Leftist professor who linked physical fitness to white supremacy now claims 'very troubling' connection between youth gun culture and 'racial resentment,' 'male supremacist ideas'

A left-wing professor who recently linked physical fitness to white supremacy claimed during a PBS interview this week that a new study revealed a "very troubling" connection between gun culture among youths and "racial resentment and male supremacist ideas," the Media Research Center reported.

Cynthia Miller-Idriss, a professor committed to studying "extremism," published an article on MSNBC in March 2022 stating that physical fitness and a healthy lifestyle had been linked to white supremacy.

"Physical fitness has always been central to the far right," Miller-Idriss' article claimed, exampling Hitler's interest in boxing and jujitsu.

"In more modern times, far-right groups have launched mixed martial arts and boxing gyms in Ukraine, Canada and France, among other places, focused on training far-right nationalists in violent hand-to-hand combat and street-fighting techniques," she wrote.

Readers relentlessly ridiculed MSNBC for featuring the article.

On Monday, Miller-Idriss appeared on PBS's "NewsHour" to discuss the findings of a study published by the American University's Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab, a group directed by the professor.

Miller-Idriss claimed America has a "disproportionate share of violent deaths by terrorism and extremism" because of "easy access" to firearms.

"Some of the young people in the study were very connected to a sense of gun culture, to feeling like guns made them stronger or better, or that they were really connected to who they are as individuals," she noted.

The professor called it "very troubling" that young people who identify with gun culture tend to "have higher scores on racial resentment and male supremacist ideas."

PBS host Laura Barrón-López explained that the study came to this conclusion by asking survey participants "if they agreed with statements like 'women cannot help but be attracted to those who are higher in status than they are.'"

Miller-Idriss noted a correlation between respondents' "views about gun culture or their views about the Second Amendment and having higher scores on racial resentment."

Barrón-López stated that a "data point that stood out to me was that 22 percent of those surveyed said they believe the Second Amendment gives individuals the right to overthrow the government."

The professor claimed that "persuasive, manipulative rhetoric" and "false information" online pushed youths into having these "extremist" views.

Miller-Idriss argued that the perceived issue would be "pretty easy to address" and suggested addressing the so-called misinformation before it could influence youths.

"When you're dealing with an issue of somebody being manipulated by content they encounter online, we can prebunk that with video content, with content that they review in advance and read. We can teach people to be more skeptical of the content they review online, they encounter, to be more digitally literate," she continued. "It just has to be done early and often. It's a part of basic strengthening of democratic resilience and not just a catchup afterward."

Most young Americans feel unsafe and support stricter gun laws, new survey showsyoutu.be

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