The Network Contagion Research Institute released a disturbing report on Monday that found “assassination culture” is on the rise among those who self-identify as politically left of center.
The report, “Assassination Culture: How Burning Teslas and Killing Billionaires Became a Meme Aesthetic for Political Violence,” highlighted survey results that found many leftists could at least somewhat justify acts of violence against Elon Musk and President Donald Trump.
‘These attitudes are not fringe — they reflect an emergent assassination culture, grounded in far-left authoritarianism and increasingly normalized in digital discourse.’
“A broader ‘assassination culture’ appears to be emerging within segments of the U.S. public on the extreme left,” it read, calling the trend “troubling.”
The survey questioned 1,264 U.S. residents, and 31% and 38% stated that “it would be at least somewhat justified to murder Elon Musk and President Trump, respectively.”
Those percentages increased drastically — 48% and 55% — when isolating “left of center” respondents, which were those who described themselves as either “far left,” “liberal,” or “slightly liberal.”
More than 4% and nearly 6% of respondents stated it would be “completely justified” to murder Musk and Trump, respectively. When just looking at those described as left of center, those responses jumped to 9% and 13%.
Forty percent of those surveyed stated that it would be “at least somewhat acceptable (or more) to destroy a Tesla dealership in protest,” the report found.
“These attitudes are not fringe — they reflect an emergent assassination culture, grounded in far-left authoritarianism and increasingly normalized in digital discourse,” the NCRI’s report read. “This report points to disturbingly high levels of support for political violence, particularly targeting President Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Across survey responses, nearly one-third of respondents — and a significantly higher share of left-leaning respondents — expressed some degree of justification for acts of lethal violence.”
The report, which tracks the assassination culture trend starting with the December shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, attributed the shift in part to social media.
“Beyond the use of Luigi Mangione as a memeified symbol of political violence, some users have even made explicit calls for acts of violence against Trump, Musk, and government institutions. Some of these threats explicitly echo the ‘Deny, Defend, Depose’ mantra inscribed by Mangione on the shell casing that killed Brian Thompson,” it stated.
The report found that social media platforms “play a strong predictive role in amplifying this culture,” noting that online references to Mangione “now function as coded endorsements of political violence, cloaked in irony, memeification, and plausible deniability.”
“In these ecosystems, violence is not just justified — it is stylized, gamified, and embedded within a broader ideological narrative,” the report found.
Joel Finkelstein, the lead author of the NCRI’s report, told Fox News Digital, “What was formerly taboo culturally has become acceptable.”
“We are seeing a clear shift — glorification, increased attempts and changing norms — all converging into what we define as ‘assassination culture,'” he stated.
Finkelstein noted that NCRI is “not an anti-free speech organization,” and he does not believe censorship will end assassination culture.
“If leaders on the left explicitly condemn these trends and reassert moral norms, they can dismantle this culture quickly,” he continued. “It’s about reminding people there is a future worth striving for that doesn’t involve glorifying political violence.”
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