Earlier today, I read an article by Ladislav Zemánek titled Trump’s War on Far-Left Terrorism Goes Global. (You can find it here: https://www.rt.com/news/643395-trump-far-left-terrorism/ )
My first thought after reading the headline was, Trump is not particularly selective in who he targets or vilifies, especially if doing so brings him money, power, or attention. So the phrase “far-left” was my first clue as to the article’s direction and the overall message it intended to deliver.
As I continued reading, however, it became clear that my disagreement with the article had less to do with Donald Trump than with the way political violence itself was being framed. Like so many articles written from one end of the political spectrum or the other, it focused almost entirely on the acts of extremism while giving little attention to the conditions that allow extremism to take root in the first place. Violence does not occur in a vacuum, and neither does radicalization. If we are genuinely interested in preventing political violence, we have to be willing to examine not only those who commit violent acts, but also the political, economic, and social conditions that make extremist movements attractive to a small but dangerous minority.
Rather than repeating what I have written, in one form or another, for decades, I’ll keep this short and to the point.
In a nutshell
Every society has extremists. The question is not whether they exist, but why, in 2026, so many people across the globe are losing faith in the very institutions that were created to protect them. When citizens become poorer, the powerful become richer, and accountability becomes increasingly selective, extremism finds fertile ground.
If governments want fewer extremists, they need more than stronger police powers and longer watch lists. They need institutions that people believe are fair. They need accountability that applies equally to the powerful and the powerless. They need leaders who tell the truth, even when it is politically inconvenient. They need to spend less money on wars. Governments and armed groups alike need to stop the deliberate targeting and killing of unarmed children and civilians. That should not be a controversial statement. It is a simple moral principle that ought to resonate with anyone who believes in the future of humanity.
What should we be trying to preserve?
Not governments.
Not ideologies.
Not markets.
Not borders.
The ability for ordinary people to live ordinary lives.
The Middle East is a tragic example of this cycle repeating itself across generations, each new round of violence planting the seeds for the next.
Extremists recruit from despair, cynicism, and the belief that the system no longer works. When governments ignore those conditions and violently try to suppress the peoples right to live peaceful, prosperous lives, those same governments become the architects of tomorrow’s extremist: a self-fulfilling prophecy. And killing babies, children and women will not prevent this from happening over and over again.
Violence does not occur in a vacuum. Neither does legitimacy. One spreads as the other disappears.
