Alt-right rallies in Charlottesville, VA

[BmorePat87]

(08-14-2017, 02:01 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: In this particular incident I completely agree with you.  My point is that this incident did not occur in a vacuum and the political violence has been going on for well over a year now.  The only thing that makes this incident stand out in that regard is that a person lost their life.  This is horrible, it was also bound to happen at some point given how things have been progressing.  There has been a lot of violence directed at political speech of late and in far too many cases those perpetrating the violence have been treated with an insane amount of leniency.  This only emboldens those who would engage in further violence.

Like I said in the post you quoted, we agree this needs to be addressed, and in strong terms.  If it had been addressed in strong terms when it began then very possibly this weekend's events don't unfold the way they did and that young lady would still be alive.

One of the things that makes it hard to discuss this without coming off as excusing the behavior one particular violent group is that partisan conservatives tend to equate all against the Nazis as Antifa while partisan liberals tend to ignore any Antifa presence. 

Conservatives believe liberals have failed in the past to distance themselves from or disavow Antifa. It's almost like they want that to be a condition for any disavowing of Nazis/White Nationalists/Supremacists. Unfortunately in this case, the result is that a lot of people are writing off peaceful victims as Antifa, condoning the violence as "well, I'm not saying Nazis are good but was it self defense?"

And of course, some, on both sides, are so utterly unaware of the sources of their information that I still see people pushing that 4chan bullshit that the Ohio Nazi wasn't the killer.