I will watch the Netflix documentary. Here is another firsthand account by a right-wing reporter who was there covering the event in real time. According to her reports of the events (and even accounting for her political bias) the majority of the violence was waged from the left. So I would say this sort of dynamic is similar to road rage. You have two angry groups going head-to-head. When you have crazy and rabid leftists hurling feces and tear gas and urine at crazy alt-right White Nationalists (one of whom was unstable, as in the case of the man who drove his car into the crowd), you are describing a powder keg.Posted by AutumnW (here)
Watch the documentary, "Altright" on Netflix. Even discounting for the bias of the filmmaker, it is still a huge eye opener. I didn't know too much about the whole Charlotteville fiasco until I watched the film. And it certainly doesn't portray what you would call, the Left, in a pleasant light either.
Agreed. But are you implying your insights here only apply to the Unite the Right coalition? If so, you are vastly underestimating Antifa (and some factions of Black Lives Matter and Standing up for Racial Injustice). They are exactly the same type of fascist groups, but organized on the left, angry and disenfranchised, and in many cases, wanting to kill... This is human nature and tribalism 101; it is not unique to the bigoted alt-right with backward views...Posted by AutumnW (here)
But the neo-fascist movements attract people who want to KILL. There are many among them who are simply disenfranchised and angry, but there is a contingent among that crowd who are also paranoid and that begets acts of terrorism.
The problem is--and I will be blunt--the media did not characterize these events honestly or accurately. Let's take this to the next step. Trump compensates for media dishonesty and agenda-ridden coverage in his rhetoric (mostly because they use their dishonesty against him), which is suddenly spun by the media as if he is "defending" a horrible tragedy and atrocity and condoning alt-right fascists. I assume your take comes from a similar perspective. And yes, I understand how people have come to these kind of conclusions, but in my opinion, after a more objective and thorough analysis of the facts, I think the majority of people--and especially those who maintain a left-leaning bias, have a contrived understanding of the Charlotteville protests.Posted by AutumnW (here)
It is up to the leader of the free world to differentiate fascists and racists in the alt right, who use coded lingo, like "patriots" etc... with those who are stridently opposed
Specifically, people maintain their understanding of events through the media--even when they take media biases with a grain of salt. So people are very easily manipulated to believe anything the media wants them to believe. The President did condemn the radical right, as Deux pointed out above; what exactly could he have done differently, especially when the media takes his words to create whatever reality they want to create anyway? When Trump "corrected" the media coverage of the event (in this case, the media fraudulence and malpractice), this was spun as if he was condoning alt-right fascists. And of course this type of response is pure gold to the media; they run with his statements further to wrap them around his neck to hang him by.
I will not condone the opinions or beliefs of the fanatic groups on the right that showed up to march in Charlottesville, but I will say they filed for a permit to protest. I will also submit, with a fair degree of certainty, were they not violently confronted (had they been ignored or at the very least peacefully protested) nothing would have come of these protests. We would all view the White Supremacists as the fools they are. The violence occurred because they were provoked and confronted violently with tear gas, chemical balloons, clubs, and weapons. Moreover, the anti-protestors did not have a permit to protest; they simply descended upon the march and started a street brawl with a gang of alt-right radicals, for lack of a better description. What would you expect might happen given this dynamic?
Here are some questions to ask:
Should we assign any blame on these leftist groups? Even if we are tempted to give Antifa et. al the moral high ground and exonerate them of any blame, should we ignore their role in this tragedy altogether, as the media did? Should we instead spin the tragedy simply as the result of an angry group of White Nationalists who drove a car through a crowd of peaceful protestors and killed a woman?
These are the main problems I have when I dissect these issues. The whole thing just reeks of psyop....