Violence R Us
by digby
Via Chris Hayes on twitter, I was reminded of this:
The following figures are from the OECD for deaths due to assault per 100,000 population from 1960 to the present. As before, the most striking features of the data are (1) how much more violent the U.S. is than other OECD countries (except possibly Estonia and Mexico, not shown here), and (2) the degree of change—and recently, decline—there has been in the U.S. time series considered by itself. Note that “assault” as a cause of death does not distinguish the mechanism of death (gunshot, stabbing, etc).
These figures don't say anything about gun violence (which I think we can assume is unconscionably high) and it says nothing about racial violence which is one of our spcialties. Just violence. It is who we are. And we seem to think it's just the natural state of the world.
You can read all about the methodology here.
