Today President Donald Trump again blamed “both sides” for
the fracas between white nationalists and anti-fascist demonstrators in
Charlottesville, Va. a few weeks ago that ended up costing one woman her life. (He
made the same comment after the original demonstration.)
Trump is wrong about that. Dangerously wrong, for the
following reason:
These days many on the political right don’t want to address
the reality that the very rhetoric of folks on their side of the political
fence is inherently violent — note the president’s comment during his campaign
last year that people who protest him should be “punched in the face.” (And people
cheered.) Rather, they have railed against what they believe to be endemic “left-wing”
violence since Trump’s inauguration, never mind that the anti-fascist
demonstrators, some of them who belong to the loose confederation “Antifa,” don’t
advocate violence for its own sake.
I understand that in this case that the demonstration by the white nationalists, also Trump supporters and some who came as far as California, was actually their third in Charlottesville that summer and that the people who came against them were locals. The Ku Klux Klan, Nazis and their sycophants clearly were there specifically to cause trouble.
I understand that in this case that the demonstration by the white nationalists, also Trump supporters and some who came as far as California, was actually their third in Charlottesville that summer and that the people who came against them were locals. The Ku Klux Klan, Nazis and their sycophants clearly were there specifically to cause trouble.
Recently one person has said online that Antifa wouldn’t
simply go away if the KKK and Nazis did the same. I’m not convinced of that
because at some point you’re going to react when people start picking on you.
That’s what we’re seeing today, and “blaming the victim” won’t cut it now.
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