threats are serious, that's too many. Throwing someone who killed me after threateneing me online in prison doesn't bring me back.

[u/coleman57 → u/[deleted]]

It’s true that the oligarchs’ capture of the public sector has contributed to Americans’ alienation from civic life. But I believe the main motivator of threats and actual violence is specifically the dehumanizing rhetoric directed at politicians. And for the most part that has flowed from right to left.

The left accuse the right of crimes, but the right publish cartoons of their opponents in cross-hairs, and call for “2nd amendment” solutions. The left does not do that. Anyone on the left who did do that would be a very marginal individual, while on the right it’s Senators and Presidents.

DJT on 1/6/21 specifically ordered Executive Branch staff NOT to use metal detectors to screen the crowd for weapons, and then proceeded to tell the armed crowd to go attack Democrats at the Capitol. He should have been convicted and jailed for that, but the Republicans in Congress blocked even just barring him from office, which was fully within their Constitutional jurisdiction.

[u/Rattus_NorvegicUwUs]

When the assassination in Minnesota happened, we had asshole GOP senators posting memes about it.

The right wing is responsible for ~70% of the political violence in America. But now they have a leader practically basking in the violence his supporters will wage for him. From ICE to J6, this nation has a right wing danger lurking just around every corner.

Stochastic terrorism and the thoughtless destruction of dignity and norms will be their greatest legacy.

[u/LurkerBurkeria]

When in American history has this not been the case? We tarred and feather loyalists and straight up lynching public servants is also not unheard of

[u/horseradishstalker → u/LurkerBurkeria]

The article didn’t say it was something new, but it is pervasive and more extreme than it has been - at least recently. There are a lot of things that happened in the past that really don’t need to be on repeat. 

From what I’ve read, third-degree burns from tar was not unheard of. The feathers? They were just the icing on the cake. And don’t forget they were ridden out of town on a rail part.

[u/Upbeat_Today_9006]

Regardless of which side you're on, this seems like a serious issue that threatens democracy wherever it spreads. For one it severely impacts politicians' willingness to implement unpopular but theoretically beneficial policy, it also has the potential to turn politics, even on a small scale, into a playground of the economically privileged (as stated in the article, many resort to paying out of pocket for protection of themselves and their families) and zealots who are the only ones remaining that are capable of taking the risk.

On the other hand it does show that people feel that legitimate methods to enact positive change are no longer sufficient, but we should also discuss how social media contributes to the proliferation of this phenomenon and how much of it is really just online trolling and teenage mischief. And also the fact that harassing politicians is not really a new thing and the implications of that. Politics have always served as fertile ground for mentally ill people to justify their antisocial behaviour because of how much "righteous anger" is involved.

This article is a call to curtail extremism and online rhetoric that legitimises political violence. Honestly it serves as a great tool to evidence the real world impacts of unmoderated free speech.

The methods that governments have begun implementing somehow are largely insufficient yet trample over human rights to free speech and privacy. I believe if there's an easy target it's these algorithms that exploit human nature to promote controversy and extremism who are largely responsible.

[u/horseradishstalker → u/Upbeat_Today_9006]

I’m joking, but I wish I could send funds to Ukraine if it would keep Ukraine bombing Russian data centers - ie Yandex. 

[u/horseradishstalker]

SS: Threatening young children historically would be considered beyond the pale - at least in polite society. The problem is society is no longer polite. (although social media did get drastically more polite once Ukraine drones hit Russian data centers).

It is one thing to sign up to run for elected office, knowing there are going to be unhinged individuals out there. However, the families of elected officials did not sign up for death threats or to be killed standing in the doorway of their own home with their dog and their spouse. 

When government officials are essentially being blackmailed into a specific course of action, do we still have a democracy?

[u/Vetharest]

Wasn’t that one guy arrested for sending a dick pic to a Senator? (Found it, D.J. Byrnes, Shrek schlong, Ohio senator.) Can’t these people be arrested for at minimum harassment? Like maybe not the graffiti artists, and Walz’s daughter who was being harassed, etc., due to lack of recorded evidence, but the article was talking about how a bunch of these were phone calls graphically describing that the caller was going to brutally murder the callee or their family, and phone calls can be traced. Even if the phone was borrowed or public I doubt these people covered their tracks too thoroughly.

[u/sprashoo → u/[deleted]]

I dunno, just last year the state representative near me was murdered for political reasons: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_shootings_of_Minnesota_legislators

[u/lastgreenleaf → u/sprashoo]

A female Democrat candidate was raped while fixing her election signs within the last week or so. That seems pretty damn dangerous to me… 

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c65yndpnk5qdo

[u/Multigrain_Migraine]

It is an international problem as well. Two British politicians have been murdered in recent years. I'm involved in local politics in the UK and people I know have had serious enough threats against them that they have been supplied with security cameras and other safety measures. 

[u/horseradishstalker → u/Multigrain_Migraine]

Some days I feel like I have time traveled back to preschool where issues between people were solved by bashing the other one over the head with a toy. We do not do enough to address mental illness in our societies.

[u/Ok_Apartment625]

It’s so Reddit to have unhinged Redditors still going at each others throats politically when there’s what should be a super bipartisan and unifying article about how political violence has gotten out of hand

I just love the people on this App, just so many great cherishable sane individuals

[u/AceTracer → u/Ok_Apartment625]

You think those are actual people? Current estimates are 20 to 50% of all Reddit comments are bots, and that number is almost certainly higher for the comments you’re referring to.

[u/read-the-rules → u/[deleted]]

Dear ZootSuitRiot33801,

Your comment on r/TrueReddit was removed by the Read The Rules app because you need to submit an acknowledgement that you have read the rules. You can submit an acknowledgement by clicking the link below.

^{Please click here to open the Read The Rules App.}

[u/horseradishstalker → u/AceTracer]

There is not a lot of difference between bots and trolls at the end of the day. The difference here is, like many other subreddits the mods on this subreddit go after bots with a vengeance. 

Trolls are different matter. Even if what they have to say is reprehensible, if they don’t break a rule, there’s not much the mods can do. 

[u/TheGreasyNewfie → u/Ok_Apartment625]

I just love the people on this App, just so many great cherishable sane individuals

Just assume that it's bots sewing the division. Focus on the substance of the article, rather than the conflicts in the comments. That's the key to a happy Reddit experience in 2026, in my opinion.

[u/Decent-Debate33 → u/Ok_Apartment625]

The problem is it is not just this app. We all need a collective bitch slap.