In an October 2020 YouGov poll, 42% of Americans said white supremacists pose a bigger threat to American than antifa.
But why do Americans feel this way about white supremacy and antifa? We asked our YouGov Chat users to go deeper and tell us what they really think about white supremacy and antifa. You can share your views on the topic here.
White supremacy
For those who said white supremacy is a bigger threat to America than antifa, many pointed out that antifa is not an organization, and that there are countless white supremacist organizations in America.
- “White supremacist terrorism is real. Antifa terrorists do not exist.”
- “White supremacists actually have several organizations - like KKK - who operate both covertly and overtly. Antifa in the US is not an organization, but merely an idea. There is no formal group, no headquarters, no leader.”
Others stated that they were worried about white supremacist ideals in America.
- “White supremacy threatens our nation's existence…”
- “White supremacists promote hate and try to maintain the existing racial inequity.”
- “White supremacists have an agenda of denying civil rights to non-whites.”
Antifa
In contrast, most YouGov chat users who said antifa is a bigger threat to America than white supremacy, pointed their fingers at the demonstrations across the country.
- “I read the news articles about the violence in Portland and Seattle I don't see the same amount of White Supremacists being allowed to riot every night in anywhere in the USA.”
- “They are the only ones rioting, destroying things”
- “Look what they are doing in some of our cities.”
- “[A]ntifa cause more damage than white supremacists.”
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Everyday, members of YouGov Chat are asked to share their opinion on a topic in the news. We allow anyone to take part in these chats, and do not display or weight results in real-time. Instead, to make the experience informative but still interactive, the chat displays weighted data from YouGov Direct to show them how the rest of the country voted. This enables us to pose the question to all, while retaining data accuracy and validity when communicating results.
YouGov chat seeks to add to the ‘what?’ (the quantitative poll result) by finding the ‘why?” (qualitative open ends) in a member’s own words. Learn more about YouGov Chat here.
Image: YouGov
