zlacker

>>david9+(OP)
Just the other day I was reading about the Italian "Years Of Lead" [1] which I wasn't old enough to understand myself at the time in the UK. I was wondering if we could see something similar as various forces internal and external strained at the seams of western democracies. For context, there is quite febrile atmosphere in the UK at the moment so I feel it is useful to attempt to calibrate these things for stochastic effects.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Years_of_Lead_(Italy)

>>nickdo+kA
Without knowing what happened, it's difficult to make the comparison between the Italian Years of Lead and what happened earlier today at Utah Valley University.

My understanding of the Italian political climate of the 60s, 70s, and 80s is that there were political groups/cells (on both the far right and far left) that organized around violent acts to further their political goals (which involved the eventual authoritarian takeover of the Italian government by either the far right or far left). For example, you can think of the Red Brigades to be akin to the Black Panthers, but with actual terrorism.

In contrast, most political violence in America has been less organized and more individual-driven (e.g., see the Oklahoma City Bombing). For better or worse, the police state in the US has been quite successful in addressing and dispersing political groups that advocate for violence as a viable means for societal change.

>>pacbar+2G
Actually, it has been proven that at least two of the major terrorist attacks that happened in Italy during the lead years were actually false-flags attacks organized by a deviated part of the secret services (that were politically aligned with the far right), funded and supported by the US, in order to isolate politically the Brigate Rosse movement and stop any advance of communism in Italy.