No Evidence Veterans Support Extremist Groups More Than American Public: Study

Veterans do not support far-left or far-right extremist groups any more than the average American population, according to a study released this week from the nonprofit RAND Corporation.

About 5.5 percent of veterans supported the far-left extremist group Antifa, compared to 10 percent of the American public, according to the study, while only 0.7 percent of veterans backed white supremacist organizations compared to 7 percent of the U.S. population.

The study also found that veterans were less likely to support the neo-fascist group the Proud Boys or the QAnon conspiracy theory that a cabal of Democratic elites and Satan-worshipping pedophiles run the U.S. government.

Still, a similar percentage of veterans — 17.7 percent — support the need for political violence as the American public, at 19 percent.

And about 28.8 percent of veterans support the Great Replacement theory, a conspiracy about Democrats seeking to replace white Americans with migrants for political gain, compared to 34 percent of the U.S. public.

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The findings come as there is growing concern among Democrats about far-right extremisms within the ranks of the U.S. military.

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