Economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman said it's wrong for Americans to believe widespread BLM riots occurred in 2020, calling it one of the many "dystopian myths" in the nation.
Krugman even went as far as to say the destruction in New York City "never happened."
"Well, first of all, there’s the specific issue of the whole Black Lives Matter demonstrations, which a large part of the country, certainly a lot of the mail I get, people think that you know, lots of Manhattan was burned to the ground," Krugman told CNN's Brian Stelter on Sunday.
"They think that this was an enormously destructive thing, when in fact, yes, there was some arson and looting, but actually really not very much, and in a country, the size of the United States and for demonstrations that side, so they think that you know...Yes, and you’re in Manhattan, right? I mean, you know that there is not a burned-out shell. It just — this just never happened, but they’re told that it did," Krugman said.
Krugman further added that while violent crime is up since 2020, it is also wrong to assume New York City is a dangerous place because crime rates were worse during the 1970s and 1990s.
The 2020 riots, sparked by the death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody, resulted in over $2 billion in damage and over 20 deaths across the country. In New York City specifically, over 450 businesses were damaged to varying degrees by mid-June, according to the New York Post.
In addition to spouting BLM riot-denialism, Krugman said the country is not in a recession and people are quite well off. This is despite the fact the U.S. has met the commonly accepted definition of a recession, which is having two quarters of negative GDP growth.